Amazon: creating product variations
About this article
This article describes the creation of product variations on Amazon.
Table of contents
Introduction
It is possible to create variations on Amazon. This is useful to list several sizes of a single type of socks or different colors of the same pair of shoes, for instance.
On ChannelEngine
By default, content export is not enabled on Amazon, so you need to request it with your contact person at ChannelEngine.
To set up variations:
- Go to Mappings, Content mappings and select the category to which you want to apply variations. You need to repeat this for every category, as the selectable options for the variation theme vary per product type.
- Before picking the attribute you want to base the variations on (i.e.: size or color), you must set the Relationship type. To do this, select the Variation option. The variation option Accessory can be used to group products together with an Also recommended element on Amazon, displayed as accessory/additional products to be purchased with the selected product.
- After setting the relationship type, you must set up the Variation theme under the Content mappings. This is where you select the attribute that differentiates your variations. E.g.: if you are selling a t-shirt or a pair of shoes with different sizes, the correct option is either Size or SizeName. If you are selling a USB stick in four different colors, the correct option is Color.
- If you choose Color as the Variation theme, make sure to fill out the Color map as well. This attribute maps your color names to accepted color names on Amazon. Note that you have to do this for every category, even if you always want to use the same variation attribute. This is due to Amazon's lack of support for variations for every product type – and to the fact that variation themes can differ per category.
On Amazon
To create variations directly on Amazon, refer to the Use 'Add a product' to create variations article on Seller Central.
Best practices
Amazon's content mappings may not match the content that should be mapped for the specific product category on ChannelEngine. This is due to Amazon's huge number of categories, as well as their ever-changing templates.
As a result, attributes that may be required are marked as optional, and vice versa. The best practice is to generate the category-specific template on Amazon's Seller Central, and compare that to the mappings available on ChannelEngine. This way you know for sure which mappings are required and which are optional.
Although parent products need all required attributes under All products, and all of them must be mapped to pass the validation, some of their values are copied from the child products.
- SKU
- Variation theme - copied from the child products
- Parent_child
- Item_name
- Recommended browse nodes - copied from the child products
- Brand - it is mandatory that the brand name is consistent throughout the whole product family
- Product type (category) - copied from the child products
Try to avoid optional attributes at first, this way you lower the chance of encountering errors preventing your content from being accepted. Once the content is pushed correctly, you can slowly map more optional attributes – making sure each time to check for new errors.
Map the optional Update type attribute to Clear and overwrite, so the existing content on Amazon is overwritten with the mapped data on ChannelEngine.
FAQs
I am using Amazon in a country other than the United Kingdom or United States. How do I identify the 'Relationship type' and 'Variation theme'?
Below you can find the translation of those attributes per country. Note that for the UAE the Relationship type is under the All products category, while the Variation theme is category-specific. For all other countries, both attributes are category-specific.
- Canada - Relationship Type, Variation Theme.
- France - Type de relation, Thème variation.
- Germany - Produktbeziehungs-Typ, Varianten-Design.
- Italy - Tipo di relazione, Tema variante.
- Mexico - Tipo de Relación, Tema de Variación.
- Netherlands - Type relatie, Variatiethema.
- Poland - Typ Relacji, Motyw zmiennosci
- Spain - Tipo de relación, Tipo de variación.
- Sweden - Relationstyp, Variationstema.
- United Arab Emirates (UAE) - Relationship Type, Variation Theme.
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