In this article, I’d like to talk about whether or not you should design around trending niches or evergreen ones.
First, let’s discuss what each of these niches is. Trends can be something that is happening in the news. This can be something a politician or celebrity said.
Trends can also be a holiday or event that is coming up. Believe it or not, there are events like this for almost every day of the year. Here is a calendar for seeing some of these.
Evergreen niches are designs that sell month in and month out. Yes, some of these niches can be more popular in certain months like the camping niche but for the most part, these designs sell all year long.
Evergreen niches tend to be things people are passionate about like hobbies, careers, and pets.
So what’s the advantage and disadvantage of each?
Trends Advantages:
Can be huge sellers - These types of shirts are usually what is on Amazon’s best sellers lists. A great holiday shirt can sell dozens of shirts a day.
Trends Disadvantages:
Competition - Because these can be huge sellers there tends to be more competition. If you have a shirt that’s selling daily it’s a huge target for everyone that scours the best sellers list to steal ideas.
Only sell for a short time - Trending designs by their very nature only sell for a short period of time. In the case of a trending saying it usually just dies out. Holidays pass and people move onto the next one.
Yes, you might sell a Valentines shirt in October but chances are once the holiday passes your shirt sales will be non-existent.
Evergreen Advantages:
Shirts sell all year - Like I said above, evergreen designs tend to sell all months out of the year. This will lead to consistent sales and income.
Not as competitive - Since some of these shirts might only sell 2-3 shirts a month, they won’t have that super high best sellers ranking and won’t be as big of a target for the copycats.
Evergreen Disadvantages:
Slower sellers - Chances are you aren’t going to find that evergreen shirt that is going to sell a massive amount of shirts monthly like a trending design will. These tend to be more consistent slower money makers.
So which do I recommend?
For me, it really depends on what tier you are on. If you are in the lower tiers (especially the 10 and 25 design tier), I recommend targeting trends. If you can find that winning design or get in on a trend early you can sell a bunch of shirts quickly.
This will help you blow through the tiers and get up to the 500 where I feel like the real money begins. And since you are limited on slots, it’s better to sell shirts quickly than it is to have that evergreen shirt that sells 1 shirt a month.
Once you are on the 100 and above tiers, I’d start targeting more evergreen niches and designs. You want those lower competition monthly money makers in my opinion. I’d much rather have a shirt that consistently gets me 2-3 sales a month than that shirt that sells 20 in a week and dies never to be heard of again.
At this point, you are building a library of designs and each one that sells is locked into your catalog on Amazon for life. If I do any trending shirts nowadays it’s holiday shirts. With these designs, they will be back into favor a year from now so I don’t mind using up a slot on them.
Hopefully, this helped and I’d love to hear your thoughts on trending or evergreen niches below.
Other Merch By Amazon Articles I've Written:
A Case Study - Part 1
Design In A Large Niche Or Small Niche?
When To Take Down A Design
Tiering Up
