I need some help, please
I have competition from somebody that has a card that is in direct competition with one of my best sellers and they have the same number of reviews across all the ages because they have listed them all as colour variations. This is also manipulating the sales rank (I believe but I’m happy to be told differently) as the sales of all the ages are combined.
I have just checked out the top selling greetings cards in Stationery and it appears that all the best sellers are doing this, or a variation of this. Here is an example (this isn’t the one I have an issue with and apologies if the seller of these ones is one here):
B09VY6MMNV
So my question is, is this allowed and, if it is, in the spirit of ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ can I combine listings that have previously all been separate? If I can I would really appreciate a step by step guide on how to do it, please (assume that I know nothing about doing this kind of stuff and you won’t be far wrong!)
Seller_HxgcObseSqKiG
That seller has been sneaky and is listing them as a colour variation, which it isn’t although the difference between the cards is minimal (I would say if the designs are all different from each other then that shouldn’t be listed as a variation). But be cautious, there was an article on BBC news a few weeks back about reviews being for completely different items (occurred through variations) so Amazon will be getting stricter in this area.
Amazon has specific rules and not every category supports variations, here is some info from seller central (https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/G8831?language=en_GB)
Not all related products are valid variations. The following questions can help you to determine whether certain products are valid variations:
- Are the products fundamentally same (i.e. the similarities of the ASIN’s design and function are so basic as to be hard to alter resolve, or overcome)?
- Could the products share the same title?
- Do the products vary only in a few, specific ways that do not alter the core essence and nature of the item (such as colour or size)?
- Would customers expect to find these products together on a single product detail page?
With regards to manipulating the sales rank, as far as I’m aware, each variation will have it’s own ASIN and sales rank so a sale for one variation would not increase the sales rank of the others. The reviews are combined because I believe they’re tied to the parent ASIN.
For info on how to add variation for existing ASINS, here’s a link: https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/G202034620?language=en_GB&ref=efph_G202034620_cont_G201817280
3 replies
Seller_HxgcObseSqKiG
That seller has been sneaky and is listing them as a colour variation, which it isn’t although the difference between the cards is minimal (I would say if the designs are all different from each other then that shouldn’t be listed as a variation). But be cautious, there was an article on BBC news a few weeks back about reviews being for completely different items (occurred through variations) so Amazon will be getting stricter in this area.
Amazon has specific rules and not every category supports variations, here is some info from seller central (https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/G8831?language=en_GB)
Not all related products are valid variations. The following questions can help you to determine whether certain products are valid variations:
- Are the products fundamentally same (i.e. the similarities of the ASIN’s design and function are so basic as to be hard to alter resolve, or overcome)?
- Could the products share the same title?
- Do the products vary only in a few, specific ways that do not alter the core essence and nature of the item (such as colour or size)?
- Would customers expect to find these products together on a single product detail page?
With regards to manipulating the sales rank, as far as I’m aware, each variation will have it’s own ASIN and sales rank so a sale for one variation would not increase the sales rank of the others. The reviews are combined because I believe they’re tied to the parent ASIN.
For info on how to add variation for existing ASINS, here’s a link: https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/G202034620?language=en_GB&ref=efph_G202034620_cont_G201817280
