Maintaining a unique yet varied catalog of products in your Amazon store is one of the best ways to drive profits as a seller. However, there's more to listing your products than simply uploading some photos and descriptions while you wait for sales to come in; success in eCommerce means a measured approach to catalog management. From creating to categorizing to uploading listings, in this post, we’ll look at what you need to know to master the art of assembling an Amazon product catalog.
Key takeaways
- Amazon product catalog management is the process of creating and curating inventory listed on the Amazon marketplace.
- Management covers a wide range of activities, like creating a product and category structure, optimizing content, and creating listings for available inventory.
- Even small mistakes can result in significant harm to your business, so take time to ensure listings are appropriately presented with the correct tags, naming conventions, and audience information.
What is product catalog management?
Amazon catalog management refers to how products are organized and presented within a seller's inventory. This means going beyond simply posting listings; catalog management extends to discoverability and accessibility. When products are organized in a logical manner and product listings are properly optimized, your items will be easier for shoppers to find—and purchase.
Catalog management covers all aspects of inventory organization and presentation, including:
- A strategic approach to product titles, photos, and descriptions is used to make listings detailed, visually appealing, and have proper category tags.
- Overall management of the SKUs and ASINs you have in use.
Managing your product catalog can also help you leverage information from others selling in the same categories, providing a competitive edge.
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Why catalog management is important for Amazon sellers
Catalog management is important on numerous levels, from customer experience to your ability to stay organized as a seller. These are some of the key benefits for sellers with a strong approach to managing their product inventory on Amazon:
Strong customer experience
Products listed with no clear organization or insufficient information can be frustrating for buyers, particularly for those hoping to explore more of your inventory. By managing your catalog in a clear and logical manner, customers will have a much better experience shopping for your products and weighing their options.
Save time on internal processes
Catalog management is essential for buyers shopping for products like yours, but it can also be helpful on the back end. By creating a system that arranges products by SKUs, ASINs, categories, and other useful criteria, you're better able to sort through your own inventory and use observations to drive sales strategies.
Optimize product listings more easily
With an organized catalog, it's much easier to optimize your Amazon product listings. A systemic approach to listing planning—keyword research, product photos and videos, title creation, and descriptive content helps to ensure every listing meets the mark. This can be true from both an SEO and a customer satisfaction perspective.
Easily identify bestsellers
When a catalog is well-managed, it becomes easier to evaluate organic and advertising sales performance. This helps you drill into the products that sell best and why. Don’t get lost when it comes to the listings you should optimize to ensure your bestsellers continue to stand out.
Inform new variant launches
When it's time to try something new, leveraging the strength of your current catalog can help guide you through the process. By using the current structure you have in place, you’ll be able to present new products in line with the rest of your inventory commonly known as variants. This practice helps to maintain consistency and puts desired versions of your product in one place to help with conversion rates and sales.
Run promotions more effectively for stale inventories
Well-managed inventory can make running promotions much easier. Not only can keeping your catalog organized and aligned with your brand ensure products have a uniform approach to listings, but it can also help you see holes where promotions might be necessary. Identifying which inventory is stale can help you determine if you’re at risk of paying warehousing fees and whether you might want to run promotions to generate momentum behind the product.
Find the right products to leverage in ads
Which products are driving sales? Which aren't? Without properly managing your catalog, it can be hard to know. By evaluating your inventory and its performance, you get a bird's-eye view of which products make the most sense to leverage in advertising. This can mean evaluating everything from successful keywords to inventory turnover so that you can put the right products in front of shoppers' eyes.
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How to manage your Amazon catalog
Amazon catalog management requires a strategic approach to establishing a marketplace presence. These points can help you get started:
Product and category structure
Products can be organized in a few different ways. Choosing the right categories for your items is a key first step—when done incorrectly, customers searching by category won't see your products—but it's also important to determine how products can be grouped together.
Each product page doesn't have to contain a single product; you can nest products together, with one primary "parent" product and multiple "child" products. This can be very beneficial when you have products that work well together, like a sweater style that's sold in various colors or fabrics. This can provide more information for shoppers and offer more purchase options to consider. If they've determined the product they initially clicked on isn't the right fit, a suitable similar product may still result in a sale.
If you're unsure which category is the best fit, consider choosing one with less competition. This will make your listings more likely to be tagged as Amazon's Choice.
Optimizing your product listings
Even the best approach to product and category structure will fall flat if listings aren't optimized. Approaching your listings with strategy is among the most important ways to ensure success, both in organic searches and promoted product positioning. This includes:
- Determining the right keywords for your listings. These terms can appear in product descriptions, titles, and key features.
- A strong title. Product titles must be between 50 to 75 characters; in that limited space, you should try to have the brand, make and model, descriptions like colors or functions, and any other unique information that will make products stand out.
- A clear, comprehensible, and succinct approach to product descriptions. Use 150 to 300 words that include key features, target audience, and any information on the use of the product.
- Using images and rich media, like photos of products, uploaded videos, graphics with details like dimensions, or 360-degree view models.
- Three to ten key feature bullet points.
- Accurate attributes, including price, brand, availability, and fulfillment speed.
- If applicable, include add-on items.
Assembling perfect product pages can take time, but it is worth it in the long run.
Uploading your products
Once you have everything organized, it's time to list products on Amazon's marketplace. This can be done in two different ways: manually or in bulk via a file upload.
Manually
This method involves adding products one by one. To do this, go to your Amazon Seller Central page and, from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen, select Add a Product from the Catalog section. Then, click the button that says, "I'm adding a product not sold on Amazon" to list your unique inventory. From here, you will be able to access a screen that asks for:
- Product name
- Whether the product has any variations
- The brand name, assuming a brand name applies
- Product ID
- Category
- Language
- Attributes
From here, you can move on to providing content, like product descriptions, and adding any product images or videos.
