If you want to sell on Amazon, then you have to understand what an ASIN is and how they’re used. These unique product identifiers are part of Amazon’s selling policies and help shoppers find the items they want.
If you don’t use ASINs correctly, you can violate Amazon’s selling terms and even lose your eligibility to sell on the platform!
So, what’s an ASIN number and how do you use it?
What is an ASIN number?
ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number.
It’s a unique identifier of 10 letters and/or numbers for a product that’s assigned by Amazon.com. It’s primarily used for product-identification within their product catalog of billions of items.
For books, the ASIN is the same as the ISBN number. For all other products, a new ASIN is created when an item is uploaded to Amazon’s catalog.
Note: ASINs are only guaranteed to be unique within a marketplace. That means different national Amazon sites may use different ASINs for the same product.
Why Amazon ASINs are Important to Amazon and its Sellers
Why are ASINs so important? Because its used to reference catalog data, track inventory for products, and index catalog pages for search and browsing on Amazon.com
The ASIN number is the foundation of Amazon’s product catalog structure, which allows for:
- Shoppers to search by drilling down through multiple categories.
- Shoppers can search for a specific product by its ASIN
- Amazon to deliver accurate and relevant product searches every time.
It’s vital then that sellers identify and use the correct ASIN for their products. Otherwise, Amazon won’t be able to organize and search your products for an optimized shopping experience.
If you want to list any product on Amazon, you must match your product to an existing ASIN number or create a new one.
How Can I Find My Amazon ASIN Number?
You can locate an Amazon ASIN number for your product in a few different places:
- A product’s web address on Amazon
- A product’s details on Amazon
- A third-party software tool built for ASIN lookups.
The fastest way is to look in your browser’s address bar for the product you’re looking to sell. The Amazon ASIN will be after the product’s name and “dp”, as highlighted below.
In this example, the ASIN is “B015UKRNGS”
The second place you can find the ASIN is in the product details, near the bottom of the product’s page.
You can also use software tools to find ASIN number lookups. If you have thousands of products, you wouldn’t want to search web addresses for each item individually. Instead, you can use an online tool to do a bulk upload of your product identifiers that returns each ASIN number.
Amazon SIN Lookup Tools:
Of course, these types of tools will cost you. Whether or not you need one will depend on the number of items you have and how often you list new products to Amazon.
Note: It’s prohibited to create a new ASIN for a product that already exists on Amazon. Doing so can result in your selling privileges being temporarily suspended or permanently removed. It’s important to check if your item is already on Amazon!
What is Amazon’s Product Variation Policy?
While searching and adding ASINs, Amazon sellers often deal with product variations, or parent-child relationships. Variations allow shoppers to compare and buy products based on different attributes like size, color, or other characteristics.
Here’s how variations look to an Amazon shopper:
For variant products, there will be one parent ASIN number. However, Amazon has several rules about how to list variations. There are also several prohibited practices to prevent sellers from misusing variations and fundamentally changing children products and how they relate to their parent ASIN number.
Read more about Amazon Variation Relationships policies
How to Create New and Unique Amazon ASINs: Using GTINs, UPCs, ISBNS, and EANs
If you’re adding a new item to Amazon, you must create a new ASIN for it to be included in the catalog. Manufacturers often have to add new ASINs for their products.
To create a new ASIN, Amazon provides an “Add a Product” tool. If your item already exists, you’ll match the correct ASIN. If it’s a new product, then you’ll create a new ASIN. Once your product page is up, then you can sell your items.
Be aware that if you add a new ASIN, other sellers can also now use this ASIN number to sell the same items.
If you’re creating a new ASIN, you’ll need to know your product’s GTINs, or Global Trade Item Numbers. The most common GTINs used are UPCs, ISBNs, and EANs. These types of product codes are generally found near the barcode on the package of your product. Amazon uses these universal product identifiers to create and match their own unique ASIN codes.
- ISBN (International Standard Book Number): 10 digits or 13 digits
- UPC (Universal Product Code): 12 digits
- EAN (European Article Number): 13 digits
- GTIN-14 (Global Trade Item Number): 14 digits
If you don’t already know your GTIN, you can request it from the manufacturer of your product. But, if you manufactured the item yourself, you’ll need to register your product through the GS1 US for UPCs, or US ISBN Agency for ISBNs (for US sellers).
ASIN Creation Limit
Amazon does limit the number of new listings sellers can create in a week based on sales history, listing creation history, and other factors. As you increase your sales, your capacity to create new listings will also increase. If you’re a new seller, you should prioritize the products you are listing to increase your sales quickly.
Read more about Amazon’s ASIN creation limits.
The Benefit of Creating New ASIN Numbers
Amazon continues to grow their extensive product catalog across hundreds of categories. However, that also means that Amazon has become an extremely competitive marketplace to sell on.
If you get to create a new Amazon ASIN, this indicates that you’re the only seller for the product. You won’t have to compete with any other sellers directly. This is a great strategy to help you win the Amazon buy box, which is a sure way to increase sales.
As you look to list new products on Amazon, keep in mind how competitive that item is. Are there already multiple sellers offering it or are you creating a new ASIN for it?
What is Reverse ASIN lookup?
ASINs also help you track your competitors on Amazon. By looking up your competitor’s ASINs, you can gain critical information about their products, such as organic ranking, advertising ranking, and search volumes for the keywords they’re using in PPC campaigns.
To do a reverse ASIN lookup, you’ll need a software tool like:
And, you can reverse lookup your own ASINs! This gives you insight into your own performance.
Identifying your Amazon ASIN number is the first step in listing your products on Amazon. It’s important you understand the process to match or create your ASIN so your items are searchable for customers.
To learn more about selling on Amazon, check out these other popular articles:
- How to Sell on Amazon for Beginners Using FBA: A Step by Step Guide
- Amazon Buy Box: How Amazon Sellers Can Win the Buy Box
- Are Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) Fees Worth the Cost?
- 10 Amazon Selling Tips All Sellers Need to Know
- Top 5 mistakes to Avoid When Selling on Amazon
- Amazon Product Listing Optimization Best Practices
Download our guide that details everything you need to know about Fulfillment by Amazon. Click the link below!
Here is a cool tip on how to locate an ASIN quickly. Thanks for the explanation as well 🙂 https://palletfly.blogspot.com/2016/09/amazon-tip-what-amazon-asin-is-what-its.html
here is a free tool to convert asin to upc,ean,isbn and more:
http://www.asinlab.com/
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