How To Create and Update Amazon Product Listings With Variations

A new variation can be created only when all Child ASINs within the variation are listed as stand-alone listings. Variations can be created at product set up or after products have been listed within your Vendor or Seller Central account. 

At a minimum for a variation to be created, child ASINs within the variation need: 

• To be listed in the same category with the same item type keyword 

• To be branded with the same brand name attribute  

• Need to be listed within your Seller or Vendor Central account 

• Need to be stand-alone (non-variated) Child ASINs before the variation is submitted. If a variation is already listed in an existing variation, you are unable to pull the Child ASIN into a new variation. 

Other requirements may exist for creating variations depending on your selling category or the status of the child ASINs within the requested variation. You may be blocked from creating variations for child ASINs if the child ASINs brand name is a brand registered and you are not added as a user on the brand registration. The process for Variation creation is different for Seller Central compared to Vendor Central.

Vendor Central Variation Creation

In Vendor Central variations can be created through the use of Vendor Central’s variation template and support case request. See below for the click path to download the variation report template.

In Support > View Resource Center > Selling Your Products > Variation Template

When you have the variation template downloaded, follow the template instructions to fill out the template with your desired variation structure.

If the child ASINs listed in the variation template are compatible, vendor support will create the variation on the vendor’s behalf. Also if a child ASIN is listed within another preexisting variation, vendor support will remove the child ASIN from the existing variation so that it can be incorporated into the new variation. If there are attributes submitted to the child ASINs that cause conflicts that prevent the variation from being created Vendor Central support will report what the conflicts are in the case.

If conflicts exist use NIS templates or manual edits to update the conflicting attributes to resolve the conflict. Then resubmit the variation template. Repeat this process until the desired variation is created.

Seller Central Variation Creation

In Seller Central, the first step to creating a variation should be to check which variation types are available in your product category and to check if the child ASINs for the variation are listed in preexisting variations. 
To check what variation types you have access to we need to create a category-specific inventory flat file that lists variation types available in the category. To do this navigate to Catalog > Add Products via Upload > Download a Spreadsheet > Get Product Template > Select Marketplace > Search and add the categories the products are listed in > Generate Template. Open the spreadsheet once it is downloaded. Navigate to the “Valid Values” tab in the inventory file and find the “Variation Theme” rows of the sheet. The columns of these rows will list what types of variations are currently available in the category. Different categories have access to different variations and variation access changes regularly. This is a useful step to determine what options you have for variating your products. 

If a child ASIN is already listed in a variation you will be unable to add it to a new variation. To check if your child’s ASINs are already listed in a variation use Amazon’s Variation Wizard Tool. Click “Add to or update an existing variation family” and search for the child ASIN. The tool will then either confirm that the child ASIN is a stand-alone listing or it will return the parent ASIN if the child ASIN is listed in a preexisting variation. 

If a child ASIN is listed in a preexisting variation it will need to be removed from that variation before it can be incorporated into a new variation. To remove the child ASIN from the existing variation you need to set up the preexisting variation in your account so that it can be broken at which point the child ASIN will be a stand-alone listing and can be added to a new variation. To add the preexisting variation to your account, use the Inventory Flat File that was used earlier to check for variation availability to submit the existing variation so that it is listed within your account. The parent ASIN should have its information submitted listed in the first row of the inventory file. The child ASIN information should be provided in rows below the parent ASIN. Be sure to use the parent ASIN reported by the Variation Wizard as the product ID for the parent ASIN when submitting the preexisting variation in the inventory file. Fill in the required attributes in the inventory flat file and be sure to communicate variation information which can be found in the “Variation” section of the template. For the “Update Delete” column of the inventory file set the parent ASIN row to “update” and the child ASIN rows to “partial update”. Review the “Valid Vales” and “Data Definitions” tabs if you have any questions regarding how to fill out or use an inventory flat file. Once the file has been submitted and processed successfully the parent ASIN and child ASINs of the preexisting variation should display in your manage inventory menu. At this point, we need to select the parent ASIN of the preexisting variation and delete it. This will break the child ASINs into a stand-alone listings. Also, edit the inventory flat file that was submitted previously to remove the Parent ASIN row and to clear out the variation information that was submitted in hte variation section of the file. This is needed to disassociate the child’s ASINs from the deleted parents. After these two actions are taken, wait 48 hours. At that time the child’s ASINs should be ready to be incorporated into the new variation. 

