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Originally published on January 18, 2022, updated December 15, 2023
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In this guest article, Ceejay Teku of Catsy explains three ways to manage your Amazon product data along with the pros and cons of each method.
When it comes to retail, sellers may as well stop listing products on Amazon if they don’t have accurate product information.
The marketplace is unforgivable when it comes to errors, both for product publishers and the billions of shoppers who visit every month. If you do not have an accurate, optimized product listing, you could lose 50% of your sales because of reduced product visibility, according to Forrester.
Success as an eCommerce business on Amazon is data-driven. The better your product data quality, the better product pages will perform. In fact, quality product information enhances the entire digital shopping experience from influencing conversions to increasing product discovery and informing buyers’ decisions.
Governing your Amazon product data is the driving force of your performance on the marketplace. With fine-tuned control over product information, you can create enhanced content for Amazon. Moreover, an organized product information structure will enable you to scale the moment your company is ready.
Not managing your product data properly can lead to several unfortunate consequences:
There are three main methods that Amazon sellers can use to manage product information:
The first method of managing product information consists of clicking “Add a product” under the Inventory tab and simply creating a new product listing. You select the category, fill in the product name, product brand, other brand information, and keywords, as well as images and enriched contents (description, bullets, etc.).
Sellers who rely on this method usually keep product data on a host of various storage tools. Images and digital assets are stored on Google Drive, Dropbox, or other sharing tools, for example. Product information is likely received from suppliers and manufacturers by way of CSV, lacking consistent formats.
The absence of a centralized system can lead to siloed information. Sometimes retailers might use a master external spreadsheet file (from a supplier or manufacturer) to copy and paste into the new product fields on Amazon. After adding the required product details, some users might individually add the product variants with their specific dimensions/attributes.
The main benefit of manually adding products one by one is its simplicity. If you don’t have a large product catalog, it might be manageable. For that reason, it’s not a bad option for retailers who are first starting out.
When it comes time to scale, the larger your catalog becomes, the harder it will be to keep up with this system. Managing product data updates will be very time-consuming.
Inputting data directly into Amazon from raw supplier documents or from SKU data through your enterprise resource planning (ERP) can take a long time, especially if you have a large catalog. This is not a long-term strategy for growth. You’ll have to manually validate or check that the data is consistent and matches Amazon formatting. This method provides a large risk of human error and potentially out-of-date information.
To onboard your product in bulk, you might input all your product catalogs onto a master Excel spreadsheet. Amazon makes this step easier by providing a template for uploading multiple items tailored for a given product category. The template has everything you need to fill out details according to Amazon requirements.
Alongside essential details like SKU, product title, brand, and other specs, it also includes content like the description and bullets. Then you upload the file of bulk products into a tab-delimited file format.
Excel or spreadsheets are accessible for any business to use at any stage. They're relatively intuitive, requiring little training. Meaning, your entire team can implement spreadsheets. Moreover, Excel is customizable, allowing businesses to organize them however they need, with formulas for inputting data automatically. Using the Amazon template for product listings ensures data is channel-ready when you import.
Unfortunately, while in-bulk uploading can make things easier, the product data gathering stage is still very time-consuming. In the initial product data gathering stage, as well as the content authoring stage, collaboration can be very tricky. Teams still have to edit cells manually, although there are ways to find products slightly faster, such as using VLOOKUP.
Errors are often inevitable, perhaps more so because of how crowded the spreadsheets can become. Spreadsheets are not collaborative (Google Sheets aside) with no version control. With no reporting of errors, users have no way to secure product details from unauthorized edits.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that it’s difficult to scale with a spreadsheet. The greater the product catalog, the more complex it becomes to manage data on Excel. Eventually, automation is required to scale catalogs effectively.
The final way of managing Amazon product data is to utilize a two-in-one Amazon PIM/DAM system that integrates with Seller Central. A PIM consolidates all product data, reducing barriers between data sources. DAM functionality is just as essential for eCommerce businesses, organizing all product photography and rich media to embellish product pages. It allows you to oversee your metadata to optimize your product listings in bulk.
Combined, PIM and DAM keep products linked with the latest, Amazon-specific product photos. While Amazon product information management systems come in different infrastructures (on-premise, cloud-based, open-sourced, etc.), a cloud-based PIM securely stores all product data and allows for on-platform content creation.
To prevent data errors on Amazon listings and product pages, a PIM system validates data to ensure it follows a consistent standard and any errors are immediately visible. Because it usually syncs directly to channels, there’s no worry of duplications or missing info due to copy and paste, and it transfers product attributes and content directly onto product pages.
The main benefit of PIM is its ability to ensure consistency and accuracy across your Amazon products for a consistent brand image. PIM optimizes your listings to appear on faceted search with highly detailed attributes and product tags. Moreover, automated integration reduces the cost and time necessary to ensure Amazon requirements are met with content grading tools. Because PIM can export in Amazon Seller Central format immediately, there’s no need for template downloads.
Businesses onboarding a PIM will require a small learning curve. However, most systems have support teams that are with users every step of the way. Of all the methods, PIM/DAM might include a higher initial cost but fuel a greater economic return. PIM helps Amazon retailers get their products to market faster, providing extra time for creative and quality assurance, ultimately making business growth scalable.
Whether you upload products individually, in bulk using a spreadsheet, or via integration with a PIM system that publishes data on Amazon (such as Catsy), all methods can be suitable for businesses at different stages of their journey. Above all, factor in your long-term goals and plans for growth, and be aware of all the tools at your disposal. An excellent product information management strategy is one of the best investments a business can make.
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