You’re not brand new to Amazon, and yet…
You find yourself STUCK.
And if you can’t get someone at Amazon on the phone, what should you do?
You’ve come to the right place! Here’s an in-depth look at three common roadblocks Amazon Seller Central users face.
TROUBLE WITH VARIATIONS YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD THE HANG OF
Let’s say you have many colors of the same backpack and you want all of them to show up on the same listing. You’ve done this with other products; but this time it’s more difficult.
First, let’s go back to basics:
- The Parent Listing: This listing serves as the foundation for your child listings (your product’s variations) and an ASIN is created (Amazon Standard Identification Number). Think of it as the ‘Home Page’ Amazon uses to link your variations together.
- The Child Listings: In this case, it’s the different colors/patterns of backpacks. On the backend of the parent listing, there’s a ‘Variations’ tab that allows you to put in other colors and vital info, including the UPC or EAN for each variation.
- Variation Themes: Simply put, this is how products are related to each other. This varies by category and can include size, color, or even type of fragrance.
Amazon uses this basic organization chart as an example for appropriate variation relationships in a few of the most common categories for variations: 
Easy, right? Until your variations don’t show up. If your variations are not appearing, they are likely suppressed because you haven’t added an image to them yet. Here’s a screenshot of where to find your suppressed child listings – it’s at the bottom right of your Seller Central Add a Product page: 
If you have no suppressed listings, it won’t show. It may have been saved under ‘Draft’ listings, so don’t be afraid to look there.
If the parent listing is suppressed or in drafts, other issues are likely to have caused the suppression. View more guidance about Variations straight from Amazon.
SUPPRESSED LISTINGS SEEMINGLY OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Speaking of suppressed listings, quality issues can keep your items in limbo for a long time. So let’s get to the most common ones:
- A Title Over 200 Characters: It’s even less for some categories. 200 Characters is about two lines of text. If a lot of text is squished together; this may be too long. Use a character counter to help you.
- Missing Valid UPC: See the requirements on Amazon here for this specific issue.
- Not Putting in Vital Info: Depending on the category, information missing about size, color or other required item information will keep your listing suppressed. See further category explanations here.
- Inappropriate Keywords: This includes putting keywords for an English listing in Spanish to try to draw in a different market. It almost always backfires.
- Images Not Meeting Requirements: There are so many requirements, but the most important image is the main image, which must always have a white background. Check out all of the requirements on Amazon here.
Our advice for fixing them is to do so in bulk whenever you can because of the time-consuming nature of going one by one (especially with hundreds or thousands of listings). To fix suppressed listings in bulk, start under ‘Manage Inventory’ and simply select multiple defects requiring the same fix to be made. Click Bulk Fix listings and submit the needed information.
If you have inventory files you uploaded through Excel and are worried about them overriding the changes that you just made using ‘Manage Inventory’, there’s a helpful section about that here at the bottom of the page.
OLD LISTINGS GETTING SUDDENLY TAKEN OVER
We wrote all about Zombie ASINs in this Vendor-focused blog, but you’re even more susceptible to this problem because reporting it will take time.
Zombie ASINs, simply put, are old listings that have been changed by a Vendor Central Account without your knowledge.
Vendors have the ability to change product listings for ANY ASIN, and you are not, so you need to be on the lookout because abandoned listings for discontinued or underperforming products are at high risk of being hijacked.
This looks like new content in those old listings, meaning your old inactive listings are now undead and they’re potentially damaging your reputation.
Black hat Vendors love to find these. They will often CHANGE the pictures and content as well as duplicate listings.
Piggybacking off your positive reviews and momentum is worth always clear out old listings to avoid.
If you have thousands of items, delete items with ZERO inventory in bulk, a practice that can save you from this unfortunately common problem.
VELOCIFY YOUR SUCCESS
If you’re tired of running into the same roadblocks that continuously keep you from reaching your sales goals, or are ready for the massive expansion you’ve prepared for, schedule a free consultation session here.
Our team of professional Amazon specialists will help you get to the next level of your business without all of the headaches. So let’s chat about how to reach your full potential on Amazon together.
To your success!
Jake