Creating Product Variants on Amazon – How to Do It and Why You Should Focus on This!
Variety makes life more beautiful. Whether it’s donuts in strawberry, chocolate, and lemon flavors or your favorite shirt in all colors, we enjoy diversity, and sometimes consumers even need variants, for example, when it comes to clothing sizes.
You can also find the same product in different versions on online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. The band shirt for Dad in XL and for Mom in S. We customers definitely benefit from the selection.
Sellers and vendors can create product variants on Amazon. How to do this and what you should know can be found here.
Let’s start from the very beginning:
What are product variants?
Not only on Amazon can sellers who have the appropriate writing rights for the respective ASIN create product variants. Various fashion retailers like H&M, Zalando, and Otto have long relied on this method. A T-shirt available in sizes XS to XL – five variations of a single item.
Or consider phone cases: a specific case for the iPhone XS available in various colors and patterns, from floral prints to animal prints, offering a wide range of possible variants.
Of course, sellers on marketplaces like eBay and Amazon can also offer their products in various variants, provided they have the appropriate writing rights, such as being the owner of a brand. Naturally, there are also guidelines regarding the content of product variants from the online giant.
Amazon itself states that products meeting the following requirements are likely to perform well as variants:
The requirements indicate that it should always be about a practically identical product that differs only marginally from the other variants – like the T-shirt from the example above.
It is also important to note that customers would expect these products to be displayed together on a product page. As we all know, Amazon focuses on the customer, and they should experience a good customer journey at all costs. If they click on a T-shirt and only need to select the appropriate size as expected, it is simple for them and they will not be confused. However, if they click on the T-shirt and then have to choose whether to buy the T-shirt or perhaps a dress with the same pattern, the customer is understandably irritated – after all, they wanted a T-shirt, not a dress. Customer orientation is certainly justified. Ultimately, this increases the likelihood that customers will shop on Amazon again in the future, which benefits you as well.
Amazon further states regarding product variation: If your products do not meet the following requirements, they may not be well-suited for creating variants:
Of course, if you are only offering one product variant, it makes little sense to add a product variation on Amazon. How could you?
The second point is also easy to understand if we put some thought into it.
The next two aspects may require a bit more explanation. When you create product variants on Amazon, they are added to the same product page. This means they share the same content – the title and description are identical. This also shows why a T-shirt and a dress with the same pattern are not considered product variants. You would have to craft the product title in a very cumbersome way to do justice to both products, which is not very clever from an SEO perspective. Additionally, such a title or corresponding description would not be very consumer-friendly. This also explains the last point.
Hierarchical, Subordinate & Product Design: Amazon-German, German-Amazon
To understand the three terms, it is easier to take a closer look at the structure of the relationships between them:
As the name suggests, the parent product is essentially the parent of other products. This product cannot be purchased due to its structure. It serves only for overview purposes. This could be, for example, a T-shirt with the brand’s logo.
Each variant that this article has is a subordinate product. It is then the child of a parent, hence a Child. Therefore, some sellers also refer to the Parent-Child connection. In our example, this would be the T-shirts with the brand logo in white and black or in sizes XS to XL.
The product design describes how the subordinate products differ from each other. For example, this could be in color or size, and sometimes in both, meaning color AND size. In our example, this would be: the white T-shirt in size M.
How to Add Product Variants on Amazon
You have different options for creating product variants on Amazon. Provided you have the appropriate writing rights for the ASIN, such as being the owner of a brand, and you adhere to Amazon’s guidelines.
Product variants can either be uploaded via Flatfile or created directly in Seller Central. Here, we will only discuss the process of creating them in Seller Central:
Which method you should use to add product variants depends on whether the variant already exists or not. For both methods, you start by selecting Add a Product from the Inventory drop-down menu in Seller Central. Here, you can search for the product variant you want to add on Amazon. The search results are most accurate when you search using IDs such as ASIN, ISBN, or EAN. Now you need to choose whether you want to add your listing to an existing variant or create a completely new one.
How to Add Your Listing to an Existing Product Variant on Amazon
How to Create New Product Variants on Amazon
When creating product variants on Amazon, you should always adhere to the relevant style guides for product detail pages and for ASIN creation. A violation can result in the loss of the ability to create corresponding content or even the loss of selling privileges.
