As I am working to create all my child/parent variations, of course I had some children land with the wrong parent.
I’ve gone into the parent listing, clicked on the delete box, saved and nothing ever gets deleted.
The help files say to do it via spreadsheet but they never say what fields to fill out.
Is it these?
And if so how? What do I put in each of them?
Do I simply leave them all blank?
Frustrated and confused, but I’m ALMOST through all of my listings.
Iris
Just checking… when you try and do them manually, you open the parent for editing, go to the variations tab, check the options you want to delete, then click ‘Delete selected’, correct?
Once you do that, the names of the deleted items should show as struck through, even before you save.
Then, when you save, the ASIN’s should become disconnected from the parent, but not deleted from your catalog, they just turn into standalone listings.
As for the template method…
I don’t use templates on Amazon, but I would guess that if your problem is children are connected to the wrong parent, you’d simply do an ‘update’ upload (or whatever Amazon calls it) and change the value in the Parent SKU field. It seems like that should remove the child from the existing parent and put it into the family with the new parent you supply.
Have you tried using the variation wizard? Basically, it’ll let you download a parent/child template already filled out. All you need to do is select delete instead of partial update on the template and it will delete that child. You can also use it to delete the parent and split the children off.
Go to the main hamburger menu in the upper left hand corner of seller central. Go to catalog and select add products. It’ll give you a bunch of different options but look for create variations using variation wizard on the far right.
It’ll take you to a page with 2 check mark option. First is add to or update existing family. Check that circle. It will open a search box asking you for an ASIN. Put in your Parent ASIN for the child you want to remove. It should open a box showing that parent ASIN and all the children. If that is correct, click on the bright yellow box that says generate template below this box to the right.
Wait a little bit and you will see in the bottom of the page a box that shows the status of your template being generated. When it’s complete and says download, click on download, then open and save the template somewhere you will remember where it is. You now have a filled in template for the exact parent/children that you are trying to alter.
If you want to delete the parent, look for the column that says update/delete and chose delete ONLY for what you want to delete. Leave the others with partial update. Same thing for children. Chose delete ONLY for what you want to delete.
The only other thing you need to be concerned about is the template automatically assigns 0 for the inventory balance for all children in the template. No idea why they do this, but it does. You can simply delete the 0 for inventory and it will remain the same as before. If you don’t do this, it will assign 0 units for sale for FBM and will turn your FBA products (if they are) into FBM. If this happens, you have to go back in and reassign those ASINS to FBA. Not a huge deal but a pain so please double check before you upload.
Then you save the changes and upload the file. It’ll take 10-15 minutes or maybe more to upload and process depending how many ASINS you have. Once it’s finished, it’ll give you the option to download a processing report.
Download that report and it will show you any problems with your upload. I don’t remember exactly the tabs on the bottom of the report but if you had any errors, keep looking at the tabs and it’ll show you the template with errors highlighted on it. Errors may or may not matter. If there is an error in the deleted ASIN, it really doesn’t matter, it should have been deleted anyway.
I just cleaned up some of my parent/children variations last week so this should be accurate. I was thinking of doing screen shots, but I really don’t have the time to make dozens of them.
Good Luck,
TJB
Just a note, if you use the spreadsheet upload, it will delete the entire ASIN, not just the relationship. Don’t use this if you are just trying to erase the relationship but want to keep the ASIN.
I’ve never tried it but I would imagine you could delete the child in the parentage column and it would remove that child from the parent leaving everything else intact? Anyone else know if that works?
Yes, that was the only method I could find – going into the variation under the parent and checking the box, delete, save.
I looked just now and that didn’t work.
I will work on this again this afternoon and try everyone’s suggestions.
And come back and report.
YES I want to keep the ASIN itself so I understand I gotta be careful so I don’t delete the entire item in the process.
Thank you for answering, I will read through it this afternoon and give it a try again.
Yes, I want to keep the ASIN, it just needs to be connected to a different parent.
Over at Walmart, it’s a two step process. Disconnect, wait, then reconnect…
Your instructions were VERY clear…so I thank you for that.
I feel like I ended up with the same spreadsheet I’ve been working from…
But I went in and deleted all of the variation fields.
I really don’t want to delete the item itself – but as I think about that option…that whole line would easily create it again right? So if this doesn’t work – deleting everything in the pink variation fields, I will probably go that route.