This method is most effective for sellers with a smaller inventory.
Upload a file
Amazon offers an Excel-based way to list products in bulk. This approach is called Amazon Flat File, and it walks you through the process of building out product information for a large-scale upload.
The Flat File infrastructure is available via the Catalog tab in Seller Central's left-hand menu.
- Navigate to Add Products Via Upload, then to Download Spreadsheet.
- Click on the Get Product Template area in the Update Product Details section.
- Select the option to upload items that are not in Amazon's catalog.
- The spreadsheet template will begin to download.
Once downloaded, you can open the file in a program like Excel and start adding your products. The Flat File spreadsheet has many different tabs, including instructions, examples, images, data points, and other requirements for building out an entire product catalog. If you're unsure of what to enter, the valid values tab can provide guidance over the wording and formatting required.
If you make mistakes when filling out the template, don’t worry; the file will inform you where you're going wrong and how to troubleshoot problems.
When your spreadsheet is ready, you can upload it through the Add Products Via Upload menu. Amazon will then process your file, and you can check the status of your upload during the processing period.
Duplicate products
As you're in the process of uploading products, you can check to ensure the products you're adding to your inventory are actually unique on Amazon. It's possible that your products already exist somewhere in the Amazon marketplace or similar brand names are in use. If this is the case, you don't need to create your own listings; instead, you can merge your product listing with an existing option.
To do this, select the product with the highest ratings or reviews and request your duplicate ASIN listing be merged by sending a ticket through Seller Central. This process can be repeated for any other duplicates you may be listing on Amazon.
Price management
When setting up listings, you'll also want to consider how to price your products. Price management involves keeping costs competitive based on things like available inventory, peak seasons for sales, and how the competition is approaching pricing. Getting this right can be a big advantage, as the price point is an element considered when Amazon determines Buy Box wins. You can either handle pricing manually, or use tools like Trellis. Our platform offers dynamic pricing based on real-time updates to help keep your listings aligned with similar products.
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Catalog management mistakes to avoid
Managing a catalog can be a big undertaking, and mistakes might happen. However, avoiding them is crucial, as any issue can jeopardize your hard work. These are some of the most common—and most impactful—catalog management mistakes:
Rushing your uploads
Uploading products can take a lot of time and effort, so wanting to rush through the process is understandable. However, a lack of attention to detail can mean product listings that are incomplete, sloppy, or erroneous. Not only can this compromise the performance of your products and visibility, but it may result in customer dissatisfaction. Take time with your upload process, and review product information multiple times before ultimately submitting your listings. Using an Amazon listing software can help avoid issues, too.
Not using proper naming conventions
For businesses selling across multiple marketplaces, it can be a challenge to keep platform-specific requirements straight. However, failing to do so may result in using improper conventions.
For example, using naming conventions that align with Walmart's requirements on Amazon may not provide customers with the information they need to make a purchase. In addition, this can restrict how products appear in search results, reducing the number of buyers who will see your items.
Incorrect product tags
Product tags play a key role in how selling on Amazon functions. These often include tracking information or info on where products are stored in a warehouse, especially for those using Amazon FBA, SKU details, and relevant product information. When these tags are wrong, workflow and fulfillment can be interrupted, as can managing inventory levels.
This can also impact the customer experience. Incorrect tags can mean products are mislabeled in searches; when this happens, shoppers won't see your products when searching for similar items, driving business to your competition. Your products could also appear in irrelevant searches.
Products are too similar
A lack of thought into audience needs when creating a listing can result in products that appear too similar to appeal to a wide range of buyers. For example, say your company sells both men's and women's blue jeans. However, if product information doesn't do enough to distinguish this, customers may not realize multiple options are available for different audiences, causing them to shop elsewhere.
To drive as many sales as possible, ensure product pages are descriptive and specific. Include language that targets audience needs and clearly explain the use of your products.
Fixing Amazon catalog & listings issues
Listing and catalog issues may crop up, and not all can be fixed by tweaking the content of your product descriptions. Here are some issues to keep an eye out for and how to fix them:
- Hijacked listings: A hijacked listing occurs when a counterfeit product is listed on Amazon without authorization. This issue can only be addressed by filing an Infringement Report with Amazon Seller Central support with evidence of your claim.
- Incorrect images: Amazon has strict limitations on what kinds of images can be used on product pages. If your images violate these restrictions, you must replace them with pictures that meet the site's requirements.
- Listings without a category: All listings need categories, so omitting one can result in suppressed listings. To avoid this, confirm all product categories are correct prior to adding or uploading listings.
- Incorrect information: Similar to products missing a category, product listings found to be using incorrect information can be suppressed, strangling sales potential. To mitigate this, keep all product details as accurate as possible across all of your listings.
- Duplicate listings: Multiple listings for the same product can also lead to suppression. If duplicates are found, Seller Central support can help merge your listings with an identified product match.
- Overly long titles: Amazon caps the length of product titles, so if your wordy product title is over the limit, it can harm visibility.
- Selling restricted products: Amazon restricts the sales of many kinds of products, like alcohol and firearms, so review all policies related to product types before selling.
You can determine if your listings are being suppressed by searching through the Manage Inventory tab in Seller Central. This can also tell you why listings are being suppressed and how to fix the issues. This may be something you can do yourself, like adding a category, or may need to be raised as an issue with Seller Central support.
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Final thoughts on Amazon catalog management
By identifying a proper organizational structure for your products, you can stay organized and on track throughout every step of the sales cycle. From creating new listings to optimizing ad spend, a successful catalog can keep your eCommerce business running as smoothly as possible. At Trellis, we can lend a hand with everything from product content to pricing and promotions. To explore what our platform can do for you as an Amazon seller, reach out to us today.