What are Amazon’s 100 new product types and what do they mean for Sellers?

Amazon has recently announced the addition of over 100 new product types and attributes now available to Sellers aimed at improving product detail pages.

But what does that actually mean for Amazon Sellers and will it be beneficial to them?

First of all here’s Amazon’s full statement on the matter: “We now have more than 100 new product types and attributes available to improve your product detail pages. To view what product types and attributes were launched, please refer to Product type and attributes.

“When creating a new listing, you can view these new product types when classifying your product in the Add a product tool in Seller Central. You can also see the product types when you select the appropriate template to download on Add a product via upload.

“These changes will not affect your existing selection but you can provide these additional attributes by editing your products via Manage Inventory or by updating your listings in bulk.”

You can read more on Amazon’s announcement at: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/new-product-types-and-attributes-available/737104.

But Amazon Sellers have been posting warnings about the new listings on Seller Central, advising that they might not be as innocuous as first seems.

Thompson and Holt managing partner Craig Gedey said: “We’ve seen people making references to the fact that past schemes like this ended up with items being automatically reclassified, resulting in fees being charged.

“Others have raised concerns about the fact that Amazon will automatically reclassify existing ASINs to the newly-created Product Types (PTs), because it takes an element of control away. It is also worth remembering that PTs are not the same as the Category.

“What we would advise at this stage, until the process settles down, is keeping a close eye on how your products are being listed, noting any changes that could cause issues and acting appropriately. In many ways that is best practise that should be followed as a general rule, but it won’t hurt to tighten up on that monitoring, especially ahead of the traditionally busiest type of the year on Amazon.

“Take some time to ready through everything Amazon has announced on the measures to best equip yourself with the information you’ll need.

“And if you do find yourself being penalised for a listing error that you don’t believe is your fault, contact Thompson and Holt for advice.”

If you have found yourself suspended while selling on Amazon, contact Thompson and Holt for a free LiveChat to get your Seller business back online as quickly as possible.

Thompson and Holt are also offering a free months trial of their Monitor and Protect service to help sellers prevent a suspension of ASINs or an their account during the COVID pandemic, more information on how to protect your Amazon seller account from a suspension can be found here.