How to merge existing Amazon product listings?
Amazon's marketplace is designed with the consumer in mind, emphasizing the importance of a clean and organized product catalog. As an Amazon seller, understanding and utilizing the process of merging listings can significantly impact your product's success and help combat black hat techniques used by some sellers.
Sellers are constantly vying for top spots in search results, often resorting to questionable practices like creating duplicate listings to dominate visibility.
This article explores the concept of listing merges, why they're important, and how to use them effectively within Amazon's terms of service.
Related topic: manage FBA inventory.
The Multiple Listing Problem
Amazon's policy dictates that if an exact item is already for sale, sellers should not create duplicate listings. This rule doesn't apply to private label products, which are considered unique. However, some sellers violate this policy by creating multiple listings for the same branded product, often with slight variations in the title or brand name.
Why It's Problematic
Search Result Saturation: Multiple listings of the same item flood search results, pushing unique listings further down. Multiple listings for the same product spread out potential traffic and reviews, which dilutes the product's overall search ranking. This can lead to lower visibility and sales.
Brand Monopolization: It allows a single brand to dominate search results unfairly.
Increased Competition: Instead of competing with one listing with multiple sellers, you're facing numerous individual listings.
Higher Advertising Costs: Competition for ad spaces increases, driving up the cost of advertising for your keywords. Even more. Competing against your own listings in ad spaces means higher costs for advertising with potentially lower returns.
Consumer Confusion: Multiple listings for the same product can confuse customers, leading to poor purchasing decisions and increased return rates.
Identifying Duplicate Listings
Before attempting to merge listings, it's crucial to identify duplicates. These are often created when sellers unintentionally or intentionally list the same product under different ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers). Duplicates can be identified by checking the product title, description, images, and specifications. Tools like Bindwise can assist in detecting these duplicates by analyzing the marketplace for identical products under different listings.
The Merging Process
Once Amazon product duplicates are identified, the next step is to initiate the merging process. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Gather Information: Compile all relevant details about the listings you want to merge, including ASINs, titles, descriptions, and any other relevant product information. Answer three key questions:
Which ASIN should be kept?
Which ASINs are duplicates and should be removed?
Why should these products be removed?
Submit a Request: Contact Amazon Seller Support to request a listing merge. Provide them with the ASINs and detailed information about why these listings should be merged. It’s important to be clear and concise in your communication to avoid confusion or delays.
Follow Up: Amazon's process for merging listings can vary, and it might take some time. Be persistent and follow up regularly to ensure your request is processed. In some cases, Amazon might deny the request initially, requiring additional clarification or evidence.
Monitor Results: After the listings are merged, monitor the results closely. Check the product's search ranking, sales data, and customer feedback to ensure that the merge has positively impacted your business.
Tips for Successful Merging:
Choose the ASIN with the lowest Best Sellers Rank (BSR) to keep.
Alternatively, select a listing with a non-prime offer winning the Buy Box or a particularly unappealing listing.
Be thorough in identifying all duplicates.
Provide a concise, honest explanation for the merge request.
Amazon's Typical Responses
Refusal: Don't be discouraged; resubmit if you're confident in your assessment.
Acknowledgment of "Amazon Catalog Team" control: Adjust your request to keep the Amazon-controlled ASIN.
Immediate approval: The ideal outcome.
Benefits of Merging Amazon Listings
Successfully merging listings can lead to several advantages:
Improved Search Visibility: With all the traffic and reviews consolidated under a single listing, the product is more likely to rank higher in search results.
Cost Efficiency: Reducing the number of duplicate listings can lead to more efficient use of advertising budgets, as you no longer have to compete against your own products.
Enhanced Brand Integrity: A single, well-managed listing helps to maintain brand integrity and prevents consumer confusion.
Remember to remain vigilant and continue monitoring for new duplicate listings, especially for your most important and newest products.
Advanced Amazon Listing Merge Strategies
In some cases, it might be beneficial to split ASINs instead of merging them. This can be useful when:
Targeting Different Markets: If the same product appeals to different market segments (e.g., international vs. domestic), splitting the listing can allow for targeted marketing strategies.
Managing Product Variants: When a product has multiple variants (e.g., different colors or sizes), splitting the ASINs can help in managing inventory and marketing each variant effectively.
Variations and Splitting ASINs
While merging is crucial for cleaning up the catalog, there are legitimate reasons to split listings, particularly when dealing with variations.
Aggregating Variations:
Useful for products with multiple options (e.g., gloves in different sizes and hand orientations)
Can be done during listing creation or later
Splitting Successful Variations:
Applicable when a product with variations becomes highly successful
Allows multiple versions of your product to appear in search results
Best for categories where only a single listing shows up in search results
Category-Specific Variation Displays
Understanding how variations display in different categories is crucial for optimizing your listing strategy.
Strategies for Optimization:
For categories showing only the bestselling variant, consider:
Splitting ASINs after achieving good ranking
Including variation descriptions in the product title (e.g., "Golf Glove, Left or Right, All Sizes Available")
Potential Challenges and Considerations
While merging listings is generally beneficial, it’s not without challenges:
Amazon’s Policy Compliance: Merging listings must be done in strict accordance with Amazon’s policies. Any attempt to merge non-identical products can result in penalties or even account suspension.
Data Integrity: Ensuring that all product information is accurately transferred during the merge is crucial. Any loss or misrepresentation of data can lead to issues with customer trust and product performance.
Long-Term Strategy: Merging listings should be part of a broader, long-term strategy for marketplace management. Sellers need to continuously monitor and optimize their listings to stay competitive.
Conclusion
Merging Amazon product listings is a powerful, white-hat technique that can help sellers improve visibility, reduce competition, and enhance brand integrity. By carefully identifying duplicates, submitting thorough merge requests, and monitoring the results, sellers can leverage this strategy to their advantage. However, it’s important to navigate Amazon’s rules carefully and consider the potential challenges to ensure a successful merge. With persistence and strategic planning, merging listings can be a valuable tool in any Amazon seller’s arsenal.
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