Sellers/ Vendors who have multiple colors, sizes, or style options of a single product can group all such products on one single page rather than having them on independent detail pages. This method of grouping multiple products which are similar but are vary by color, size, or style on one single detail page are called variations.
Creating variations proves to be successful while selling on Amazon as the buying option for multiple products comes onto one page giving the Amazon customers choices to choose from and increasing the conversion percentage from a wide range of products.
Key aspects of Variations:
· The first step to creating variations is to create a Parent ASIN. This is a non-buyable ASIN that acts as a binder for all the actual ASINs which are called child ASINs.
· One parent ASIN can have multiple child ASINs linked to it differentiated by color, size, or style (these differ from category to category). In Vendor Central, the Variation Theme Name goes beyond these three.
· The difference by which the child ASINs are separated from each other is called a variation theme. E.g. T-Shirts are usually separated by the variation theme of color or size or most of the time both. In specific product categories like apparel, two variation themes can be applied to products. Apparels variated in both color and size would serve as a great example of this.
· The variation acts as a drill-down and helps customers to make their buying decision while having all the available options on a single page.
· In Seller Central, the items can be variated only using two variation theme names. However, in Vendor Central, the variation theme name can be more than two.
Advantages of Variations:
· Variations help in improving sales conversions by providing multiple buying options to customers.
· The latest changes to the Amazon A91 algorithm prioritises items that variated, in the search results, over items that are not variated when they could have been.
· Variations help discoverability of certain products when variated with the popular variants in that product. For example, a less popular color like a purple t-shirt when variated with its best-selling Black t-shirt will be discovered by the customers and increases the chances of a sale.
· Variations combine the sales that happen on parent-child linking and this combined sale improves the ranking of the product.
· Reviews and Ratings aggregation is one of the greatest advantages of variations. The reviews and ratings of all child ASINs get added up.
Amazon has an Automated system called Auto Variation Services (AVS)
AVS creates and manages variation relationships based on the values of attributes you enter. It is extremely important that the values you provide for the attributes are absolutely right so that the right combinations are variated together.
Grouping attributes: Grouping attributes are required and must be identical across a family. This allows us to group all the child ASINs into a single-family. Example: brand name, product type, product category, etc.
Varying attributes: These are required attributes that differ from child to child in a variation family. For example, if the varying attribute is size, then AVS will always create size variations. If the varying attributes are size/color, then the variation theme will be size/color for all variations created in that scope.
Slicing attributes: These are required attributes for a variation family with more than one varying attribute. If the varying attribute of a child ASINs are identical, AVS splits the varying family further based on a slicing attribute such as style name, etc.
Optional grouping attributes: These attributes are not required. If they are populated across all children in a super-family, they will further split the family. However, if they are blank or partially blank, they will be ignored by AVS and will not be considered in variation family creation (for example, model name and item type name etc).
Frequently Asked Questions
About the Author
Meet Arjun Narayan, a Business Dynamo with two decades of conquering boardrooms and founding two companies that didn't just survive but thrived. When he's not navigating business strategies and delivery teams, you'll find him immersed in his love for cars and exploring new models, geeking out over tech trends, globe-trotting for new adventures, and occasionally pondering the mysteries of the universe over a good cup of coffee.
