What to Expect When Selling on Amazon.com – The Drill Down: Data Definitions

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ata definitions are another frequently questioned aspect of the product uploads for Selling on Amazon. Why does Amazon ask for this-or-that data, and what difference does it make if I include that information? Today’s drill down provides some answers about why you need to include some required information to make the upload complete, why you need other information to make a viable offer for sale on Amazon.com, and why some of the so-called optional information can really make a difference for you and the buyer.

Why does Amazon require me to provide specific information about products in a specific format?

In order to provide the best buying experience, Amazon.com is created around the concept of a “single detail page.” This page is where you see all variations (all sizes for example) and offers for a single product to quickly make a buying decision.

• To assemble all of the information on that page, there is a template that is designed to provide the information the buyer needs.

• In order for you to take advantage of this selling expertise, we ask that you provide your product information to fit that template.

The good news is that this is a tried-and-true online selling format and one of the reasons that you’ve chosen Amazon.com is for that ecommerce expertise.

It may be a bit of a challenge to understand this structure at first, but there is a wealth of information in Seller Central for guidance.

Once you start to understand the pattern, you are ready to go.

It’s all about getting your product offer on the right page with the right information to help the buyer make a choice!

On Amazon.com each product has its own page with detailed information, customer reviews, and more. When you add your information on Amazon.com, information regarding the product will appear on this single detail page as shown in the example below (each category may vary).

What are the data definitions and why do they matter?

• The category-specific templates are a great place to start to understand what each field in an Amazon.com upload is meant to do. Each includes definitions and accepted values appropriate to the category. Check those out even if you are using a different upload method by looking for inventory templates in Seller Central help.
  
  • What is required and why? To add the product, a SKU, UPC, Title, Manufacturer, ProductType and ItemType are required. Those last two are Amazon classification data. Notice what’s missing? Price and Inventory! Those aren’t required to add a product, but they are definitely necessary when creating an offer for sale. Then there are other desired fields such as images, bullets and descriptions, and there are additional attributes Amazon provides to link your products to the right locations. The takeaway here is that all of the data is probably used somewhere (as shown above), and the more you include the better chance you’ll have to create a listing, have it show up for sale, and have it show up in the place your buyers will be looking. 
     
  • Why is a SKU required? SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit and is simply a unique, alphanumeric identifier you will assign for that product in your catalog. Many sellers have these already, and you may think of them as your inventory number. This number is determined by you and tied to your seller identification number so the system is able to identify that this product is the one that you sell.
  • Why is a UPC required? UPC, or universal product code, is the manufacturer-assigned bar code that can be used by point-of-sale scanners. In order to tie all of the same products together, we use this identifier as a StandardProductID. In conjunction with your SKU, we now know that this product identified with a UPC is a specific product, and when linked to your SKU and seller ID we can recognize the product that is being purchased and that you are selling that item. Including a UPC for each product listing will enable us to match all identical products on our site, eliminate duplicate listings, and ultimately improve the customer experience by improving customer searches and enabling accurate product comparisons.
  • What are we looking for with the title? The title is at minimum the product name and, at maximum, a short description. We've found that the best titles in apparel accurately represent the product and give additional information such as the brand name. A short but descriptive title is especially important on the search results page to make a decision where to click next.
  • Calvin Klein Solid Poplin Boxer Underwear (Great example – the buyer knows this is what they are looking for)
  • Big shirt (Poor example – not sure what they would be buying)
  • Then what are the bullets and descriptions? Look at the detail page as a one page sales flyer. The buyer gets to a detail page from any number of sources. Once they get there, the image and the title let them know they are in the right place. But those do not provide all of the information to make a decision. If the price is right, they’ll want to be sure the product has the features they are looking for – the bullets. Testing shows that well-crafted bullet points increase sales. Customers rely on them to understand key product features as they highlight important or distinguishing facts about your product. Use the following guidelines as you craft your bullet points:
    • Highlight the five key features you want customers to consider, such as dimensions, age appropriateness, ideal conditions for the product, skill level, contents, country of origin, and so on.
    • Reiterate important information from the title and description.
    • Begin each bullet point with a capital letter.
    • Write with sentence fragments and do not include ending punctuation.
    • Do not include promotional and pricing information.
  • Close the sale with a compelling description. This is your opportunity to describe the product in detail. Put yourself in your customers' shoes: what would they want to feel, touch, think, understand? Incorporating information about the feel, usage and benefits of your product can inspire the customer's imagination. This is as close as you can come to creating an in-store experience. We cannot stress strongly enough how crucial the description is when customers are making a buying decision. A desire for more descriptive information is one of the most common pieces of feedback that Amazon receives from customers. The description is also a key piece of marketing real estate on the product detail page. Profile your customers and figure out how your product fits in with their lifestyle.
  • Why aren’t quantity, shipping weight and time-to-ship required fields? These are not required to create a product listing because a product can be on Amazon.com without inventory. However, if you want to sell your product you’ll keep these current. Shipping weight may not be applicable, but time-to-ship (also known as leadtime-to-ship) defaults to 1-2 days if nothing else is entered. Make sure you can get the product out the door in 1-2 days or use a different value there.
  • What about the rest of the fields?
    • Brand is the product brand, not your company brand.
    • Manufacturer is who made the product. Sometimes these are the same, but unless you make the product yourself this is never your company name.
    • The ProductType and ItemType are gathered differently, based on listing option, and will be covered more in a future classification blog. These are the minimal attributes required to be sure your products show up on Amazon.com.
    • Further classification and variations will be discussed in future blogs, but instructions are found throughout Seller Central help.

An extra resource: It may also help to understand what data parts are used for Search & Browse. There is a help topic about this, but the basics are that a search looks at the Product Name/Title, Brand/Manufacturer, Manufacturer Part Number, and Search Terms; that makes these all critical fields for success. (You will need to log-in to your account to access the link below)

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help-page.html?ie=UTF8&itemID=10471

The more you prepare your data and learn these definitions, the better your product will display on Amazon.com and the better chance you have to sell. One specific type of upload that has many people asking “how” will be covered in the next on-boarding blog. Tomorrow we’ll continue with the series of “Drill Downs” with the topic “Accessory Relationships” and how to use this cross-sell option.    

Cathi C.