Using Product Variations to Improve the Amazon Shopping Experience

In the expansive online marketplace of Amazon, mastering product variations can be a difference maker for sellers. Amazon variations allow sellers to group related products together to streamline the customer buying experience and can dramatically enhance a product’s organic visibility and discoverability. This article will explore Amazon variation best practices, benefits, examples, and how to manage variations in categories with AVS (Automated Variations Services).

What are Product Variations?

Product variations on Amazon refer to the practice of listing similar products under one PDP (product display page). These product variations can include changes in color, size, material, or any other product attribute that differentiates one version of the item from another.

For sellers new to Amazon variations, let’s use the pictured example below. The rain suit comes in 5 colors and 4 sizes. Instead of creating a separate listing for each version of the product, which can be confusing for the shopper, the products can instead be grouped under one “parent” listing. This way, customers can easily see all the options available without navigating away from the page, making their Amazon shopping experience smoother and more integrated. This process also consolidates product information, like reviews, under a single listing (which can help boost visibility and sales).

How Do Amazon Variations Work?

Amazon variations are constructed of 2 ASINs: the parent ASIN (which is not attributed to an individual UPC/SKU) and the child variation.

1. Parent: an ASIN assigned to a grouping of child ASINs. The parent ASIN is not associated to a specific SKU/UPC, but is a placeholder for all the SKUs/UPCs that will be displayed together.
2. Child: an ASIN that is associated with a specific manufacturer UPC/SKU and represents a tangible product. For example, different clothing options under the same listing would be considered child products of the same parent listing.

Amazon has guidelines and best practices around what can be variated together and how. Doing so can help customers easily find specific product attributes. Read more on variation requirements and exceptions in Vendor Central.

How Do Product Variations Affect the Amazon Shopping Experience?

Amazon offers different variation themes based on product category and each results in a different way the product will display, so it’s important to consider when selecting a theme. These changes include considerations like whether the title or images change when selecting a child or remain static for all children within the parent. Below are some examples of how variations behave on site.

Images and Descriptions

All color product variations result in different images displaying to help shoppers see the product in their selected color whereas size product variations often don’t change images and will just update dimensions under the product information section of the detail page. Images and descriptions affected by variations differ by the Amazon product category. In addition, a style variation will allow for the title, images, and bullets to change where they remain static in most size and color variations.

Price and Availability

The price and availability adjust based on the chosen child. If variations have different prices (think about a shampoo bottle that comes in a small and large size), then the displayed amount will be reflected by the selected option and will be based on whichever seller has won the buy box, independent of the variation structure.

Twisters

Variations with multiple attributes, like size AND color on the same parent are called Twisters. This can further help the shopping experience, especially for products like apparel by allowing both size and color to be variated on the same page.

When To Consider Using Amazon Variations

Adding a variation is more practical for certain products (eg: a pair of sneakers) than others (eg: a digital camera). Below are some factors to consider before adding a variation to a product page.

Amazon Product Category

Amazon variations behave differently based on product categorization. For example:

• Makeup – product variations differ by size and shade.
• Fashion – product variations differ by color and clothing/shoe size.
• Fishing Reels – product variations differ by style and size.
• Cutlery – product variations differ by color and blade type.

Shopper Experience

Another helpful way to think about whether to add a product variation is by considering the shopping experiences of customers who come across the product. For example, some shoppers may search for products using generic terms even if they have a specific product already in mind. This is why it’s also best practice to include different product synonyms.

When To Skip Amazon Variations

As an example of when it’s good to have separate listings (i.e. no variations), think about a brand that sells both square and oval pool covers. If the brand combines both products into 1 listing, a shopper searching for “pool cover” will only see 1 variation in the search results.

Let’s say the shopper has an oval pool but only sees the square cover in the search results. In this case, they would have no way of knowing that the oval cover is even a variation option and may not click through to the product page to find out.

Above is an example of how this would look in the search results versus the listing page. The search results boasts the product’s square size and photos while the listing page actually has more oval pool cover options available.

Considering this example from the search results page, a consumer wouldn’t know the oval hot tub covers are present on the listing page and would therefore be unlikely to click through. In cases like this, the variation is likely hurting conversions by deterring potential customers away. A potential solution to this would be testing including a phrase like “multiple sizes and shapes available” in the product title or just separating the two products into their own listings. A general rule is that consumers look at the images far more than they read, so variations need to consider what the consumer sees in search and whether it is likely to instigate a click based on what they are looking for.

Another Example

Another example of when to skip variations is for large brands with significant real estate in generic search for their products, and own significant share of voice for those words. For example, when searching the popular generic term “towable tube”, over 38% of the page is for various Airhead branded products. If too many products were variated into a single listing, other competitors could show up in search results, decreasing the Airhead brand’s overall market share on Amazon.

Benefits of Using Amazon Variations

Amazon variations have benefits for both buyers and sellers.

