Amazon is now (for whatever stupid reason) overriding Parent SKUs at creation.
To explain better: When I create a new Parent, I’ve always used a unique coded identifier for the SKU on the ‘Offer’ page so I can look at all of my listings in a particular category or type if needed (by searching the inventory list). I do the same with the child variations.
Well as of maybe a week ago (?) those unique identifiers are ignored and they’re built with a generic Amazon SKU. I tried creating from scratch and copying an existing. It does the same. No idea why.
It makes zero sense. And sure, it could be a bug - but can you imagine even trying to explain this to a support person? Not even going to try. So annoying.
Well as of maybe a week ago (?) those unique identifiers are ignored and they’re built with a generic Amazon SKU.
It’s only the parent SKU, right? The self-assigned SKU’s you give the children stay as you put them? Can you just ignore the parent SKU issue since a parent isn’t a sellable item? As long as they’re leaving your child SKU’s alone, you should still be able to view all your listings.
I also build codes into my SKU’s, so I hope they’re just overriding the parent.
Variation Wizard - I think? I just do Add a product, and add variations while creating the parent.
Yes, just the Parent. But I have over 200 Parents & all of my variations are sizes (5-7 each), so I really liked being able to search for just the parents in each of my product categories - much more condensed, rather than a huge list of all the child listings. Alas.
Sadly, I just looked at dates and it’s been like this for awhile - I just didn’t notice until now, when I was searching for something and couldn’t find it.
I’ve never used a template, my guess is I’ll just have to live with it.
I can help you with the template. It’s really easy after the pages are created to delete the parent and create a new parent. The data needed is minimal.
I’m taking a look - eep - never used a template since I always create new products one at a time. Trying to find the template for handmade now - maybe one of my handmade friends knows which it is.
First for @oneida_books and @Roxy your hand held out to @LR72 is kind, gentle, honorable and amazing.
One dynamic here is Up until about a year ago, Amazon Handmade could not even do variations. So you will see those in Handmade struggling with the concept. Especially with the Flat Files, that is the only way we have always done it on the commercial side.
I am making some assumptions LR, and I hope you don’t mind. I just thought it would be good for everyone to know.
I am fortunate enough to have grown a longtime team member to handle the catalog page creation, so I can run other things.
For this conversation, I will call her my engineer, however she is more than that. I need to find a way to have her contribute, if not to the soon to be open part of the forum, to the locked forum of founders.
My fear she, like me, may spend to much time here. When she helps in production, I am always saying, “Get back in your seat and make money.”
It is complicated with our family first requirement for team members. Unlike I who work any 12 hour period a day I pick, they have weekends and holidays off no exceptions.
Haha - Assume away! And yes, I created every parent/child individually. Now it’s only new products and I can knock out a parent/child in about 10 minutes.
And yes, thank you SO MUCH for your help! Off to daughter’s soccer game - I am going to dig into this when I get back. I’m always up for an easier way and definitely want to test this out!
When I go to ‘Get Product Template’ then Amazon.com it downloads the listing loader - I don’t have the page to type in Handmade. Will have to look more to find it.
That worked - I tried that first and it gave me a page not found (stupid Amazon). Working now. Thank you!
EDIT: Needless to say, I feel pretty dumb for not figuring this out and using it from the get-go. Would have made duplicating various fields and information much easier. Oy vey.
Notes - Since the children exist already, and should have the relevant fields already filled in you should be able to go minimal on the fields needed.
Category
sku
parentage/variation info
A test on the first set will give you all that is needed if you upload and then check the results. (I’ll edit this to show you what to expect)
For existing a Variation Relationship:
Build the template with the parent to recreate and copy all it’s info in
Add the children
Delete the old parent
Upload
ETA
So you’ll see this in the upload tab.
After upload, if it doesn’t switch, you go to the far right tab.
All this talk about templates and file uploads confuses the heck out of me (I’ll resist until the very end… ) but when I create variations manually, I never think to add a unique SKU for the parent, so all of mine have Amazon’s randomly assigned number. I long ago learned to search by titles instead of SKU’s when looking for a parent.
If overriding parent SKU’s is a permanent “fix” by Amazon, maybe you can include a specific keyword in each parent’s title, so you can still look them up by the groupings you want. Just a backup suggestion if the file uploads don’t take your own parent SKU.
Alas.
) but when I create variations manually, I never think to add a unique SKU for the parent, so all of mine have Amazon’s randomly assigned number. I long ago learned to search by titles instead of SKU’s when looking for a parent.