In this guide, we will give basic information on how Sello communicates product information with Amazon.
A brief look into Amazon product requirements can be found here.
When you have made sure that all required information has been added to your product, you can activate it, which will send it to Amazon.
The products are sent to Amazon in stages:
- Basic product information
- Images
- Prices
- Group information
- Stock
After activation, Sello will send the initial product info to Amazon for validation, when the initial product has been approved, Sello will automatically send the remaining info.
How fast the product can be put up for sale depends on a couple of things which we will list below.
Already existing ASIN
If there is an already existing ASIN (Amazon's internal article number) tied to your product's EAN / GTIN / UPC, Sello will try and assign that ASIN to your product.
If there are no discrepancies between your product and the ASIN on Amazon, the product will be approved automatically.
If there is a mismatch, you will have to match your product to the ASIN on Amazon in the Sello inventory, read more here.
Brand rejected
Amazon are strict when it comes to which brands can be sold on their marketplace.
Should your brand be rejected for one reason or another a couple of things will happen.
First, Sello will attempt to use either "Generic" or "N/A" instead of your actual brand, this is entirely automatic and will not require any action by you.
Should these values fail, a message will be sent to the inbox in Sello asking you to contact Amazon and submit a request to sell your brand.
The process of putting products up for sale on Amazon might take longer than you are used to
A key reason for this is because Amazon requires the products to pass through a series of rigorous validation systems, and since the process is split into several parts, the time it takes increases.
There are also several scenarios that can severely affect the time it takes us to synchronize your product.
Here is a basic timeline:
1. Basic product data is sent.
2. Sello performs an ASIN checkup to see if the product exists based on the barcode number.
ASIN did not exist:
- Sello sends product using brand specified.
- If this failed, we will try and use "Generic" = repeat step 1.
- If this failed, we will try and use "N/A" = repeat step 1.
- If this failed, a message will be sent to your Sello inbox telling you to contact Amazon = sync interrupted.
ASIN did exist:
- Sello attempts to match it.
- If this failed, you will be asked to either match it using the interface in Sello or alter the data = sync interrupted.
- When the matching is complete, we will attempt the sync again = repeat step 1.
3. Sello will now start requesting inventory reports at regular intervals. This is used as an indicator of when the product has been created in Seller Central.
4. When an inventory report contains a "listing ID" for the product, Sello will queue the remaining product info.
Amazon controls which product information is shown to buyers when several sellers use the same ASIN
We get a lot of cases from sellers asking us why new information is not being sent to Amazon, such as new images or descriptions.
In most cases, this is because the ASIN is being shared between multiple sellers and Amazon has decided to use another seller's information on the product shown to the buyer.
Register your brands
If you sell products with a brand that you own, we highly recommend that you register these on Amazon's Brand Registry (https://brandservices.amazon.com/) prior to activating the products in Sello.
The benefit of registering your brands beforehand is that putting them up for sale on Amazon will be both quicker and easier when the brand is already approved, and no one can try and claim ownership of your brand.