Setting up listings in Seller Central can be intimidating. Here’s what we’ve learned from creating thousands of Amazon listings over the years.
When it comes time to creating listings on Amazon, it’s best practice is to have keyword-rich product listing copy already written and optimized. Creating a fully-optimized listing from the start will set you up for success, as it can be difficult to edit your listing post-creation.
Prior to creating the listing, you should have the following content pieces prepared: product title, key features or bullet points, images, and a standard product description. If you need help writing those, check out our blog post on Amazon listing requirements and best practices. Other content areas in the “backend” of product listings can be more easily modified post-creation, but it doesn’t hurt to have those ready to go from the beginning as well.
Other details that are required in order to create a new product listing include: a product number (UPC, EAN, etc.), a SKU for internal use, product specifications like dimensions and weight, and pricing information.
Amazon Listing Content Check List
The following is a high-level overview of fields you will need to or should fill out when creating an Amazon listing. They are broken out by detail tab in the listing creation page. If you want to make your Amazon listing process as easy as possible, gather these items before you create your listing.
Now let’s walk through the main way to make listings on Amazon.
Amazon Listing Creation Process
The process to create a single listing on Amazon is a rather simple and an intuitive one; it’s just a matter of knowing where to go to get started and what fields to fill out. When signed into your Amazon Seller Central, travel to Catalog > Add Products.
On this page, find the “List a new product” box and enter your product name, UPC, EAN, or ISBN to search. If Amazon doesn’t find an existing listing related to your query, you can then click Create a new product listing to start the creation process.
The first thing you must determine is the category your product fits into. You can either utilize the search feature to help you narrow down categories, or you can manually click through the product categories to drill down to an appropriate sub-category. Once you find your category, click on that hyperlink to bring you to your listing creation page. This page will display multiple tabs grouping together similar listing fields together, and this is where our content creation process begins.
Vital Info
On the first “Vital Info” tab, you will need to fill out the Product ID with your UPC, EAN, or ISBN, the product name with your optimized title, your manufacturer, and your brand name. Often times, manufacturer and brand name are the same, but please note that the brand name is what displays just below the title on a product detail page. It is very important the spelling is correct in these two fields from the beginning, as it is one of the harder fields to update post-creation. If you are ever unsure what to input into a field, Amazon provides small information icons next to the fields that can help guide you in the right direction.
Offer
Next, let’s move to the “Offer” tab. This is where you’ll notate your selling price, create your custom SKU, provide a Condition, and note how this listing’s inventory will be fulfilled. If you do not create a SKU yourself, Amazon will create one for you that is a long alpha-numeric string. If your brand doesn’t already have a SKU naming system, we highly recommend you create a system now before you create any listings.
Compliance
The “Compliance” tab is the area where you can provide any battery information (if relevant) to your product, note warnings like Prop 65, and a Safety Data Sheet if that pertains to your product type.
Images
In the “Images” tab, you can submit up to nine images. This is a rather intuitive tab where all you have to do is click “Choose File,” navigate to where your images are located on your computer and select to upload. Most categories permit you to upload up to ten images. If you are uploading images to a product that is a variant of a Parent-Child relationship, look for the image slot that is labeled “SWATCH.” This will be the image that displays in the variation preview on your listing. Amazon accepts JPEGs, TIFFs, and non-animation GIFs.
Description
The “Description” tab is what contains the “meat” of your listing; this is where most of your optimized product copy should live. The product description field permits up to 2,000 characters to be submitted. Initially, you will only see one Key Product Features field, so you must click the link “Add More” to provide more fields, to a maximum of five. The character permitted in the Key Product Features fields fluctuate between categories, so it is best to hover over the information “i” badge to see what your current category permits. This tab also provides you the opportunity to attach any small parts or choking warnings.
Keywords
The “Keywords” tab is full of fields that help improve the discoverability of your product listings, but do not display on your listing anywhere. Similar to the Key Product Features, you can have up to five fields on most of these, but you must click the “Add More” link to make them all appear. Focus on the Search Terms field, as it allows you to add up to 500 characters of keywords you might not have published on the frontend of the listing.
More Details
The “More Details” tab is where all of your nitty-gritty product specifications live. This is a relatively self-explanatory tab, but you will see there could be a lot of fields that do not relate to your product. Amazon generalizes what fields might be needed based on your category, so do not feel pressure to fill out all fields. We recommend screening through all fields and filling out the relatable ones, but below are the minimum requirement fields to create your listing for Fulfillment by Amazon:
- Weight
- Item Dimensions – Length, Width, Height
- Unit Count
- Unit Count Type
Once you have input all of the above suggested fields, you are now ready to “Save and finish” your new product listing. Once you click this button, Amazon will assign an Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) and you can almost immediately see what your new listing looks like. You can either click on the title in your Amazon catalog, or you can navigate to the following URL with your ASIN replacing the tale end, https://www.amazon.com/dp/*ASIN*.
Learn More About Amazon Listings
This blog post is just scratching the tip of the iceberg. Download our in-depth whitepaper, The Ultimate Guide to Creating Amazon Listings, to learn even more about creating optimized listings on Amazon.
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