To create a new variation you can use either the manual edit / add a product path or you can use the inventory flat file that you’ve been using previously in this process. In either process be sure that the SKU # that you use for the new parent ASIN is unique and different from the SKU # that was used on the preexisting deleted parent ASIN. If the same SKU # is used, the old Parent ASIN will be brought back and conflicts will occur. 

To use the manual edit process click catalog > add a product > I’m adding a product not sold on Amazon > Select Category. This will take you to the manual add a product page. Next, click “yes” for “Does the product have variations?”. Next, select the variation type you wish to use. This will adjust the page to be parent ASIN new item set up. Submit the required information for the Parent ASIN. Keep in mind that this information is to be general to all child ASINs included in the variation and should not be specific to a single child ASIN within the variation. The most important tab for setup will be the Variations tab. This is where we will submit parent and child ASIN relationship information. Fill out this tab and table to create the variation as desired. Use the child ASIN as the product ID in the table to reduce the chance of variation creation conflict. If errors are reported within the table you will need to either update your submitted information in the table or the information submitted to the child’s ASIN. Images do not need to be uploaded to the Parent ASIN. Once you fill out all information, click Save and Finish and at the point, the new variation should appear within your inventory menu and display on Amazon.com in 48 hours. 

To use the inventory flat file process pull up the inventory flat file that you downloaded. The parent ASIN should have its information submitted listed in the first row of the inventory file. The child ASIN information should be provided in rows below the parent ASIN. The child ASIN information should be provided in rows below the parent ASIN. If there was a preexisting variation that was broken, be sure to use a new unique SKU # on the new parent SKU. Fill in the required attributes in the inventory flat file and be sure to communicate variation information which can be found in the “Variation” section of the template. For the “Update Delete” column of the inventory file set the parent ASIN row to “update” and the child ASIN rows to “partial update”. Review the “Valid Vales” and “Data Definitions” tab if you have any questions regarding how to fill out or use an inventory flat file. Keep in mind that this information is to be general to all child ASINs included in the variation and should not be specific to a single child ASIN within the variation. When all information has been added to the file submit it. If any conflicts or errors are reported following the file submission, make changes to child ASIN or variation structure information to resolve the error. Once the file processes successfully the variation should display within your Seller Central inventory menu.

If you launch a new related product or if you want to increase the size of a variation, you may want to add additional Child ASINs to an existing variation. Similar to new variation creation editing an existing variation is done differently in Vendor Central compared to Seller Central.

Vendor Central Variation Editing

To edit an existing variation in Vendor Central find the Variation template that was used to submit the initial variation or recreate the template. Then simply add the child ASIN that you would like to incorporate into the variation as an additional row in the template. Open a support case with the template attached and Vendor Central support will integrate the new child ASIN into the existing variation.

Seller Central Variation Editing

To edit an existing variation in Seller Central you can do the following. To edit the variation manually you can click “edit” on the Parent ASIN, navigate to the “Variations” tab and add the new child AS

IN as an additional entry in the variation table and click save and submit. To edit the variation using a flat-file simply fill out the child ASINs information in the flat file and in the variation section of the sheet assign the child ASIN as a child to the existing parent SKU. Once you have filled out all of the required information submit the file. Once it processes without error the child ASIN should be added to the existing variation.

Variations on Amazon allows brands to organize their product detail pages in a way that improves customer experience by making related products easier to compare and discover, and showing other available products when some products are out of stock. Managing and creating variations can be complex due to the variety in variation availability, attribute match requirements for variation creation, and third-party attribute/data submission. Goat Consulting helps our clients review opportunities for variation use in their catalogs. We also directly take action to implement and manage the decided variation structure. If you have any questions about variations or if you are struggling to create or manage variations reach out to us and start a conversation today.