When it comes to customer preferences, one size does not fit all. Think of all the times you went shopping – sometimes you wanted a red sock and other times a blue one; sometimes a large can of cookies and other times a single serving.
Likewise, when selling on Amazon, you need to cater to different customers with different needs.
But how do you do so?
That’s where variations come in handy. They help you display different versions of your product on one page so that your customers can choose from whatever they want.
Variations, if used correctly, can bring many benefits to your FBA business. But if you don’t use them right, they can also create problems for you.
So how do you use variations to gain the upper hand?
Well, we’ve written this blog to help you with just that. In this blog, we’ll be discussing everything variations, from its benefits to basics to how to create them.
Ready? Let’s get started.
You might ask, “Is working with variations on Amazon worth it?”
The answer is a big yes. Variations can benefit your business in many ways and create lots of growth opportunities for you. Here is how:
Do you know why Amazon is so popular?
It’s because it provides an unmatched experience to its customers, making online shopping extremely convenient for them. You can do the same using variations.
Think about it, are you more likely to buy from a shop where there is a huge variety of items or one that has little to no variety?
The one with more variety, right?
When visitors come to your listing and find they can get all the variations under one roof, they are more likely to buy from you. You’re saving their time and, in turn, boosting their shopping experience.
How many times does it happen that you enter a store with a set budget in mind but end up spending more eventually?
It happens quite a lot!
Likewise, when you offer more variations to your customers, they FOMO into buying more. They might come for the white socks and leave with red and brown ones too.
Variations are many listings combined into one, which means that no matter which variant is getting sales, conversions, or reviews, you win in the end.
Each variant’s sales and review history boost your overall listing rank and give you extra credibility points. This again increases your conversions, and ultimately sales.
Most new sellers do not add variations to their listing because they often get confused by them and how they work. This shouldn't happen to you.
That’s why we've decided to put together this section, explaining the jargon and basics of Amazon listing variations.
A parent ASIN is the superficial listing that entails all the related variations or “Child ASINs”. It doesn’t have any identity of its own. You can think of it as the invisible glue that holds your different variation listings together. If a parent listing is deleted, all your child listings will unmerge and become individual listings.
Child listings representing multiple variants of a product and merged under a single parent ASIN. Every child ASIN can be different from the other in color, size, wattage, or flavor.
The variation theme defines how child listings are related to a parent listing plus how they differ from one another. Themes may include size, wattage, color, scent, flavor, weight, and pack size, depending on the product you sell.
You can only use one variation theme per listing, but two themes can be combined in some special cases and for specific categories.
For instance, you can use:
A flat file, aka inventory file template, is simply a spreadsheet that lets you remove, update, and upload variations or product information to your Seller Central in bulk.
You can use inventory files not just to create standalone ASINs but variation families too. Most sellers recommend using these templates as they leave less room for errors and make it easier to verify if your listing data is correct.
There is no limit on the number of variations, but you can have only one variation theme per listing. The most common variation themes are Flavour, Color, and Size. As mentioned earlier, some categories may even allow combining two variation themes.
Note: Make sure to create valid variations as Amazon can remove your newly-created variations families or child listings that don’t meet its requirements. Check out more on variation relationships.
PRO Tip: Don’t forget to refer to the Amazon Style Guide for more information on the valid values available.
Amazon does not allow adding variations in some categories. Therefore, if there is no variation theme listed, or you get the error mentioned above, then you can’t create variations and should change to a different yet relevant product category.
Some common categories in which Amazon allow variations include:
Variations show up as little grey/white boxes (with images) under your listed price, right next to the images when viewed on desktop. On mobile, they appear below the images.
Desktop View
Mobile View
And that’s a wrap! In this blog, you’ve discovered the benefits of variations, the technical jargon, the process of creating a variation listing, and everything in between. We hope you’ve got a good grasp of creating variations and are ready to make them yourself. Good luck!
About ZonGuru
ZonGuru is an all-in-one Amazon toolkit that helps private label sellers with product research, niche evaluation, competition analysis, listing optimization, inventory tracking, customer review acquisition, and running day-to-day operations of their Amazon business. Our tools bring you the most accurate data from across ten Amazon marketplaces, including the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Germany, and India. We make selling on Amazon easier.
About the Author
A marketer by trade, a writer at heart, and an Amazon evangelist around-the-clock, Hammad lives and breathes the world of the smiling A. He can often be found discussing the ins and outs of the marketplace across the web. In the very rare instances when he is not busy educating the audiences, he likes to sit down and have a good me-time watching the latest football action on his large-sized TV screen.
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