Before you start selling your Shopify products on Amazon, it is worth taking the time to understand how listing and selling products on Amazon differs from selling them on your Shopify store or on other marketplaces.
How Amazon listings are different from Shopify listings
Amazon allows multiple sellers with the same item to sell from a single, shared product listing page.
An Amazon product page contains much of the same product information as we would feature on our Shopify store, but it is structured differently, and as sellers, we don’t have the same control over the content.
To make it easy for different sellers to sell the same product, using the same shared listing page, an Amazon product listing is split into two distinct parts - the shared "listing" content, and the unique "offer" details submitted by each unique seller.
The "Listing" includes the Images, Title, Description, and product identifiers such as UPC or EAN. This is shared content for all sellers.
The "Offer" contains the price, inventory quantity, and fulfillment options provided by sellers as their “offer to sell” that product. These are unique to each seller.
Every unique product has only one product listing page on Amazon, with one set of listing content, but may have multiple sellers with different offer values selling the same product.
Amazon will decide which images and description to use from the multiple sellers that are listing the same product.
Why Amazon listings are structured like this
Amazon wants to make it easy for buyers to find the product they are looking for, with complete product information and an easy way to compare pricing and shipping options from different sellers, as well as reviews from other customers who have purchased that product in the past.
They do this by maintaining a single Amazon Product Page, with shared listing information, for each unique product, and allowing any sellers who wish to sell that product to submit their unique offer information to be viewed alongside the listing content on that product page.
By structuring listings like this, Amazon can provide:
- A simpler search experience that isn't complicated by duplicate listings for the same product.
- A single listing page for each unique product so customers don't have to search and view multiple listing pages for the same product.
- Consolidated product reviews for products.
- A list of all sellers, their prices and shipping options, side-by-side so customers can compare and choose the best option.
- A curated listing with the best content (images, description, etc.) chosen from all sellers' contributions to offer the most comprehensive and engaging listing possible.
Offers and Listings in Shopify Marketplace Connect
The distinction between offer and listing data is important to understand when using Shopify Marketplace Connect.
If you are selling a product that already exists on Amazon, you are only required to submit offer details - pricing, inventory, and shipping.
If you are selling a product that has never been sold on Amazon before, you need to submit the additional content required to create a new listing (image, title, description, etc.), as well as your offer details.
The Shopify Marketplace Connect listing modes make it easy to submit either the offer values or offer values and listing content to publish your products for sale
Learn more about Offers and Listings.
ASINs - Amazon Product Identifiers
Amazon makes it possible for different sellers to submit their unique offers to one, shared listing page by using their own eight-digit product codes called Amazon Standard Identification Numbers, or ASINs for short.
Each unique product, (including product variations such as size or color), has its own unique ASIN.
ASINs are generated by Amazon when first creating a new Amazon Product Page complete with new listing information.
When selling a product that already exists on Amazon, you will need valid product identifiers for that product so that your offer can be matched with the existing ASIN and existing product page for that product. Amazon will decide which images and description to use from the multiple sellers that are listing the same product.
If you are selling an entirely new product on Amazon and are required to upload the listing information necessary for Amazon to create a new Amazon product page, such as images, title, and description, you will also need to submit valid product identifiers (UPC, EAN, GTIN or ISBN) for that product so that when Amazon creates a new product page and generates a new ASIN, any other sellers with the same product can be matched to that new ASIN using the UPC/EAN/GTIN/ISBN data that they have stored for the product.
For further assistance, please reach out to marketplace-connect@shopify.com