Mastering Amazon Variation Listings: A Comprehensive Guide To Boosting Sales

The advantages of variant listings to enhance Amazon sales may be familiar to you. Without proper direction, Amazon Variation Listings are difficult to grasp. This detailed article from Share Tool will teach you how to make use of Amazon Variation Listings to boost sales and earnings.

TL;DR

This article explains how to create and manage Amazon Variation Listings.

• For sellers: Create variations to group similar products (different sizes, colors, etc.) under one listing. This improves customer experience by allowing them to see all options at once and increases sales by boosting discoverability through a better search ranking and combined reviews.
• For both sellers and buyers: Variation listings improve organization by grouping similar items together. This makes it easier for buyers to find exactly what they’re looking for and for sellers to manage their inventory.

What Is Amazon Variation Listing?

Assume I am shopping for a t-shirt on Amazon and want to know whether it is available in a different size or color. How can I locate that? I could look for this in the search area, but it could take a while. So, I looked at the product variations stated below on the product website. This is what’s called an Amazon variant listing.

Amazon variant listings were created to help shoppers locate a different size or color. It also enables the user to effortlessly browse a variety of related goods for a more enjoyable purchasing experience. It also helps you improve conversions and consumer exposure. Let me elaborate on this below.

These are also known as parent-child connections, and they are a collection of diverse product possibilities available for purchase under one listing. Similar goods may vary in size, price, color, and print.

For example, I am an Amazon seller with 30 goods that are similar in category but not the same color. Rather of displaying them on separate sites, I aggregate them on the same product page.

Each of these goods has a distinct ASIN variant. This is a wonderful technique for me since it is convenient for both my consumers and myself. All I need to do is learn how to add a variant to an existing Amazon listing. Once I get the hang of it, there’s no going back.

What Are The Benefits Of Amazon Product Listing?

Creating a new variant listing or adding a variation to an existing one might help your overall selling strategy on Amazon.

Increase conversions. The most significant advantage of adding a listing variation is that buyers will have various alternatives accessible to them right away, rather than having to go in and out of many product listings to locate the size/color/flavor they’re searching for. This promotes conversions.

Increases the discoverability of each child listing. To boost the discoverability of new or underperforming items, pair them with higher-performing products. For example, suppose you introduce a new cat food taste. Instead of generating a whole new item with no reviews, you add your new flavored product as a variant to an already existent cat food listing.

Combines reviews for each kid listing. Regardless of the version your consumer selects, the reviews will be cumulative and posted under the same parent listing. Returning to the previous example, this is particularly useful when adding a whole new variant to an existing listing with reviews.

Combined sales history. Each sale on your parent-child listing, regardless of variance, will contribute to the listing’s entire sales history. This can assist improve both your organic search ranking and your overall Best Sellers Rank.

What Are The Elements Of Amazon Variation Listing?

1. Parent Listing

The parent listing has child listings. This is not a purchasing entity. In the Amazon catalog, parent listings correctly connect to kid listings. For example, if I see three distinct pants under the duplicate item, that means they are children’s clothes.

2. Child ASINs

These are the legitimate versions of the parent product that I can buy. A single-parent ASIN might include a variety of kid goods. Each kid variety is unique from the others. This might include size, shape, color, and print.

3. Variation Theme

This is a variant that examines how similar items are differentiated. This varies depending on how you list your items. If I like, I may apply two different themes to certain theme categories. This allows buyers to choose the size and color without having to browse through each product and waste time.

How to create a variation listing on Amazon

How to do variation listing on amazon? First, not every category allows you to produce variations, so double-check before selecting to offer many variations of the same product. Toys & Games, Sports & Outdoors, Grocery, Health & Beauty, Pet Supplies, Clothing, and Accessories & Shoes are some common categories that allow for variations.

Creating a brand new listing variation

There are two methods for creating a new listing/parent-child listing on Amazon. You may do it manually in Amazon Seller Central, or you can fill it and upload an inventory file. In your Seller Central dashboard, choose Catalog and then ‘Add Products.’

Next, select ‘I’m adding a product not sold on Amazon.’ In this field, enter your product name and category, then click Next.

On the following page, you will provide further information about your product, such as the brand name, product ID, and variations. In this situation, choose ‘Yes’ next to “Does the product have variations?” Fill in the remainder of the essential information and click Next.

