You will probably have seen that my towels offer three different options. Setting these up on Amazon Seller Central wasn’t as straightforward as adding the swaddles, as you have to add in these listing variations.
Before you do this, you need to ensure you have a separate barcode (or some other kind of identification) for each variation. You might find the article which includes how (and where) I brought my barcodes, helpful.
Creating a Parent listing
You then need to create a parent listing, which your variations will all come under.
You set this up in the same way as any other listing, adding in all the same descriptions, bullet points, keywords, etc. The exception here is photos. I only added one – as nobody will ever see this listing (just the variations that sit under it). I did however add all the other information, in the hope that it would help my listings get found!
Creating the Child listings (variations)
You then need to select the Variations tab and select which variations you offer (colour, size, etc). This is where you need to add in the UPC, EAN, etc, for each variation. Leave the SKU blank, as this will be filled automatically. If you need more detailed help. This article (only accessible if you have a Seller Central Account) talks you through each step in more detail.
These are called the Child listings. There’s another article that explains these relationships. If you go into Manage Inventory, you should now see the parent listing, with the option to drill down and see the child listings / variations.
These variations are what customers will actually see when they go onto Amazon and find your product and you need to complete the product description, keywords, photos, etc, for each.
As you do each one separately, you could add different information for each if you wish – but why would you? (Unless, perhaps, you wanted to test some variables.) I included exactly the same text, but changed the photos for each variation, so you could see just that colour.
When a customer goes onto your listing they’ll now see the options you’ve added and be able to navigate between them using the buttons. See example here.
Selling in other marketplaces
If you want to sell in other marketplaces, this is where it can get tricky.
I’m not using European FBA, so didn’t use the option to have my listings automatically translated. (Although, you can see in this article, more about why I think arranging your own translations is best.)
This meant I had to manually create the listings in every marketplace. Not only was this time-consuming, but it was frustrating too.
The easiest way of doing this, is to create the product listings as normal, but to copy in the SKUs, UPCs, etc, from the UK product listing for both the parent and child listings. Amazon will then recognise this is the same product and know what to ship when you sell one.
This worked for all marketplaces, other than Italy, where I had to request that Seller Central create the listings for me as, no matter what I tried, the save button was greyed out every time I tried to create it myself. (I’ll put that down to one of those annoying flaws.)
I hope this is helpful. Adding the variations in your home marketplace should be very simple, provided you have the barcodes (or equivalent) set up. Adding to the other marketplaces is slightly more tricky, but definitely managable!