There aren’t many ASINS that have landed in the wrong family and spreadsheets do make them come back easy peasy IF you save everything first. I’ll just have to add pictures maybe afterwards.
I’m getting errors in my other uploads and stuff…been able to figure many of those out.
Frustrating process though because Artificial Intelligency (really stupidity) is has been frustrating. Product Feed ID Categories are also what I’m trying to fix. And I’m not quite sure how successful that has been.
So processing of the feed is done and the item is still in the variation.
As far as I know, the only way to remove a child listing from a variation group is to delete the parent, create a new parent listing, and then assign the child listings you want to stay in the group to the new parent.
Thank you.
I will give that a try
Just an FYI, you can’t delete an ASIN from Amazon’s catalog, once created, it’s there forever. What ‘delete’ does is simply delete that ASIN from your inventory.
If you do that accidentally, you can easily add it back through Add a Product → enter the ASIN
The only time this won’t work is if Amazon or one of it’s lovely bots has removed the ASIN for some type of (bogus) infraction or another and turned it into a dog page.
Incorrect Variation Listing
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/support/SOA_Listings_Incorrect_listing_variation
Thank you for that link.
I am proof reading them now and found a few more, so I’m using the tool.
As each ASIN is submitted, it automatically creates a case.
Iris
From what I’ve read, it takes 24 hours for the separation to take effect.
You can view this help page Modify Your Inventory File > Special considerations.
You should also be able to do it manually.
SHOULD is the optimal word.
I found that and it didn’t work.
So I just submitted several – and three are already back with the answer of “not qualified” for removal. Shaking my head.
I’ll have to confirm tomorrow, but I think I deleted the ASIN, and then went back in and reactivated it with the correct parent all in one swoop.
But I’ll confirm tomorrow. Right now I feel like I’m seeing double from staring at the screen so much, BUT almost done…I like how the inventory page looks cleaner with less listings, yet when I go to the inactive view, everything that’s out of stock shows individually.
My personal goal is to get this all done by close of business Friday…I think I still have time.
Results:
I identified 8 ASINs that landed under the wrong parent when I was proof reading yesterday.
Submitted them using that link Sundance provided.
Out of the 8, three were not qualified with in seconds.
Each time I submitted an ASIN, it created a case over in my case log.
I appealed those three with screenshots to show that they are a different pattern.
One appeal was granted, two still denied.
The other five…
Two were denied
Two were granted
One said there was no parent attached.
So…a complete mixed bag of answers.
NONE of the ones that were granted are showing up in the inventory file as separate items which would mean that they have no parent assigned.
I have to go to the bank this afternoon and then to see an attorney – about a totally different non-business matter, so I don’t have time today until later to fix this stuff.
I also have one set where two out of the 12 items were assigned under a parent. The reason the others weren’t was because the BRAND didn’t match. That’s another confusing thing because I only have ONE brand and I thought the brand was properly assigned to all my listings…so something is up there. Had another item say the same thing earlier in the week (I think) and that’s resolved (I think)…too many different things or different errors going on for me to really keep that straight.
Some errors I’m “ignoring” because the ASIN has landed under the parent when you look at the listing on Amazon…even though there’s still an error or mis-match in one of the 500 columns across the spreadsheet. Weird, but ok.
Sounds exactly like Amazon Seller Support
Brand Issue almost fixed. The latest two errors are parent issues and not brand issues.
How?
I used the instructions TJB laid out to get the the variation wizard.
I then let it create the template for the parent variation and the two children (out of 13) who were successfully assigned to their parent.
On subsequent lines, I added the information for the other children (mainly by cut and pasting each individual column so that the information would stay in order. Could not cut and paste entire rows because they didn’t line up…so one column at a time).
Hit submit – and overcame the “BRAND is different issue”
Now I’m down to the two they said were approved for removal from the other parent listing…but they really haven’t been removed.
I’ll work on that later tonight or tomorrow.
That will probably take a delete…and re-upload with the correct parent child combination.
At a point where I am at the last step – proofreading for totally missing items.
To tackle this:
Step 1 was to download a category ID report.
Step 2 was to create all parents
Step 3 was to open that category ID report and rename it to something else. Then unhide all the columns and go over to the pink parent child columns and complete those.
Step 4 was to fix errors.
