If you have paid attention, you may have noticed that in the past few months, there have been more and more cases of Amazon sellers having their listings blocked or their accounts suspended by Amazon due to abuse of product variations. In fact, this is not because more and more sellers are abusing Amazon’s variation listing policy, but because Amazon has taken more regulatory measures to ensure that sellers list products in accordance with regulations.
In order to help sellers create product variations better, this article details the requirements and rules for creating variation listings, as well as the common mistakes made by sellers and their consequences, as follows:
1. What are Amazon listing variations?
According to Amazon, product variations (also known as parent-child relationships) are sets of related products. Good variation listings allow shoppers to compare and select products based on different attributes of the product, such as size, color, or other features, on a single product detail page.
More specifically, variations are products on the same product detail page that have only 1 or 2 differences. Suppose you have a pillow that comes in 5 colors. With variations, you can put 5 different colors of pillows on the same product detail page instead of listing 5 different pillows separately.
Sellers should note that even if ASINs share a detail page, you still need to enter the product information for each sub-ASIN and provide corresponding photos. When a user selects a sub-ASIN, the product information displayed will be for that specific ASIN.
In user search results, only one product in the variation group will be displayed, and the specific product displayed depends on the product category. In the Apparel, Accessories & Luggage, Sporting Goods, and Beauty categories, the parent ASIN will appear in search results. As for other categories, the search results will show the best-selling sub-ASINs.
2. Terms related to Amazon variation listings
Parent: This is the main detail page to which the product option (or child ASIN) belongs. Parent ASINs cannot be purchased by consumers. The parent ASIN should contain all key product information for all ASINs in the variation group, but should not contain information related to the variation theme, specific GTIN, stock levels, or price.
Child: Child ASINs are purchasable ASINs listed under the parent ASIN and will be displayed as available product options on the detail page.
Variation Theme : reflects the differences between each sub-body in the same variation group. Different product categories can have different variation themes, and some variation groups can have 1 or 2 variation themes. For example, scent is a single variation theme, and color and size are a pair of variation themes.
Variation Family : refers to the parent ASIN and child ASIN under a variation theme.
Inventory File/Flat File : This is an Excel spreadsheet used to upload, update, and delete product listings. It’s better for sellers to use electronic documents rather than manually creating listings in Seller Central because if the Amazon team changes your listing later, you still have a paper trail. It also makes it easy to verify the accuracy of listing data.
3. Create variant listings to increase sales
For Amazon sellers, creating variations will provide your buyers with a simpler shopping experience. They can see all product options on one page without having to view multiple listings, which in turn boosts your sales.
However, sellers should be aware that if variations are used improperly, they may cause confusion to buyers, causing them to buy the wrong product or misunderstand what they are buying. For example, if your detail page says that the variations only differ by color, but they actually have two variation themes – color and quantity, then this could cause customers to expect to receive a different quantity than what they ordered.
4. “Can sellers choose to use variations or list separate listings?
The answer to this question is yes, but Amazon has different regulations for each category of products. To understand the relevant information, you can open the flat file in the product category page and click "Valid Values" to view it. After all, for some categories of products, Amazon does not allow sellers to create variations.
Sellers should be aware that Amazon’s catalog team, retail team, and Brand Registry can drastically change your listings and can recreate or split your variation groups.
5. “When should I use variation listings and when shouldn’t I use variation listings?”
Sellers can create variations in the following situations:
Amazon allows sellers to create variations of products in this category.
The differences in your products fit within the range of variation themes allowed for your product category.
The products in your variation group have no differences other than the variation theme. If your variation theme is color, then your child ASINs can only differ in color.
You are listing a multipack of different sizes from the same manufacturer.
Sellers cannot create variations in the following situations:
Amazon does not allow product variations in this category.
The difference between your product is that variant themes are not allowed. You cannot choose variant themes at will and then put in the theme you want.
The difference in your font ASIN is not in the allowed variation theme.
