In the race to the White House, there is a neck-to-neck competition between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris for the expected votes for the presidency. However, there is certainly a lead in campaign-themed merch sales on Amazon between the two presidential nominees. Trump’s merch is leading the sales chart as compared to Harris’ sales.
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Trump in the lead for campaign-themed merch sales
An e-commerce marketing platform, Omnisend, revealed that Trump’s merch sales have outperformed Harris’s merch sales on Amazon with a 5-to-1 margin. These estimates are based on a survey and the merch sales from Jungle Scout. Trump merch resulted in Amazon sellers earning $140 million whereas Harris’ merch resulted in only $26 million between the months of April 2024 and September 2024.
Of course, Trump had a headstart in the race since Harris joined in only in late July. However, when both the candidates were active, the former president’s merch was more of a favourite among the consumers and thus held a lead.
According to Omniend, in the months from April to June of this year, Trump’s merch sales were a tad slow as it totalled under $37 million. However, these sales doubled in July after the presidential debate between Joe Biden and Trump which was held in late June. Supporters of Trump bought a lot of his merchandise in July which totalled the earnings to an estimated $41.63 million in that month alone. The following two months resulted in a business of nearly $60 million, as reported by Fast Company.
The peak selling months for Harris were recorded in August when it did a business of an estimated $11.52 million. The next best month for their products was in September as the earnings came close to $10.43 million. According to Omnisend, there are a total of 11,000 Amazon sellers selling election merch of which 9,000 are focused on selling Trump merch. A survey suggested that 58% of Americans have either bought or plan to buy election merch for 2024. Both the candidates of online stores sell their merch and use the earnings for the campaign.
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The star merch from Trump’s campaign
Many will suspect the red MAGA baseball caps to be the popular hit of Trump’s merch lot, instead, it was the Trump flag which turned out to be a huge revenue generator on Amazon. The estimates suggest that flags were responsible for just under $41 million in sales and the caps garnered an estimated $22.67 million. The top five sellers of Trump’s merch completed with shirts, birthday cards and mugs.
In addition to the basics, the former president is also selling a range of products, including $399 gold sneakers, $299 high-tops featuring a bloody image of himself, “God Bless the USA” bibles, silver coins with his face, diamond-encrusted watches, and his own cryptocurrency exchange. Most of these items come with a note saying that the money made from sales doesn’t directly support Trump or his campaign. Instead, he receives a licensing fee for promoting these products, similar to past endorsements of things like bottled water and steaks.
While Harris merch did not succeed Trump in generating revenue, it is worth mentioning that her campaign set the record for the biggest fundraising quarter ever in just three months. It took in $1 billion in merchandise sales and donations
