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BasicsA Notion of Amazon Variational ProductDifferences between Amazon Parent Product and Amazon Child Product
Using M2E Pro, you can sell your Magento Variational Products on Amazon. However, the logic of Amazon Variational Products differs from that of Magento.
To understand how M2E Pro works with Amazon Variational Products, first, look through the list of useful terms:
List of useful terms
- Magento Simple Product – a product that does not have Custom Options and is not of Variation Product Type in Magento.
- Magento Variational Product – Magento Product Type that allows working with variations (includes Grouped Product, Configurable Product, Bundle Product, and Simple Product with Custom Options).
- Magento Variational Product with Selected Variation – Magento Variational Product with reference to the certain Variation (a combination of Attributes and Options, e.g., attribute – Color, option – Black).
- Amazon Individual Product – a product that does not have variations and is not a variation of any Parent Product on Amazon.
- Amazon Variational Product – a relation between Parent Product and Child Product(s) on Amazon that allows varying by one or more characteristics (attributes).
- Amazon Parent Product – a container that connects a set of Child Products (cannot be purchased).
- Amazon Child Product – a physical product that is a certain variant of the Parent Product on the basis of certain Attribute values, e.g., Color Black (can be purchased).
- Attribute – a characteristic by which a Variational Product varies (e.g., size, color, etc.).
- Option – a certain value of the Attribute (e.g., Red T-Shirt, Green T-Shirt, etc.).
Now let’s take a closer look at the logic of Variational Products on Amazon.
Basics
Amazon is renowned for its Catalog structure, where a particular product has a single instance (product detail page) with multiple listings (offers from sellers) for it.
Similar to Simple Products, you can assign the existing ASIN/ISBN or create a new ASIN/ISBN for Variational Items.
If you want to sell an existing Variational Product, you can sell certain Child Products of this Variational Product created earlier. In case you want to add more Child Products to the Variational Product, you can do it only in case the Variational Product was created by you.
Let’s say there is a Variational Product on Amazon with two options – Black and White. To sell these options as Child Products, you should find and assign appropriate ASIN(s)/ISBN(s) to each of them. These Child Products will be displayed in your Amazon Inventory as Simple Products.
However, you cannot sell a non-existing Option of the same Variational Product (e.g., Orange) as it was not created by you.
There are two ways to resolve the problem:
- Sell a non-existing Variation as a separate Simple Product.
- Create a similar Parent Product where Option Orange will be available.
If you create a new Parent Product with the Option Orange, you cannot add Black and White Options as their UPC(s)/EAN(s) already exist in Amazon Catalog. In the meantime, you can add any other non-existing Options (e.g., Blue, Green, Pink, etc.).
If you are a creator of the Parent Product, you can add an unlimited number of options. However, you cannot add/change Attributes by which Options vary (e.g., Color, Size, etc.). A set of these Attributes is strictly regulated by Amazon depending on the Category and Product Type.
There is no way to connect previously created Simple Products with Parent Product. Parent Product and Child Products are created simultaneously.
If you need to combine similar Parent Products, contact Amazon support.
A Notion of Amazon Variational Product
Amazon Variational Product is a relation between Parent Product and Child Product(s) varying by one or more Attributes.
When being displayed to a buyer, an Amazon Variational product looks like this:
Amazon Variational Product varies by Attributes. A number of Attributes and connections between them are strictly regulated by Amazon. At the moment of product creation, a seller can specify Attribute combinations that are offered by Amazon for a particular Product Type.
For example, products can vary only by Size or only by the combination of Size + Color, but cannot vary by Size, Color, and Brand separately. The seller can neither add nor exclude any Attributes from the Attribute combinations offered by Amazon.
Some Amazon categories and Product Types do not support the creation of Variational Products.
The process of creating Variational Products on Amazon Seller Central is as follows:
- Firstly, you create a Container (Parent Product) and select a Variational Theme by which the Variational Product will vary.
Variational Theme is a combination of the Attributes that allows you to create a Variational Product.
When creating a Product in Seller Central, check the box next to the Variations option in the Product Identity tab. Also, check the boxes next to the attributes that differ across the product variants.
You cannot skip the step of setting up a Variational Theme. Otherwise, you won’t be able to create Child Products.
The Attributes by which the product will vary should be set at once during the creation of the Parent Product.
- Next, you should specify the Options of the Attributes that will be used for creating Child Products. For that, switch to the Variations tab.
Fill in the provided fields and click Add to create a Child Product. You will need to create a Child Product for each variation you plan to sell on Amazon.
Amazon will create Child Products for all the combinations specified earlier. Set offer information for the Child Products.
You can add product descriptions on the Images, Description, Keywords, and More Details tabs. Description information will be applied to all Child Products.
Offer information (price, quantity, UPC/EAN) is not provided for Parent Product as it cannot be purchased. This information is provided only for Child Products.
A Parent-Child Relation of 4 products will be created as a result. One of them is a Parent Product, another three are Child Products connected with the Parent Product.
You can edit the settings of each Child Product separately (e.g., Name) or of the Parent Product. They will be applied to each Child Product (e.g., Brand, Manufacturer, etc.)
A Parent Product’s page will appear on Amazon. To select a particular Child Product, a buyer will be choosing from the appropriate Options in the drop-down of Attributes.
Differences between Amazon Parent Product and Amazon Child Product
The main differences between Amazon Parent Product and Amazon Child Product are as follows:
- Parent Product does not have UPC/EAN because it is not a physical product that can be purchased.
- Parent Product does not have price, quantity, or condition because it is not a physical product that can be purchased.
- Parent Product has SKU only in case you created it as a new Variational Product;
- Parent Product does not have some logical characteristics that Child Products have, e.g. status. The status of Parent Product is determined by the statuses of Child Products (e.g., Active, Inactive, etc.)
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