What You Need to Know About ASINs Before You Sell

There are lots of ways for sellers to get themselves in trouble with Amazon. Selling on Amazon is governed by a strict set of rules designed to protect the online retailer’s brand and reputation. Suffice it to say that Amazon is incredibly careful to enforce its rules. That leads us to the subject of this post: Amazon ASINs.

The Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is like digital DNA to Amazon, a 10-digit alphanumeric internal catalogue identifier. It is a number associated with a particular product or product variation on Amazon. It is the foundation of everything that happens on their site. Bear in mind that billions of products are sold on Amazon. ASINs are necessary to identify, catalog, and track products successfully in Amazon warehouses.

If you are brand-new to Amazon selling, it is no understatement to say that you need to be very familiar with the ASIN. The ASIN is what makes the Amazon world go round. Don’t even think about selling until you are familiar with it. If you are not, you could find yourself in need of Amazon ASIN reinstatement assistance very early on in your e-commerce career for inadvertently violating Amazon’s policies and getting yourself temporarily suspended or permanently banned from the platform.

A Unique Identification Number

If you are in need of assistance with Amazon ASIN reinstatement, contact us right away. We can help.

In the meantime, understand that the ASIN is a unique ID number created by one of two entities.

When it comes to published books, they should already have an assigned ISBN. That number acts as the ASIN on Amazon. Creating a listing for a book doesn’t require a new number. The seller just uses the ISBN.

For all other products, Amazon creates a new ASIN for the very first listing. Once created, a product’s ASIN never changes. It remains the same no matter how many sellers choose to carry that particular product. By the way, the immutable nature of ASINs is that which makes it possible for Amazon to compare listings from multiple sellers who all carry the exact same product. Understanding what an ASIN is and how to use them is key to selling on this marketplace.

Parent and Child Variation ASINs

Amazon engineers get the fact that certain types of products offer multiple variations. For example, you could have a particular T-shirt that comes in five different colors and 10 different sizes. Every size and color represents a variation. In order to account for such detail, Amazon creates both parent and child ASINs.

In addition, Amazon has extremely strict rules for creating parent and child variations to prevent sellers from gaming the system. If you are ever caught doing creating listings incorrectly, your account will likely face suspension. Then you’ll need the help of an Amazon ASIN reinstatement specialist.

One ASIN per Product

Amazon does not want multiple ASINs created for a single product. Therefore, they do not allow duplicates. Before listing anything on Amazon, you must first search for the product in the search box. If you find the same exact product you want to sell already on the site, you must use the assigned existing ASIN for your own listing. You are only allowed to create a new, unique ASIN if the product you want to sell is new and not currently listed on the Amazon catalog. Don’t be fooled by searching only by UPC. Some listings aren’t created with the UPC or are created with an incorrect one. Searching only by UPC to find the item is not sufficient.

Where can you find ASINs?

You will see the ASIN in the Product Information section of any listing. For example, let’s say you wanted to sell the third generation Google Chromecast Media Streamer in black. You could simply run an Amazon search for it and click on the first listing that matches your product. Then scroll down to the Product Information section and look for the number. This particular product’s ASIN is B07M9BKHNZ. You can also see the ASIN in the address bar.

What else to look out for or avoid…

Avoid this at ALL costs!

MAKE SURE you check the BRAND name of the product on Amazon before you list your item. One of the latest scams / hacks is an insidious strategy many unscrupulous sellers seem to be using.

They list a product in Amazon’s catalog.

It shows up when you search by UPC.

However, even though it looks exactly like the product you have in hand, it’s not the same.

What’s different?

You don’t have “authorization” to list against the product you’ve found because it is listed under a different brand.

Often, it is the seller’s own brand.

You’ll get slapped with a (false) IP complaint before you can turn around.

MAKE SURE the brand name on the listing is EXACTLY the same as the brand name listed on the product.