Then, go to the Variations page, choose your variation type, and list all of your variations.

Next, input the product ID, type, condition, price, and quantity. (If selling FBA, set the quantity to zero.) Once you’ve included all of your variations and finished the remainder of your listing, click the submit button. You may always go back and add more variations to your listing in the future. Please keep in mind that after your product’s parent SKU has been generated, you cannot modify the variant type.

Creating variations using an inventory file

Alternatively, some sellers recommend keeping an inventory file that you can simply edit, remove, or add to as required. To begin, on your Seller Central dashboard, hover over Catalog and then choose ‘Add Products via Upload.’ To begin, click the Download spreadsheet tab and choose a template from the list.

For amazon listing optimization, The template will look somewhat like this:

As you can see from the bottom of the spreadsheet, there are many tabs. Fill up all of your product details under the ‘Template’ tab. Amazon gives you a lot of information to help you fill out the template appropriately.

Filling out the inventory file might be a daunting chore, but simply take your time and follow the directions to avoid problems while uploading. We recommend visiting the ‘Example’ button to discover how to submit variant information.

Under “Example 2” in the file, Amazon asserts the following about parent-child relationships:

“This is an example of a “father” with two “children.” The parent (the one shown in the first row in this example) is not a sellable product; rather, it describes a collection of items.

“Note: Do not submit a size, color, count, type, parent sku, relationship type, or quantity for the parent product, but do include an image URL. Do not input data for the parent product, such as price, time-to-ship, weight, and so on, since these will be overwritten by the data for the child product. Make careful to include the price, weight, and size of the kid items, since they may vary from one another.”

How to combine two ASINs into one variation (parent-child) listing

Amazon outlines these processes in their Variation Relationship FAQ, but we go over them in depth here.

If you want to merge two or more related ASINs into a single variant family, the approach is somewhat identical to what was described previously.

Here is the information provided to you straight from Amazon:

Using the Product Classifier or Templates for Specific Categories, get the category template that best fits your category. To discover what variant themes are available, go to the template’s Valid Values page. NOTE: If no variation theme is specified, you are unable to create a product with variations in that category.
In the inventory template, define parent and child SKUs.

Regarding the parent item:

• Enter values for necessary fields, including the SKU. This may be any alphanumeric string of 40 characters or fewer that is unique (i.e. does not duplicate any of your other SKUs). Sellers often add “-parent” to their base SKU to remind themselves that this is a parent SKU.
• Keep the ‘Parent SKU’ field blank.
• Enter “parent” as the value for ‘Parentage’ and a valid value for ‘Variation Theme.’
• Leave the ‘Relationship Type’ blank.
• Leave all non-required fields blank.

For each child item (ASINs to be combined into one family):

• Fill up the essential fields.
• Fill in the ‘Parent SKU’ column with the value from the parent’s SKU (which will be the same for all child products).
• Enter “child” in ‘Parentage,’ and “variation” in ‘Relationship Type.’
• Enter the same value in the ‘Variation Theme’ column as you did for the parent (the value will be the same for all child items).

After filling out all of the relevant information, use Step 1 to verify the file for mistakes before uploading the final file.

Add to or update an existing variation family using Variation Wizard

Variation Wizard is an interactive application that enables you to build parent-child variation connections in bulk using an auto-populated inventory file template. It also makes adding, removing, and changing variations much simpler.

To utilize the Variation Wizard, hover over ‘Inventory’ and choose ‘Add a Product.’ The phrase ‘Create variations with Variation Wizard’ appears in the bottom right corner.

Once within the Variation Wizard, you’ll find two possibilities. For the first option, just input a child ASIN to update or a parent ASIN to add to. Follow the instructions and enter all of the essential information.

Once finished, click ‘Generate Template’ to get a pre-filled inventory file template that you can submit to add the additional variations.

The second choice will take you through the processes indicated in the “How to combine two ASINs into one variation (parent-child) listing” section above.

How to add a variation to an existing amazon listing

You may want to add a variant to a listing that another seller produced. You cannot add a variant to another seller’s private label listing if the brands are not identical. This would apply if you were selling a comparable item via arbitrage or wholesale.