The multipacks you listed are not from the same manufacturer.
The listing you listed sells multiple products as a bundle.
Amazon’s policy on multipack products is quite complex, and multipacks that are not created by the same manufacturer cannot be listed as variations. A multipack is a value pack that contains multiple items of the same product, such as six pairs of the same socks. Multipacks are different from bundles, which are multiple different products sold together under one listing.
What mistakes do sellers usually make when creating variations?
The reality is that most sellers who abuse ASIN variations don’t realize they are abusing variations. Moreover, Amazon will modify the variants before informing the seller of the error, so many sellers do not know where their mistakes are. Therefore, sellers need to create a flat file that can be used for reference, so that when you have to delete a listing, you still have a reference.
Common mistake made by sellers 1: Changing the child ASIN to the parent ASIN.
Common mistake made by sellers 2: incorrectly listing a child ASIN under the parent ASIN.
7. Several Ways Amazon Sellers Abuse Amazon Variants
Of course, not all Amazon sellers abuse Amazon product variations unconsciously. Some sellers do so intentionally, and their abuse methods include the following:
Hijack a variant group
Some Amazon sellers will choose a variation group that is popular with buyers and add completely unrelated sub-groups to it in order to take advantage of the rankings and reviews of other products to gain more sales for other products.
Place the new product line into the old variation group
Some sellers will put the new upgraded product as a sub-product into the variation group of the old product, the purpose of which is also to take advantage of the ranking and reviews that have already been obtained.
“Recycle” child ASIN
Some sellers will directly change the product information and pictures in the existing sub-ASIN to other products and keep the old reviews. These sellers “hijack” a sub-listing, rather than a standalone listing. The latest strategy for many sellers is to “hijack” “dead” ASINs that have been around for a while but have no sales, in order to avoid being discovered by other sellers.
If you are considering using any of these “black hat” strategies, given that listing abuse is a very obvious violation and Amazon’s supervision is becoming increasingly stringent, if you don’t want to be suspended from selling by Amazon, it is recommended not to take this approach.
8. What happens when sellers use variations incorrectly?
Usually, when Amazon finds that a seller has used variations incorrectly, they will first take the form of a warning to inform you that they have corrected your offending listing, but sometimes Amazon will skip the warning step and directly block the listing.
If you continue to abuse ASINs or ASIN variations, Amazon will suspend your seller account. You can appeal, but if Amazon does not accept your appeal reasons, your account may be permanently closed.
Therefore, sellers cannot ignore Amazon’s policy warnings. They will enable you to detect existing problems in a timely manner and correct them to avoid listings being blocked or accounts being suspended.
9. What should you do if your account is suspended due to variant abuse?
If you are experiencing suspension for variation abuse, the first thing you need to do is to review your listings and figure out the problem yourself, as Amazon will not give you any indication or respond to your listings or account until you resolve the issue. You can mainly follow the following steps:
Self-check: See how you are abusing variations. Are all your listings merged together? Make sure you fix all your listings before you submit an appeal.
Root cause: Understand what caused you to misuse variations, whether it was a misunderstanding of Amazon’s policies or insufficient supervision of your listings.
Plan of Action (POA): Define how you will resolve the issue and make sure it doesn’t happen again. You need to be specific about the steps you have taken to correct the problem and ensure the quality of future listings.
Format your Statement of Action: Amazon investigators have to go through many appeals within an hour. For best results, be careful to ensure your appeal is readable and should not exceed one page in length.
Note: To show your attitude, you can proactively ask Amazon to mark your behavior in terms of seller performance.
Summarize
Through good variations, sellers can provide buyers with a seamless shopping experience, thereby increasing their sales.
But now more and more sellers are losing their products and accounts due to ASIN abuse. In order to avoid this kind of situation from happening to you, it is very important to take the time to understand Amazon policies. Note that not only you, but your employees also need to have a deep understanding and strictly enforce them.
