Parent listing question

[knollie]

Hello all, I apologize for the long post, but I can’t help being long winded.

I have a question regarding parent/child listings.

Is there a benefit to having variations of the same product as child listings besides not having to edit every listing and having reviews combined? Is it better to have each item listed as it’s own parent to have them each show up separately in search?

For reference, we have a product line of metal tractor seats that are available in 8 different colors. Right now we have them listed as separate items without a parent/child relationship. We did this because we have another product line with 2 variations in length that we did set up as a parent/child, but didn’t like the fact that search only showed the higher performing listing, leaving us with only 1 search impression and not informing potential customers of the fact that there were 2 sizes available.

The reason I’m asking is we relisted all of these seats in March due to bringing them under our brand after having sold them for several years under generic (which was starting to give us suppression problems) but recently our sales have tanked. We went from selling roughly 200 units a month down to 140/month since Jan, and only 66 last month, with 27 units month to date.

We did receive competition from a Chinese company who is undercutting our price, which I’m sure is the primary driver in our plummeting sales, but I’m exploring anything I can to try to boost sales back up.

Unfortunately we are not currently experiencing enough page views to do any A/B testing.

Any other advice would be welcome as well.

These are the ASIN’s in question if anyone is interested enough to look. And before you say to get better photos targeting barstools and other seating, my boss has already informed me that is off limits due to “liability issues” the lawyers brought up… personally I’d think sitting on an antique tractor provides more danger than a barstool, but I digress…

B0DZF28B57, B0DZDWBWPX, B0DZDZ91TX, B0DZDKXNV5, B0DZDVFWMC, B0DZDZKRRJ, B0DZDZ11DT, B0D1RLBPS3

Thank you all in advance for any help.

[oneida_books]

@knollie

Is it better to have each item listed as it’s own parent to have them each show up separately in search?

Technically impossible … but let’s get definitions straight.

There’s basically 3 types at play here.

• Parent
• Child
• Orphan, a standard stand alone listing which is what I think you are referring to as “it’s own parent”

@knollie

Is there a benefit to having variations of the same product as child listings

Yes. Buyers like to see choices of valid variants all in one place

@knollie

besides not having to edit every listing

You still have to edit each listing individually.

As to the rest of your post … I get it. I’ve long heard “search result” complaints.

I quick search for tractor seats brings up your black & red seats among the top.

A search for metal tractor seats brings up black & blue and then red & orange a little down the list.

I’m not sure placing them under a parent would matter much on the first search, but could on the 2^nd.

@knollie

We did receive competition from a Chinese company who is undercutting our price, which I’m sure is the primary driver in our plummeting sales

Pricing/Competition is always a big factor, and I agree your issue here.

[Tried_Tested]

@oneida_books hit the mark on everything you asked.

To add:

The reason we combine listings is because of advertising. A strategy is to only advertise (PPC) the highest volume variation listing and gain free sales to other variations. This is also better for conversion.

[knollie]

Thanks much for the info/advice.

I get the idea behind buyers liking to see all variations in 1 place, my fear is that we will end up only get 1 impression, which would be black since it is our best performer. When I look at search results I see our black seat right in the middle of a bunch of other black seats that look almost identical, at a lower price, and get passed over completely…

On a related note, all of the main images on our competitors listings violate Amazon’s image policy by having items not included in the image (garden cart) would it be worthwhile to report these? I’ve heard nothing is ever done about it with foreign sellers, and the possibility of them filing false claims in return give me pause on this…

Thanks again, this definitely provides food for thought.

[knollie]

Thanks for the advise. I completely understand how that strategy would help limit ad spend while potentially gaining sales for your other variations, that’s a pretty smart way of doing things.

We don’t do any ads at the moment
A) We’ve had solid sales up to this point without them
B) It’s not my company or ad $ to spend
C) My boss has been keeping a very close eye on every expense the last couple years because we had been pretty slow up until recently

I doubt he’ll go in for any kind of ad spend when we are already high on the list in organic search for a pretty niche product. I’m just trying to find any way I can boost sales, so far this month we’ve only sold 28 units, last Nov. we sold 130, Nov. '23 we sold over 200. The image displayed is a chart for our sales over the last 2 years. For reference March and April of '23 is the historical high water mark for us… Spring and early Summer are clearly our best times of the year, but this year we’ve just fallen off the cliff…

[oneida_books]

@knollie

I get the idea behind buyers liking to see all variations in 1 place, my fear is that we will end up only get 1 impression

True .. BUT that one impression should still show the others.

Here’s a shirt example to compare to (I couldn’t find one in tractor seats)

If you test … I would expect at least to get the variants swatches showing up.

@knollie

When I look at search results I see our black seat right in the middle of a bunch of other black seats that look almost identical, at a lower price

I’m sorry … but that’s the nature of Amazon - competition.

@knollie

On a related note, all of the main images on our competitors listings violate Amazon’s image policy by having items not included in the image (garden cart) would it be worthwhile to report these?

Not really …

@knollie

I doubt he’ll go in for any kind of ad spend when we are already high on the list in organic search for a pretty niche product. I’m just trying to find any way I can boost sales

I doubt you can achieve this without reducing the price to compete, or advertise. I would create a spreadsheet and at least start tracking pricing now between you and the competition.

Look at things from a buyers perspective. If the others are cheaper, why do I buy from your listing?

[knollie]

Lots of good stuff here to work through, thanks for the input.

I’ve already been working on a sheet tracking the savings on shipping cost when we ship multiple seats at a time, everything is FBM and we offer “free shipping”. Hoping I can convince him to offer a qty discount…

[Tried_Tested]

The only advantage I can surmise from your listing vs China competition is that your listing(s) would have a high review count - if your competitor is advertising, then you must advertise or risk losing marketshare. Yes, it has to be done strategically so as not to cannibalize all your profits but that discussion is too large for this forum. All the best!

[knollie]

Thanks for the advice