Raglan shirts: How does this rare category of POD merch fare on Amazon?
What is one thing that the Battle of Waterloo and Amazon Merch on Demand have in common? They’ve both given us raglan shirts. These pieces of clothing are different to the common t-shirt that we all know and love, and it’s all in the sleeves.
Raglan sleeves are diagonally sewn from the collarbone to the armpit, offering a much greater range of motion. They also contain block colors that make the sleeves stand out from the rest of the shirt.
In this article, we’ll explore the size and scope of this product category on Amazon Merch on Demand to help you figure out if it’s worth your time and effort.
Let’s begin.
An overview of the Raglan category of shirts
A quick search on Amazon for the keyword “raglan” reveals only 10,000 listings. This could mean one of two things. First, that the segment is undersaturated. And second, that there’s no demand for it.
To determine which of the two statements is true, we must take a deep dive into the niche. We refined the search to “raglan women” and “raglan men”. The listings count for each one is 20,000 and 4,000, respectively. Obviously, this is double the initial number of products identified (10,000), which refutes the notion that there is insufficient customer demand.
However, that’s still not enough to determine the score of the niche. This is why we’ll also explore the category’s best-sellers ranks (BSR).
Average BSRs
A quick search of the word “raglan” using Merch Informer’s Merch Hunter tool instantly tells us that the average BSR is 406,810. This is not bad at all. But let’s explore a few other related keywords and see how they fare:
- “Raglan shirt women”: average BSR – 9,222,207
- “Raglan shirt men”: average BSR – 9,717,787
- “Raglan shirt kids”: average BSR – 6,284,146
- “Raglan shirt girls”: average BSR – 3,753,185
- “Raglan shirt boys”: average BSR – 3,545,697
- “Raglan shirt children”: average BSR – 741,237
These results are a bit surprising. As we discovered earlier, there is a somewhat low number of listings on Amazon for raglan shirts. At the same time, listings’ BSRs are quite high (with the exception of children’s raglan shirts). This could mean that raglan shirts for children (boys and girls) fare better on Amazon as opposed to those for adults.
Also interesting to note is that search queries for “raglan” yield results that show the added keywords “baseball tee” in the product title. This is why we headed over to Amazon again to discover that a search for “baseball tee” offers over 50,000 hits.
This can only mean one thing: the popularity of raglan shirts may be high but people simply don’t know them by this name. Instead, they use other ways to describe this type of merch, such as the aforementioned “baseball tee”.
This is why we will now also explore what the related search volume is for baseball tee instead of “raglan” in the raglan category on Merch Informer’s Products Search tool.
Keyword search volume
We found that the keywords below and their associated search volume to be in the mid-range. In other words, neither too high nor too low.
This indicates that while there is a generally high search for “baseball”, a search for baseball tees is not featured and baseball shirt for moms is featured instead.
This ties in with our earlier findings that people don’t call raglans by their true names. Here are a few key results we picked:
- “Baseball”: search volume – 19,426
- “Baseball mom shirt baseball”: search volume – 2,584
- “American baseball”: search volume – 1,404
Prices
A search on Merch Informer’s Product Search tool tells us that these shirts are quite pricey. For example, the lowest price for these items is $16.99, the highest price is an astounding $71.98, and the average price is a reasonable $23.88.
What are the top performing niches in the raglan category?
We cannot pinpoint with precision the top performing niches in the raglan/baseball tee category because there’s simply too much variety. Even if we exclude branded and trademarked products, the results we get are too diverse to identify niches that are successful.
For example, there are children’s caricatures with rainbows (design-heavy), grandmas supporting their grandchild playing baseball (text-heavy), and everything in between – from demonic caricatures to kittens and red high heel shoes.
What are the bestsellers doing right?
We identified one bestseller who is faring better than the one-sale raglans that many in the category are experiencing. Their name is Lovely Shop and their product is called “Funny Cycle Fish Chosen Unisex for Men’s, Women Raglan Baseball Tee”. It has a low BSR of 174,877, sells at $26.99, and has earned 14 sales.
Keywords
This seller has included the words “raglan” and “baseball tee” to describe the category of merch. This is a smart move because it shows they’ve done their research and they can see that buyers aren’t actively searching for queries that include the word “raglan”.
The rest of the description in this seller’s title is clear and concise and describes the design-heavy object that is being sold.
Price
In terms of price, the seller has also done well to price just above the average of $23.88.
Design
As for the design, it is a straightforward amalgamation of seemingly different hues of blue lines, which are actually the shapes of fish swimming in a circle with the text “the chosen” in the center.
This evidently has religious undertones and could be a niche worth considering if you’d like to compete with this bestseller.
Profitability
Calculating actual profitability on Amazon Merch on Demand is not possible. But what is doable is estimating the seller’s average turnover.
We did this by multiplying the selling price ($26.99) by the number of sales (14). Doing so grossed a total of $377.86. This is not a bad amount at all for a category that doesn’t seem to have a lot of search volume. However, the non-saturated nature of the marketplace means there is scope for growth.
This can be achieved by following our tips listed below.
Our tip list for sellers
When it comes to success on Amazon Merch on Demand, you’re lost at sea if you don’t have a strategy. This necessarily means doing the following things to ensure you get ahead and gain greater visibility in order to earn more sales:
- Be strategic and smart with your keyword usage in your title. Make sure to include both the words “raglan” and “baseball tee” there so that you cater to a broader search query.
- The market is not oversaturated but this doesn’t mean that you should be charging exorbitant amounts for your product. Instead, stick to the average. You can get help from Merch Informer if you are stuck.
- Make sure your design is of a high quality. This means centering your design and sizing it appropriately to avoid pixilation. Whether your design is text- or design-heavy doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you put quality out there.
In conclusion
Although raglan shirts (also known as baseball tees) don’t get a lot of sales, the good news is that the market is not oversaturated yet.
This means that if you come up with a great design, price appropriately, and use smart keywords in your title – you could, in fact, hit the jackpot (or at the very least, earn a few hundred dollars).
Make sure to use Merch Informer to help you with your research. Otherwise, you risk wasting hours on something that could take you mere minutes.
At only $9.99 per month, it’s the best investment you’ll make in your merch side gig on Amazon.