From the Amazon support page:

1. Locate the ASIN of an existing parent item by visiting its product information page. The parent ASIN number is often found in the Product Detail section of the detail page for every child ASIN.
2. In your inventory file template, enter the new child ASIN’s information and fill in the fields as if it were a child in a parent-child variant set. NOTE: Make sure the Variation Theme field matches the current parent.
3. Add the parent item and fill up the elements that establish the parent-child association with the new child item while also reflecting the child item’s variant theme. Please keep the following considerations in mind while reviewing the Parent item row:

You may leave the SKU box for the parent row blank (to allow the system to create an SKU number) or enter any alphanumeric string of 40 characters or less that is unique to your listings.

Enter the parent ASIN in the Product ID area.

In the Product ID Type box, enter “ASIN”. This will link your new child item to the ASIN of the current parent item.

4. In the Update/Delete column, type the following:

• Update for the parent SKU (because we are constructing this parent in your inventory from start).
• PartialUpdate – for the child SKU(s), provided they are already in your inventory. NOTE: If the child ASIN already exists in your inventory, choose “PartialUpdate.” If not, choose “Update.”

5. Validate and submit your completed inventory template. Make sure to fill out all of the required (*) fields in the inventory template.

Top 5 Best Amazon Product Listings Tools

Selling items on Amazon may be profitable, but with millions of products, it can be hard to stand out. Amazon product listings tools help. These tools let you generate, optimize, and maintain product listings for platform success. Share Tool will examine the top 5 Amazon product listings solutions that may improve your listings, boost exposure, and boost sales.

Helium 10

Helium 10 has established itself as one of the most reliable tools for Amazon Sellers over the years. In terms of listing optimization, Helium 10 offers five tools designed to enhance your ranking in search results.

Scribbles allows you to organize and monitor high-demand keywords, including both single words and phrases. Keywords are color-coded for easy identification; red indicates the most searched keywords, while black signifies the least searched. Index Checker is another valuable tool provided by Helium 10, enabling you to determine whether your product appears in Amazon search results.

Smartscout

With SmartScout, creating a high-visibility listing can be achieved in under 5 minutes. Distinguished by its cutting-edge technology, SmartScout stands out among other Amazon listing tools. Its approach sets it apart – rather than engaging in manual keyword research and crafting product listings independently, SmartScout employs its AI Listing Architect to handle the entire process for you.

Viral Launch

Viral Launch offers integrated tools to help you construct the perfect listing. With Viral Launch‘s Keyword Manager, you gain access to extensive keyword insights, surpassing what most other tools provide. Its intuitive dashboard presents crucial keyword metrics including index checks, organic tracking, badge notifications, search volume trends, and keyword scores.

The Listing Analyzer feature meticulously assesses your product listing in comparison to your primary competitors. Subsequently, it furnishes actionable recommendations aimed at outperforming them and driving increased traffic to your listing.

Zonguru

Achieve page 1 ranking optimization with Zonguru. What sets Zonguru apart from other tools on this list? It offers a unique feature allowing you to compare your listing against eight top competitors.

Simply by inputting your competitors’ ASINs, you can access their data including titles, bullet points, product descriptions, search terms, and more. Additionally, you can view the listing scores of each top competitor based on your target keywords. Leveraging data from your competitors may also unveil new keywords you haven’t yet considered, which you can integrate into your listing.

Merchantwords

Let MerchantWords‘ AI tool handle your keyword-optimized listings. As the second tool in this lineup to harness the power of AI for optimizing product listings, MerchantWords offers several noteworthy features:

• Provides five draft options
• Filters out restricted keywords
• Generates keyword-rich listings

What sets this tool apart is its capability to craft listings in multiple languages. Leveraging customer data from 10 countries, you can create listings in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

But that’s not all. The content produced by this AI can also be utilized across various eCommerce platforms including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, Shopify, and more.

Conclusion

To summarize, understanding Amazon Variation Listings is critical for increasing sales and achieving success on the site. By appropriately leveraging this feature, merchants may provide clients with more alternatives, boost product exposure, and improve overall sales success. Understanding the ins and outs of Amazon Variation Listings is critical for efficiently using this tool and staying ahead of the competition. Sellers that understand how to design and improve variant listings may advance their Amazon company and achieve better success.