Variation relationships

Variations allow buyers to customize product selection based on different attributes including size, color, or other characteristics from the available options on a single detail page.

You can create variations using parent-child product relationships. Learn more about parent-child relationships.

To learn how to create variations using parent-child product relationships for Fashion products, please watch the Seller University video (coming soon)..

What is a variation relationship?

A variation relationship is a set of products that are related to one another. Good variation families provide a cleaner customer buying experience and give our customers insights into all the potential variations of a product they are interested in purchasing. For example, a customer searching for a short sleeved T-shirt might click on a product detail page for a shirt that comes in three sizes (Small, Medium, and Large), and three colors (Blue, Red, Black). Rather than a cluttered view of all possible color and size combinations, the customer can select the preferred size, and choose the color from the three available color variations.

Elements of a variation relationship

There are three components to a parent-child relationship:

• Parent product: The product displayed in the search results

  The parent product is a non-buyable product used to relate child products. The Amazon catalog uses the parent product to establish relationships between the child products. For example, if 2 shirts have the same parent, then they are related and are considered child products.

• Child products: The products that are related to each parent product

  The child product is an instance of the parent product. You can have many child products that are all related to one parent product. Each child varies in some way, for example, by size or by color.

• Variation theme: The relationship between the parent and the child

  The variation theme defines how related products differ from each other. For example, in the Clothing, Accessories & Luggage category, child products can differ from each other by size or color.

Best practices

• Do not list different products together:
  • Example 1: A cell phone charging cable and a portable charger, while related, are not the same product and should not be listed on the same detail page.
  • Example 2: A laptop bag with handles and a laptop bag without handles are two different product styles that should be listed on separate detail pages.
• Do not use variation themes incorrectly; they should only be used for their defined purpose.
  • Example: A color variation theme must not include any information other than color. Different phone models, for example, should not be listed within a color theme.

Learn more about variation relationships

• Automatic classification of variations using the Check My File tool
• About parent-child relationships