Are you constantly receiving policy violation notices regarding misuse of ASIN variations?
Has your seller account been suspended? Do you wish to make your listing more credible and profitable? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, we highly recommend reading this article.
So, without wasting any time, let us grasp variations and learn the step-by-step guide to achieve it on your existing listing.
What is listing variation?
First things first, let’s take a look at what a product variation is. In short, a product variation is something that can be added to a product when there are multiple different options. In reality, this is very simple, but in theory it sounds quite complex.
A listing variation is a handy feature that can help you make your listing more reliable or, better yet, profitable.
The primary aim of any Amazon seller is to create a smooth shopping experience for their customers, and listing variation is a sure gateway to do so.
Amazon grants its sellers a way to sell similar category products in one listing via linking the parent ASIN to the Child ASIN(s). This variation relationship is also popularly called a twister.
In addition, Amazon lets you specify the distinguishing features per category. These categories can range from color, size, taste, shape, the number of products, and so on.
Example:
- A sweatshirt in different colors like red, blue, black, etc.
- A scented candle with varying flavors like cedarwood, vanilla, etc.
These product specifications help the consumer shop better by providing them with a varied choice of features. The parent ASIN is never a tangible physical product.
It is exclusively used for structure and incorporating Child ASIN(s), which contains the actual item of the subcategory. The properties of each variation can look different depending on the category.
It can vary from small image thumbnails to tiny tiles with text. You can also opt for a classic drop-down selection as per the specification of your product.
It reduces scrolling, and makes purchasing items a lot easier for your customers. This is better for business, and overall just better for you as a seller. So, while listing product variations can be tedious, it is definitely worth it! But what are the other benefits? Let’s find out.
Benefits of adding variation
If you are on the fence with listing variation, let us assure you that doing so would help both you and your customers alike.
Let’s contemplate a few benefits of adding variation to your listing:
Increased Visibility
If any of your products from the same category is buried deep down in the search results, adding all of them to one listing will help the products become surprisingly visible.
Your potential buyers would directly pay attention to these low-selling products, which ultimately gives the products a chance to get discovered again.
Since the products fall under the same parent ASIN, every time the product detail page of any child ASIN gets opened, the page view of the whole twister gets increased. Ultimately the twister ranks in organic ranking and finally gains sufficient visibility.
Increased Sales
Utilizing variation can help you get better sales resulting in becoming a credible seller. The detailed specification and options give customers a variety of ranges to choose from.
This overtime increases your credibility, and people eventually consider buying from your link unhesitantly. The chances of purchasing a product increase if you have various choices, be it size, shape, or color.
For example, a brand sells both green and white curtains, but the white curtain drives a high traffic volume, resulting in more sales. It might be possible that consumers do not even know about the availability of a green curtain.
When merged and leveraged together, Amazon will automatically place the green curtain beside the white, thus increasing the demand and ultimately the sales.
Helps Extend The Keyword Pool
Sellers at the backend are currently limited to a specific number of bytes of keywords per ASIN. Vendors have the freedom to upload up to 255 bytes per commodity.
Therefore when more child products are linked to one single parent, the seller can stuff more keywords. These variations equally share stored keywords.
Simply put, if product X is highly ranked on keyword, product Y and Z, which are twisted initially with X, will equally profit from the search query of product X. This process increases the probability of displaying other products that are linked with product X.
Increased credibility via customer reviews and questions
Fortunately, products that get linked together get to share their reviews, ratings, and customer Q&A. For example, if a blue ring blue gets 40 reviews, then a teal ring from the same parent ASIN would automatically get 40 reviews.
This advantage of many reviews further encourages the potential buyer to purchase the teal ring without thinking twice. This way, slowly, the entire listing receives more reviews and ratings with the combination of all the sub-products.
With lots of sales, your product can also touch the “Amazon’s Choice“ mantle.
Improved Shopping Experience
It is a well-known fact that customers always gravitate towards sellers that sell high-quality goods with numerous subcategory options.
Since most customers have a short attention span, you have to grab their attention with the most systematic and consumer-friendly variations. This way, variation would help them compare and discover the same product with different categories.
Moreover, if the interface of your listing has neatly lined variations, the consumer would indeed consider buying from you. Therefore as a brand, you need to attract and make your listing as consumer-friendly as possible to improve the consumer’s shopping experience.
