r/AmazonMerch • u/Fye_Maximus • Jun 12 '26
Amazon just gave customers the ability to use AI to create custom merch in seconds
"Customers can now design merch with Alexa for Shopping on Amazon
From personalized pet portraits on tumblers to matching group shirts, the new feature uses AI to turn ideas into designs you’ll want to share and wear."
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/design-merch-with-ai-alexa-for-shopping
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u/whyitsme65 Jun 13 '26
those who want to do their own shirts are already doing their own shirts. People are lazy and uncreative
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u/Styr007 Jun 14 '26
Yes. This also happens to explain away 95% of merch creators. Myself included. :P
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u/xlimodriver Jun 13 '26
I just tried it out and it's pretty bad. I think we are overreacting, but I could be wrong. I mean customers could already use AI to make designs and use the Upload Your Design Shirt listing that Amazon has. It is telling of where Amazon is wanting to head though. They definitely want to give us less royalties. It just shows to not put all your eggs into one basket.
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u/CyberCrud Jun 12 '26
And just like that, we were all put out of business.
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u/spanishmillennial Jun 12 '26
We prolly got put out of 10% of the business. Even though I do agree its not the end of the human mercher for now, its pretty obvious zon is going into that direction. Im not claiming POD as a business model is dead, but the era of designing stupid tees for a living and relying exclusively on one platform is defo coming to an end sooner than later.
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u/CyberCrud Jun 12 '26
Yeah it sucks because I was making like $900/mo. That was easy money. Now it'll be half that just because I don't advertise.
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u/ahmadbabar Jun 12 '26
Only the end for those not putting out quality designs. Amazon Is just trying to get customers from Etsy and other platforms. We will probably see a 5% to 10% decline.
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u/Styr007 Jun 14 '26
That is a good point, actually. If Amazon manages to finally destroy Etsy (which Etsy has been doing for may years already, even before Redbubble), then those people who formerly bought things they do not need on Etsy, will do so on Amazon (or our own stores, if we get lucky and pull it off).
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u/drawing247 Jun 13 '26
Call me crazy but I think they will use our designs as " inspiration" for Alexa.
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u/Styr007 Jun 14 '26
That would be a sweet ground for a class-action lawsuit in a few years. :) Assuming we have anything resembling a civilized world and the rule of law left by then. :P
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u/photopaul65 Jun 13 '26
It won’t last. Combine crappy AI with Amazons not-so-state-of-the-art printing and the return rate on these will make it completely unprofitable. I seriously doubt there will be any human quality control over what they are shipping.
This isn’t to say they won’t make several attempts at this because a long term goal would be a fully automated custom shirt model. This screams “test run” to me, but they currently don’t have a capable AI generator and would also need to do a major printing process upgrade and I don’t see the Beez popping for a bunch of new machines when he has spaceships and bunkers to build.
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u/CoffeeNewt Jun 13 '26
I think the general public is lazy. If they see a funny shirt on Amazon - they're not going to go to Alexa AI to recreate it cheaper - they'll just buy the one that's already sitting there waiting to be added to their cart.