Listing ProductsRequired and Desired Fields

Required and Desired Fields

Required and desired fields vary between catagories. It is important when filling out your catagory specific Inventory Files of Feeds that you provide all required fields, and as much additional information as possible. The more information your provide, the easier it is for buyers to decide on your products.

At the bottom of this page is a full listing of catagory specific Inventory Templates.

Below is a table containing required and desired fields for listing to many of the catagories on Amazon.com:

Name	Required/Desired	Definition
SKU	Required	A unique identifier for the product, assigned by the merchant.  The SKU must be unique for each product listed.  After you have established a SKU for a product, please do not try changing it without first deleting the associated product from our systems through a delete feed.
Product Name	Required	A short title for the product. This will be displayed in bold on the product page and in the title bar of the browser window.
Product ID	Required - If not UPC/Brand Exempt	A standard, alphanumeric string that uniquely identifies the product. This could be a GCID (16 alphanumeric characters), UPC or EAN. This is a required field if product-id-type is provided.
Product ID Type	Required - If not UPC/Brand Exempt	A numerical entry that indicates if the product-id is a GCID (16 alphanumeric characters), UPC or EAN code/number.
Brand	Required for most catagories	The brand of the product.
Product Description	Required for most catagories	A text description of the product.  If you see #### signs where you should see the text, clear the format of the cell. This can be done by clicking Edit in main menu, select Clear & then Formats.
Bullet Point 1 - Bullet Point 5	Required for most catagories	Brief descriptive text, called out via a bullet point, regarding a specific aspect of the product. These display directly under or next to your product photo, it is useful to put interesting information in these fields. Bullet points will be inserted automatically.
Item Price	Required for most catagories	The price at which the product is offered for sale, in US Dollars.
Currency	Required for most catagories	The currency code for price data.  This is required if map, msrp, item-price, or sale-price is provided.  The same currency will apply to all price-related fields.
Quantity	Required for most catagories	Merchant-fulfilled products: Enter the quantity of the item you are making available for sale.  This is your current INVENTORY commitment.  Quantity is required for all "child" or stand-alone items. If left blank when first submitting the product information, the item will be displayed as "Out of stock."  Do not enter quantity for parent items. Amazon-fulfilled products: Do not enter quantity, as it is not applicable for products fulfilled by Amazon.  Instead, submit fulfillment-center-id in a separate column (see data definition for details). Setting quantity to 0 will close the listing.
Search Terms	Desired	'A word or phrase that best describes the product. This will help Amazon.com locate the product when customers perform searches on our site. This is in addition to the valid values that you must submit for your product.  It is in your best interest to fill in all search terms.
Item Type	Required	The keyword from the Browse Tree Guide that best describes the type of item. For more information about Item Type, please refer to the Browse Tree Guide Specific to your catagory.
Main Image URL	Required for most catagories	'The URL where a main image of the product is located.  Supply an image for each parent and child SKU. If you have trouble uploading images in a webserver or link the URL in this template, you can first upload the product template without the images & later upload the images one by one in seller central using "Manage your Inventory" under product management.
Parent-Child	Desired	'Defines whether the product is a main (parent) product or a variation (child) of the main product. The "parent" defines the basic data about the product. The "child" or "children" define the possible variations (i.e., size, color) of the parent product. The parent product is not purchasable; it simply specifies attributes of the product that are common among all of its children. Note that all product description, bullet points, ingredients, indications, directions, legal disclaimer and an image URL for the parent will be what is displayed on the detail page.
Parent SKU	Required if Parent-Child populated	'If the product is a child product, list the SKU of the parent product which is related.  DO NOT FILL IN THIS FIELD FOR PARENT PRODUCTS.
Relationship Type	Required if Parent-Child populated	'Describes the relationship between products that are related. If the product is a variation (i.e., a specific color and/or size) of another product (e.g. Mango Women's Cardigan, Olive, X-Small is a variation of Mango Women's Cardigan ), enter the value Variation.   For variation relationships ENTER THIS VALUE FOR THE VARIATION CHILD BUT NOT FOR THE PARENT PRODUCT.
Variation Theme	Required if Parent-Child populated	'Describes the parameter(s) by which the parent product may vary.  The value input for this field should be the same for both the parent and child SKUs. Example: If the product varies by size, input the value Size. If the product varies by color, input the value Color.   Terms used for variation themes are created by you the merchant. (e.g. 'count' can be any number that you choose).
Color	Required for child skus	The color of the product.
Color Map	Desired	If the color used to describe the product is nonstandard (e.g., sage), include the standard color you wish to map to (e.g., green).
Department	Required	The department of clothing (men's, women's, etc.) in which the product is found.
Size	Required for child skus	A size value appropriate to the product.