Benefits for Shoppers

Product Discoverability

For sellers, product variations significantly enhance product discoverability on Amazon. When products are grouped as variations under a single listing, the cumulative organic rank of the children is often considered in Amazon’s search algorithms, increasing the organic search ranking of the parent and making the product visible to more and more consumers. In many instances, variations kickstart the Amazon flywheel. In addition, variations can make marketing more efficient, giving consumers more options for each click ads generate, thus increasing the odds the consumer will find a product for their intended use.

Better Amazon Shopping Experiences

With seamless navigation and easy access to detailed product information, shoppers can quickly find what they need to make an informed purchasing decision. The ease of locating product details and the user-friendly interface contribute to a more convenient and satisfying shopping journey.

Benefits for Sellers

Cumulative Reviews

Easily the biggest benefit of using product variations is the cumulative reviews of all the variations on the parent page. Think of all the reviews and traffic from all the children combined into one listing! This effectively boosts the collective discoverability of the product by making the combination of multiple products feed one search result and can lead to an increase in the product’s organic ranking. Furthermore, a seller can boost the visibility of a new or low-performing listing by grouping it with a higher-performing one (assuming the parent is the same).

Note that cumulative reviews (and visibility) don’t always happen and there is unfortunately no way of knowing if or when Amazon will choose to combine or separate reviews for a given parent/child relationship, but it often happens with well-established products and can further help with product credibility (leading to greater shopper trust).

Increased Shopper Trust

Product variations can help maintain shopper interest, but also lead to greater product trust and confidence. By giving shoppers the feeling that they know what they’re going to get once purchased can contribute to higher conversions, and lower returns.

Higher AOV (Average Order Value)

Lastly, sellers can benefit from using variations by increasing their average order value (AOV). For example, this listing of a cooling towel initially only included one item for a low price of under $5. Brandwoven recommended adding a 2-pack variation to upsell customers. As a result, the brand generated 221% more revenue from the listing!

Understanding Amazon AVS (Automated Variations Services)

Amazon AVS (Automated Variations Service) simplifies the creation of product variation (twister) relationships by automatically generating and managing them based on seller-inputted product attributes (size, color, material, etc.).

How Does Amazon AVS Work?

AVS is a system employed by Amazon for specific categories (GLs) and is the default variation method used for many categories, especially those related to apparel and softlines. After product set-up, Amazon looks at various attributes that are required in the new item set up process to help place all related product variations within that same listing group and names the variation based on those attributes.

These attributes are set fields that need to be populated a particular way in order for Amazon to variate them automatically. There are slightly different fields for different categories that need to be filled in/the same across all ASINs that should be grouped together. There are grouping attributes, variating attributes, and slicing attributes:

Grouping attributes: Fields that need to be the same for all ASINs that should be grouped together.

• Department (if applicable), brand name, model name, product type, item type name, item type keyword, style, etc. Model number should be different, but similar enough for Amazon to believe they should be grouped together.

Variating attributes: Depending on the variation theme (SizeName_ColorName for example), the following attributes would be filled in depending on how a seller wanted it to display on the detail page. Each ASIN should only have one unique combo of the 2-3 attributes you are variating by.

• color, size, style, series, flavor etc.

Slicing attributes: when there is more than one child with the same 2 attributes, there is the option to break it down further by model number so that Amazon knows to break them into further, smaller variations.

• model number

Challenges with AVS?

Although Amazon AVS might initially sound helpful, it comes with some caveats. Amazon AVS has historically had many problems given that it’s an automatic system. For example, sometimes it will not accept certain product attributes. This is especially the case for complicated Amazon product categories where the system requires certain attributes to match exactly from one variation to the next. These variations are also prone to breaking, and difficult to undo manually if they do not work for your category. This can create more difficulties and confusion for sellers (the exact thing AVS claims to do the opposite of).

In addition to manual uploads, AVS will also sometimes create automatic product titles using available details (also known as Automated Title Services or ATS). Amazon AVS has unfortunately had many issues over the years and although it sounds good in theory, it is not always as dependable or helpful as it claims to be.

Best Practices for Using Amazon Variations

In addition to everything covered throughout this article, here are some further best practices to keep in mind when using or considering Amazon variations:

• If a product is already a part of 1 variation, it cannot be added to another (until removed from the first one).
• According to a Seller Central representative, an Amazon listing will only show up to 2,000 child ASINs max. However, Brandwoven recommends adding no more than 248. Too many children under the same parent could easily lead to a messy detail page, shopper confusion, and deterring potential customers from purchasing.

Conclusion

Using Amazon variations may improve the customer buying experience, a product’s discoverability, and boost sales and organic ranking. To be clear, just because a seller adds a product variation doesn’t mean they’ll automatically be more successful, but adding variations can lead to a great trickle effect as one action (eg: a shopper browsing) can lead to another (eg: a conversion).

Make sure to choose product variations selectively! Don’t over-rely on Amazon AVS and make sure to understand Amazon’s requirements and guidelines around product variations before setting one up. A proper variation can effectively assist in optimizing an Amazon listing if done correctly.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to the experienced Brandwoven team if there are questions about navigating the complexities of product variations.