Increases chance Of Cross-Selling
A vast diversity automatically increases anyone’s incentive to buy. Thus, linking variations gives you the advantage of cross-selling.
If you are covering the needs of many Amazon users under one listing, they are bound to purchase from you. Instead of jumping to some other brand for a particular color, they would go through your shades to buy one that suits their needs.
A step-by-step guide to adding variations
Before you dive down to add variations, remember that not all categories allow you to add variations.
The most specific categories that would enable single, double, or multiple variations include:
- Pet supplies
- Toys and games
- Sports and outdoors
- Health and beauty
- Clothing
- Accessories and shoes
- Grocery
Step 1: To solve your ‘How to add variation to existing Amazon listing?’ doubt, you need to log in to your Amazon’s Seller Central Account.
Step 2: Once you successfully land the Seller Central homepage, hover your mouse over the ‘Inventory’ tab and select ‘Manage Inventory’ from the drop-down menu.
Step 3: Locate the product that you wish to add a variation. Look at the extreme right of the product listing you want to edit and click on ‘Copy Listing.’
Step 4: As soon as you go to the ‘Vital info page,’ select the ‘Variations’ tab. Before you choose the tab, you can fill out your Product ID for a quicker process.
Step 5: Click the drop-down menu on the ‘Variation Theme’ and choose any variation you wish to apply. Amazon will provide you various options like size, color, etc. For this example, we will select the color option and proceed further.
Step 6: Carefully list all your available stock of colors you wish to add. You can click the ‘Add Variation’ button for more blank boxes.
Step 7: Once finished with the boxes, go down and fill the ‘Color Map’ for each color. Do not forget to enter the SKU too. Choose the item’s condition like new, used, or refurbished, and enter the product price for each color.
Step 8: After completing the process, click ‘Save and Finish.’ You will automatically see your listing’s status. If everything matches, you should instantly see your variation on the same page.
How Do Variations Appear On Amazon?
Finally, you might be wondering how your variations will appear on Amazon. Especially if this is something that you have not used on your products before.
When you list variations on an Amazon product, these variations will be given under different headings. This means that you can give multiple different variations for a single product.
The best example to use for this is a t-shirt, simply because a t-shirt will come with a couple of variations. Directly beneath the images of your product, the price will be listed.
If the price varies depending on the variations, this price will be shown with the minimum and maximum and a dash between the two. Beneath the price, you will find the variations. As an example, this is what it could look like:
- Price: $10-29
- Size: XS, S, M, L, XL
- Style: Short Sleeve, Long Sleeve
- Color: Black, White, Gray, Green, Red, Blue
When your customer has selected their chosen variations, the price will then be calculated. They can then select the quantity that they want, and add it to their basket. From there, checkout will work the same as normal.
Best practices when adding variations on Amazon listing
When to avoid a variation listing?
Even if the category of product you sell has the option of variation, it isn’t advised to use variation every time. You should avoid grouping and variating if the products are not similar apart from the slight differences like color, shape, and weight.
For example, a portable charger and cell phone charging cable may seem related, but they are not the same product and thus should not be listed under a parent ASIN. Likewise, avoid variation if two out of three products have a poor rating. Merging all three would automatically reduce the rating of the entire listing.
Finally, do not add new products on the old listing as Amazon has strict policies and does not condone misuse of a variation listing.
Tips to yield more benefits from variation listing
- Try to make your popular variation the focal point of the listing. Consider making it the default selection.
- Consider adding images to guide your potential customers. Your chances of sales increase if there is a picture on the tile and the product leaflet.
- Keep monitoring your inventory and check the listing regularly. If you feel the variations are not bringing in sales, you can switch back to the old and traditional listing.
- Abstain from creating large variation families. It will indeed make your listing look cluttered. Your potential customer would certainly feel overwhelmed with the sight and bounce off your listing.
Conclusion
Variation listings can thus create a powerful impact on both the Amazon sellers and their potential customers.
The search process becomes inevitably simple, straightforward, and quicker. The ease of operation would guarantee you business from the same customer several times. All of this contributes towards more sales, greater POI, and higher ranking in the search results.
In addition to variation listing, you should use various tools and strategies to create a comprehensive, best-selling product listing from your brand.
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