Download Instructions

We do not recommend you open these files directly in your browser. Instead, save the file to your local computer and then open it using your spreadsheet program.

1. In your browser, right-click the link for the file you want.
2. From the pop-up menu, select Save Target As.
3. Choose a location on your local computer, and then click Save.
4. Open the file in your spreadsheet program.

Inventory File Templates

Below is a list of catagory specific Inventory File Templates, Style Guides and Browse Tree Guides:

• Inventory File Template - A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that contains multiple data columns for describing your products.
• Style Guide - At Amazon, we do our best to provide a consistent look and feel for our customers. To help you create compelling, accurate detail pages, we’ve created Category Style Guides, which contain guidelines for images, descriptions, and much more.
• Browse Tree Guide - You will use this guide to populate the Item-Type column of your catagory specific Inventory File Template. BTGs contain refinements required for each listing and the valid values. We use the refinements to improve the customer discovery experience.

Category	File Template	Style Guide	Browse Tree Guide
Automotive Parts & Accessories	Parts & Accessories Tires & Wheels	Automotive Parts & Accessories	BTG
Baby	Inventory File Template	Baby	BTG
Beauty	Inventory File Template	Beauty	BTG
Books *	Inventory File Template	Learn more	**
Camera & Photo	Inventory File Template	See Consumer Electronics.	See Consumer Electronics. MCG
Cell Phones & Accessories (Wireless)	Inventory File Template	See Consumer Electronics.	BTG
Clothing, Accessories & Luggage *	Inventory File Template	Clothing, Accessories & Luggage	BTG
Computers	Inventory File Template	See Consumer Electronics.	See Consumer Electronics.
Consumer Electronics	Inventory File Template	Consumer Electronics (PDF) Consumer Electronics (Web)	BTG
Entertainment Collectibles *	Inventory File Template	—	BTG available upon approval to sell in this category.
Grocery & Gourmet Food	Inventory File Template	Grocery & Gourmet Food Beer & Wine	BTG
Health & Personal Care	Inventory File Template	Health & Personal Care	BTG
Home & Garden	Inventory File Template	Home & Garden	BTG
Industrial & Scientific	Fasteners Food Service and Janitorial, Sanitation, & Safety Lab & Scientific Supplies Power Transmission Raw Materials Other	Industrial & Scientific	BTG
Jewelry *	Inventory File Template	Jewelry	BTG Data Requirements
Lighting	Inventory File Template	Lighting	See Tools & Home Improvement.
Motorcycles & ATVs	See Automotive Parts & Accessories.	Motorcycles & ATVs *	See Automotive Parts & Accessories.
Music	Inventory File Template	Learn more	**
Musical Instruments	Inventory File Template	See Consumer Electronics.	BTG
Office Products	Inventory File Template	See Consumer Electronics.	BTG
Pet Supplies	Inventory File Template	See Home & Garden.	BTG
Shoes, Handbags & Eyewear *	Inventory File Template	Handbags Shoes & Accessories	BTG MCG
Software &Video Games	Inventory File Template	Software & Video Games	BTG (Software) BTG (Video Games)
Sports & Outdoors	Inventory File Template	Sports & Outdoors Sports Apparel ***	BTG
Sports Collectibles *	Inventory File Template	Sports Collectibles	BTG available upon approval to sell in this category.
Tools & Home Improvement	Inventory File Template	Reconditioned Tools & Hardware Tools & Home Improvement	BTG
Toys & Games	Inventory File Template	Toys	BTG
Video & DVD	Inventory File Template	Learn more	**
Watches *	Inventory File Template	Watches	BTG
Miscellaneous	Inventory File Template	—	—

* You must receive approval before listing in this category. For Books, approval is required only for listing in "Collectible" condition. Learn more

** There is no separate BTG available for this category.

*** For sports apparel, see the guidelines for a list of brands that should be listed using the Sports & Outdoors template.