Step 5 was to identify stray children – where I incorrectly assigned children to the wrong parent.
Step 6 is to identify missing children/inventory or items that have been missing all along for one reason or another. I am at that step and will complete that after my trip next week. Whew!
I have about 650 items now organized into 57 variations.
I will say that I didn’t find easy to understand instructions on how to create a parent as in what columns to fill out and learned to ignore some error messages. IF you want to NAME your parent you can do that by using the spreadsheet method. Any automated template doesn’t give you that option.
I started by choosing a pattern and playing with it until I had success. The first parent created was a bunch of Amazon assigned letters…nope if they all look like that I would have to leave my inventory page open to see individual line items and their names. BUT since all of the parents have names where I know what’s in the family I can leave that collapsed.
I like that under the inactive tab I can update inventory available by line item. (Etsy doesn’t do that and it’s a pain to go through periodically).
Fixing errors was the second biggest step. SOME of my items were assigned to the wrong product feed ID. So I actually started there because SOME product feed IDs did not have the choice of SIZE. For example, handmade for me didn’t have simply SIZE. I had to choose PATTERN&SIZE. I had six items that I created as handmade that wandered off over to the marketplace (thank you Amazon) which basically had to be deleted and spreadsheet fixed, reingested with the correct parent information.
I had fireplace mantel scarves land in scarves (like what you put around your neck). Learned that I could get them out by calling them Fireplace Mantel Runners and dropping that they can also be used as curtain valances in the DESCRIPTION. Then the computer liked it.
I still have to go back and double check product feed IDs after I add the missing items. One table runner landed in BEAUTY…still haven’t figured that out. Lampshade, candle, On the flip side Amazon does not have “doily” as a spot under Kitchen Table Linens, so I have to say “Doily or Placemat” all the way down to the 7" round item even though we all know a 7" round doily is NOT nor ever will be a PLACEMAT. But that’s what it took to get ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE to work.
Some of the errors I got confused me. I started with a CATEGORY ID report which is what’s supposed to be in the catalog. But the error was a “mismatch” when I uploaded and identified a child to a parent. I didn’t change the size field, or style field, or shape field, or Polyester field, yet I was getting mis-match errors a lot.
THEN Amazon sometimes only tell me about one mismatch…like the next time the mistake was futher down the spreadsheet…(Walmart does this).
Brand could only be fixed using the Variation Wizard that TJB laid out. Period. Had to use that to fix two families.
Moving a child to the correct parent – ONLY worked if I deleted the ASIN, and then UPLOADED using a spreadsheet to the correct Parent. None of their other methods that are supposedly available worked for me. I submitted several using that link that was shared and got mixed results. Never mind…I put them all in a smaller spreadsheet, said delete…waited…then said PARTIAL UPDATE, put the correct information in the pink columns and POOF they are fixed.
Having that Category ID report to me was KEY.
Everytime I opened it first step was to rename it to something else to preserve the original. Goof that up and you can always download it again from Amazon. But that meant I knew I had the fields filled out with something and didn’t have to figure out what fields to use. It also made fields available when I had to change the word SCARF to RUNNER in the title of the product and description and bullet points. All right there.
When I did get a spreadsheet download back with the green SUCCESS column I’d delete that row and whittle the sheet down…
It’s been staring at screens for way too long now for the month of July…that’s for sure. But I am waking up this morning to results that I can live with and there is a light at the end of the tunnel for me…adding items I didn’t realize were somehow missing. If you never list it, it won’t sell right?
Thanks to those who helped me along this way…each of you contributed a piece of the puzzle.
Glad to hear you made it. Variations are not easy to manage on Amazon. I will say they are at least trying to make it easier if you believe that.
I got lucky years ago and talked to a seller support person that actually knew what they were talking about, took the time to explain it to me and even followed up after our conversation. I very seriously doubt if I would be able to get that with seller support now.
Number one thing I learned was to make your parent (dummy) sku first before trying to add any children and always name it something specific so you know what it is immediately. If it’s mouthwash, call it mouthwash parent sku. Then go back in and add children to one parent at a time. You can see what issues if any with each processing sheet and correct as required per each individual parent instead of having to go back through all the parents to find issues. It’s more time consuming creating the variations but can save you a lot of time trying to fix mistakes on multiple parents.
Anyway, glad you got where you needed to be.
