What is Amazon ASIN and how to create a new one?

Amazon has a vast catalog that includes millions and millions of unique products and variations. That’s why Amazon uses the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) system to categorize every item that is listed on the website.

This article covers key points about Amazon ASIN numbers, starting with what is it, how to create a new ASIN in Amazon, why it’s important for sellers and how you can use it to protect your brand and control your catalog.

What is an Amazon ASIN number?

An Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is basically Amazon’s Social Security Number or barcode system for all the products listed in the marketplace. The Amazon ASIN system is the internal catalog and every number is associated with a unique product.

This system helps each party have a better experience; customers, sellers and Amazon. So to start, ASIN numbers always have 10 characters. Every ASIN starts with “B0” and the rest is a combination of letters and digits.

This system was designed in 1996 by an Amazon software engineer Rebecca Allen when it was clear that Amazon was going to pivot from only listing books to selling a variety of products.

Rebecca Allen used 26 letters in the alphabet and 10 digits in a total of 36 characters to create a base 36 system for categorization.

Benefits for Amazon to use ASIN numbers:

• Track and view all products listed on the site
• Easily find products in Amazon Fulfillment Centers and warehouses
• Monitor all products about when orders are picked and shipped
• Help customers to find specific products when needed

Why Amazon ASINs are important for sellers?

Amazon has more than 353 million products on its database. Without a unified system, it would be impossible to keep an overview of the products and eventually, lead to management issues.

Amazon ASIN numbers can also be great companions for sellers. Because ASIN is the backbone of your marketplace too!

As a seller, always double-check for using the right ASIN for your products. If there is an unintentional mistake in ASIN numbers, Amazon won’t list your products in the search results.

If your products don’t have matching ASIN numbers on the Amazon database, you’ll have to create a new one. You’ll learn how to create a new ASIN in Amazon in this article as well.

Other benefits of Amazon ASIN for sellers are

• Observing other sellers through competitor keywords by doing reverse ASIN searches.
• Having a broad understanding of your competition on each product and supporting your Amazon Buy Box strategy to boost your sales.
• Monitor your marketplace’s performance and inventory metrics.
• Track your different shipments for specific products.

How to find ASIN of products on Amazon?

If you want to know the ASIN of any product, there are two easy ways to find them. And the good thing is both are public and easily accessible.

Since Amazon ASIN numbers are unique for each product, you’ll easily recognize them once you know how to identify them.

Finding ASIN from product URLs

The easiest way is to check the URL of the product page. It’s embedded into the URLs after the product title and phrases there is a section named “/dp/B0—------” in the address bar. The section after the “/dp/” part is the ASIN number. Which always starts with “B0.”

Finding ASIN from the product details page

The other solution is also on the same level of easiness. This time, once you open the product you just have to scroll down and look at the “Additional Information” section. And that’s it! You’ll see the ASIN number.

When to create a new ASIN or use an existing ASIN?

For every product listed on Amazon, there has to be assigned one ASIN number and one product detail page. The reason behind this is to deliver a seamless customer experience from Amazon.

Even though many sellers list the same product, customers still see the same information on the detail page. This will avoid confusion on the customer’s side. Another benefit is Amazon’s product catalog will stay unified in terms of information and presentation.

If there are duplicate products with different ASINs, Amazon eventually merges them into one. There are two different scenarios to use or create an ASIN.

Using an existing Amazon ASIN

Before you start to sell a product on Amazon, you have to check if there is an already created ASIN for that specific product. If there are any, you can start listing your products under that Amazon ASIN.

This way, you share the ASIN as well as the product info with other sellers. Because it’s the same product and it has to have the same ASIN. This scenario usually applies to resellers, retailers and widely distributed products.

Creating a new ASIN

If there’s no ASIN for your product, you have to create a new one to list your product in Amazon’s catalog first. Once you create a new product in Amazon’s database, they’ll assign a unique ASIN for your product.

In this process, Amazon might ask some questions to understand your production process and company. Usually, this is the case for new brand owners, private labels and sellers who hold exclusive distribution rights.

How to create a new ASIN in Amazon?

For example, if you have a new brand and you are starting to sell on Amazon. You need to have an ASIN to list your products. You have two options to choose from to create a new ASIN on Amazon.

Directly from Amazon’s admin panel

To register a new product, you’ll need to use the “Add a Product” feature in Amazon Seller Center. If you add your products this way, you have to enter every product detail manually via the online admin panel.

This might feel redundant task to do but it also helps you to learn basic procedures and requirements of new additions.

Uploading Amazon inventory file templates

Another way to add new products is by uploading product information through Inventory File Templates. This is basically a spreadsheet to enter every required information and deliver them in bulk batches.

To download Amazon Inventory File Templates you’ll need to visit the “Add products via upload” page and get the category-specific templates.

After filling out and uploading the template to Amazon’s database, it will be processed. Then Amazon creates new products and assigns unique ASINs for each product.

Pros of this method are it allows to addition of a large volume of products and saves time. However, the cons are the need for expertise in Microsoft Excel and manual data entry if not using an automation solution.

How to utilize your ASINs?

Now that we know the fundamentals of Amazon ASIN, we can focus on utilizing ASIN as a tool to boost your sales. Amazon’s every tool can be considered for boosting sales, just as using repricer tool to win the buy box competition for each product in your inventory.

Using ASINs to protect your brand

Amazon uses a system called Brand Gating to reduce counterfeit sales and fraud by protecting brands to authorize usage of their products ASINs.

If sellers want to sell Brand Gated products on Amazon, they must pay a fee and provide evidence to prove that they’re authorized by the brand. Usually, fees are at least $1000 for each brand and an invoice or written permission letters are required.

Conclusion

The ASIN is fundamental for Amazon to run their operations smoothly, and for sellers, ASIN is a key tool to manage inventory.

Channable takes things one step further and provides Marketplace Integration for your eCommerce business and automation for your products and ads so that you can manage your inventory inside Amazon and across multiple platforms seamlessly!