Product Variations

Next up, it's important to understand the how products are variated in a catalog. In this guide, we are going to give you all of the things to know about product variations and how you can take them into consideration when you work on an Amazon portfolio of products.

Parent ASINs VS Child ASINs

When an Amazon listing has variations, the variants are assigned to a "parent" ASIN which acts as a 'folder' that holds all of the 'Child ASINs.' Child ASINs have their own title, bullet points, backend search terms, product images and descriptions. Parents have their own Title but do not have other content and are not assigned SKUs. This makes sense since they are not a sellable ASIN and just a folder to hold their variants in.

Why Use Variations?

Variations are a powerful tool to both enhance the customer shopping experience and also as a way to increase direct traffic towards a child ASIN by variating it with a child ASIN that has higher sales and traffic.

The customer experience advantage is that the customer can browse a set of your products that are simliar to one another and choose the variant that they like the best. That way, if the user does not like the color of your product, instead of clicking off of your listing and clicking into one of your competitors or doing another search, the user can instead choose another variant of the same product on your listing. If the product variation selection is appealing to customers, this can help to increase the conversion rate of your overall group of simliar products.

Another reason variations are sometimes used is to benefit a newly launched product from the 'Halo Effect' a stronger child ASIN. For example, lets say you have a fork and it is selling very well. It might not make sense for this fork to have a variation attached to it that is a spoon, but if the spoon is added as a variation to the fork, it will receive traffic and eventually sales just from people who are going to the product product and winding up on the newly launched one. If the products are separated from the variation later on, the variants will keep the reviews the specific variant got. This can be extremely useful for getting the first precious reviews for a new product by piggy backing on a stronger product. But beware, sellers have abused this tactic at times to the point of Amazon deactivating their listings. Sellers should make sure to abide by all Amazon rules and guidelines: Amazon - How to create Amazon product variations

Display Models: PDM VS CDM

Different categories in Amazon work differently and display the information from the parent and child ASINs in different ways. The most important system that changes how variants are displayed on Amazon is the Parent Display Model and the Child Display Model.

The Parent Display Model (PDM) takes effect for ASINs which are in the categories of Apparel, Jewelry and Sporting Goods with a few exceptions. The PDM causes the product listing to ONLY show the titles saved under the parent ASIN and ignores the Child ASIN titles. Bullet points and descriptions function the same as other products.

Child Display Model (CDM) functions in the way that you would expect with the Child ASIN's title and other data fields showing prominently on the product listing page. With the CDM, the parent title is all but ignored and the Child ASIN's title is shown.

Note: On Customer checkout, itemized receipts and shipping labels, the child ASINs Title is used

Variation Themes

Variation themes define the attributes by which child products differ. The availability of specific themes depends on the product category. Common themes include:​

• Size: Applicable to apparel, shoes, and other products where size differentiation is essential.

• Color: Used for items available in multiple colors, such as clothing or home decor.

• SizeColor: Combines size and color variations, commonly used in apparel.

• Style: For products that come in different styles or designs.

• Flavor: Relevant for consumables like food and beverages.

• Scent: Used for products like candles or personal care items.

• Material: Applicable when products are made from different materials.

• PackSize: For items sold in different quantities or bundle sizes.

• Pattern: Used when products have varying patterns or prints.​

It's important to note that not all variation themes are available in every category. To determine which themes are applicable to your product category, refer to the "Valid Values" tab in the category-specific inventory file template provided by Amazon. Amazon Seller Central

PDM Parent Title Considerations

Since parent titles using the PDM function differently than those using the CDM, a special set of considerations need to be taken into account.

In the PDM, the parent title needs to be general enough to represent all of the child ASINs that it represents while still having the specific keywords and details to entice users to click and buy the variants within.

Variation Theme Special Values

The above list reflects Amazon's recommended values for different variation themes, but often times when working on your own listings and analyzing competitors you may notice some irregular values on Variation themes. These methods are not recommended because they violate Amazon's explicit guidelines but I will outline them here so that you can become familiar with the idea behind why they are being used in the first place.

For example, it is common to see sellers place letters at the beginning of their variation theme values in order to force products they want to appear at the top of the variation dropdown. This works because variation themes always show in alphabetical order and naming values in a Color variation theme: "A Red", "B Blue" and C "Green" will force Amazon to show your Red color as primary and boost more traffic to that child ASIN.

Another kind of irregular value you may see is when sellers place multiple variation theme values into a single variation theme. For example, a single variation dropdown for "Color" might contain:

Green: 1 Pack, Green: 2 Pack, Red 1 Pack, Red 2 Pack

The traditional approach would be to create variation themes for Pack Size and Color, and then fill out values for both. However, sellers often try to place them into the same variation theme value for several reasons—including when adding additional variation themes to an existing variant group isn’t working for a particular listing. This becomes a workaround to include more items in the variant group.