Small Note: This content (description, keywords, product category, and other attributes) will be displayed on Amazon for all product variants you create – it applies to the parent product. Of course, this is only for the respective item and not cross-product! You can manage and adjust the product details at any time under Inventory.
You can also delete product variants. On Amazon, you can easily do this in the same interface where you provide the information for variant combinations. Simply select the corresponding listing and click on “Delete Selection.”
Automatically Recognizing Product Variants
With a large number of different variants, manual creation can be very time-consuming. The Check My File function allows for automatic recognition in some categories to establish variant relationships. All information on this can be found in the inventory file template. Below, we provide an example from the help pages in Seller Central. For a T-shirt available in various sizes and colors, the inventory file might look like this:
| SKU | Title | Size | Color | Product Relationship | Parent SKU | Type of Product Relationship | Variant Design | Price | Quantity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 101 | T-Shirt | | | Parent Product | | SizeColor | | | |
| 101MB | T-Shirt blue size M | Medium | Blue | Subordinate Product | 101 | Variant | SizeColor | 15,97 | 50 |
| 101SB | T-Shirt blue size S | Small | Blue | Subordinate Product | 101 | Variant | SizeColor | 15,97 | 50 |
| 101LB | T-Shirt blue size L | Large | Subordinate Product | Subordinate Product | 101 | Variant | SizeColor | 15,97 | 50 |
| 101MR | T-Shirt red size M | Medium | Red | Subordinate Product | 101 | Variant | 101MR | 15,97 | 50 |
| 101SR | T-Shirt blue size S | Small | Red | Subordinate Product | 101 | Variant | 101SR | 15,97 | 50 |
| 101LR | T-Shirt blue size L | Large | Red | Subordinate Product | 101 | Variant | SizeColor | 15,97 | 50 |
What You Need to Consider When Creating Product Variants on Amazon
You should always pay attention to whether you are currently in the parent or subordinate product, as this affects the structure of the product page. When you edit product attributes such as descriptions and titles, this always applies to the parent product. A description like “T-Shirt size M” is not very effective if you want to create (or have already created) additional product variants on Amazon. A potential buyer looking for size S would likely not click on your offer, even though they have the option to select their size. After all, they assume that your offer only pertains to size M.
Also, note Amazon’s reminder that your items must belong to a product category where variants are allowed, such as clothing.
Additionally, you should ensure that you always adhere to the online giant’s style guides. This way, you also optimize Amazon SEO for your product variants. You can find more tips on how to optimize your listing in our blog.
Why You Should Focus on Product Variants on Amazon
Creating product variants on Amazon significantly boosts your visibility. On one hand, all individual subordinate products benefit from the visibility of the parent. This way, you only invest once in good descriptions, and all product variants become equally visible, as the customer finds all versions on the same product detail page.
On the other hand, reviews will always be given for the parent product, which means the subordinates also benefit from them. We all know how hard it can sometimes be to get a review from a customer. If each product variant stands alone, the overall number of reviews may be high, but the individual variants may not have many. If you offer five sizes as individual products and each product has three reviews, that’s not very much on its own. However, if you offer these as product variants, the reviews will be aggregated, and your product will have 15 reviews. This not only creates a better impression with customers but also with the Amazon algorithm, positively impacting your overall rating.
Additionally, you enhance the customer experience on Amazon when you create product variations. With better visibility, they can see all variants at once and do not have to search again if the color of the desired T-shirt does not match their taste. Instead, customers can simply browse through the available variations and select their favorite.
Incidentally, the likelihood that a customer adds multiple items to their cart increases. If a nice blue T-shirt is offered right next to the white one they are looking for, and it appeals to the customer, they will likely purchase the blue one along with the white one.
You can also increase the cart size by creating bundles on Amazon as product variants. In addition to the standard offering, another variant could be a set with additional accessories or a combination item. For example, you could offer a bundle with the VR headset along with a game that is compatible with VR as a variant. This way, you market your offerings right where they are most likely to be purchased.
Image credits in the order of appearance: © Alexander Raths – stock.adobe.com / © Cybrain – stock.adobe.com / © Vera Kuttelvaserova – stock.adobe.com
