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Amazon is launching AI-generated custom merch
The retailer’s expansion into near-instant design and printing threatens its own network of third-party sellers as well as print-on-demand competitors.
The retailer’s expansion into near-instant design and printing threatens its own network of third-party sellers as well as print-on-demand competitors.
Amazon is expanding its print-on-demand features to AI-generated designs created using Alexa for Shopping for products like T-shirts, water bottles, and hoodies.
Shoppers can use text prompts to generate images that are then printed onto blanks for sale on Amazon. They can then share the link to the design so other people can buy the same custom item. Amazon offers family reunions and pet-themed designs as use case examples, but the feature also threatens an entire ecosystem of drop-shipped products — as well as other custom printing companies.
Amazon already had a Merch on Demand feature where shoppers could drop in images, text, and clip art-style icons into blank T-shirts and other products. Now with Alexa, shoppers can use AI to auto-generate designs and then tweak or edit them. Custom designs still need to adhere to Amazon’s content policies around things like trademarks and copyright. (A New York Knicks design I generated for testing was flagged for “third-party content concerns,” for example, and Amazon said I wouldn’t be able to purchase it.) But theoretically, customers will be able to create endless assortments of unbranded products right on Amazon.
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The new feature rolls up the process of designing, purchasing, and printing custom products all under one roof, and competes with sites like Redbubble, Printful, and Shutterfly, which for years have been the go-to for anyone needing a custom, fast print job. In the last few years, those platforms — along with other marketplace-style platforms like Etsy, TikTok Shop, and eBay — have become overrun with seemingly AI-generated designs, giving shoppers endless (middling) options. The designs I tried generating using Alexa all have an unmistakable AI quality to them: overly smooth, frictionless illustrations, lots of cliches, and garbled text. (Relatedly: Has AI ruined bootleg merch?)
AI designs are increasingly becoming more ubiquitous — and now, your kid’s little league merch might also reek of AI image generation. Amazon itself is pushing deep into AI-powered commerce on its platform. The company recently launched a tool that lets shoppers describe what kind of item they’re looking for, after which Amazon will display mockups of products that aren’t for sale but that will be used to find lookalikes — a fake dupe to find a dupe of something else.