Amazon is going ahead with its merging of duplicate ASINs and posted a Frequently Asked Questions guide:
1. Why are you doing this during the holiday time? When we reduce the number duplicates in the catalog, customers will be more likely to find, and buy, the item they are seeking. This takes on added importance during the holidays.2. Will you merge books that have same title but different binding, edition, etc?
No. We will merge books only when they have the same title, contributors, binding, publisher, publication date, edition and volume.
3. How does Amazon determine that the page with the most listings is the one that has the correct info, or if there isn’t a need for other listings due to differences in dates, formats, editions, etc?
When two ASINs are merged, we use product information from both ASINs. Though only one ASIN will remain, it will contain information that was derived from both ASINs. This is no different from when a Pro Merchant’s contribution matches an existing ASIN. We will always use the additional data to improve our catalog quality.
For many more fun details from the FAQ, see Amazon’s seller announcement board.
6 Comments
Ever see those Capital One commercials with the Bank guys punting the super small guy who is a small business owner? I always think of the bank guys as Amazon and the small guys as 3rd party sellers. . .
Anyway, the catalog does need cleaning, but, I am not happy about the timing, as it seems that when Amazon does something like the site is wonky for a week.- BWB
Same timeing as closing the zShops last year 9/06 and the Great Collectible Book Purge of Year-End 2006
First it was ON – and announced since I and others were posting items wondering about our Bindings not matching the Product Pages.
Then it was Posted, and after numerous Seller confirmations and gripes – it was OFF, at least from a PR standpoint.
Then it was ON, as the announcement shows. It was always ON since everyone was noticeing posting slowness, errors and missing inventory.
The main STING will come with human/Bot error with the huge spate of A-Z Claims I predict will be granted to customers.
I would rather have 100’s or even 1,000’s of pre-ISBN titles purged, to relist when the dust settles – about a year from now.
The problem won’t go away and the efforts will be wasted.
A PROPER CHECK & BALANCE SYSTEM WAS NEVER IN PLACE FOR THE “CREATE-A-PAGE”
Amazon should have set up a proper check & balance system when Create-A-Page was created.
But Amazon says our listings won’t disappear, they’re only merging. So what’s everyone so freaked out about?
Because Amazon has a track record of unresponsive inefficiency.
Also, Freaked out about material difference claims. . .which Amazon automatically awards.
This wont solve much and if it does it will be tempoary. Example, Suzy Q wants to list her book called “title X” and its pre-isbn.
She notices that the top one is the 1934 edition, which she has. She will then create another page that will put her on top of the other #1 page. Something like “Title X red binding”.
Even is she doesnt every seller will be listing under 1934 no matter what the year is. It happens now and it will happen again.