Amazon display/sent comparison matrix

If you’re working with Amazon, you might know that the product information you send may not always appear as expected. According to their algorithm, Amazon might overwrite the product data provided by the brand.

To assist with this, each time you export your product catalog to Amazon, you will receive a comparison matrix file in the reports. This file highlights the differences between what you sent to Amazon and what is actually displayed on their product pages.

A+ Content

While working with Amazon, you can import your A+ Content list and properties (not the actual content itself, only the metadata) from Amazon into the PIM to use as a reference for your products. This process involves two steps:

Enable A+ Content List Retrieval: First, activate the feature to retrieve your A+ content into your PIM.

Push A+ Content Product Associations: Then, push your A+ content and product associations from your PIM to Amazon. This will happen each time you send data to Amazon during a product export. 

Consider the two workflows below when working with the A+ content from Amazon:

You're just starting to work with A+ Content

1. Create A+ Content on Amazon: Start by creating your A+ content directly on Amazon
2. Activate A+ Content properties retrieval: Go to your Activation channel settings and turn on the toggle “Retrieve A+ content properties from Amazon".

The Activation app will then bring the A+ content into your PIM as a reference entity (called Aplus). This reference entity will be created automatically in your PIM.

• You assign A+ documents (one or multiple) to your products in your PIM, inside a product edit form 
  • You will need to create an attribute in your PIM (single/multi-select) that will be able to fetch the reference entities in your product edit form
  • Note: this can be done via bulk actions

• You map the A+ content in the catalog mapping for your Amazon activation channel
  • Go to Activation catalog mapping page
  • Search for the A+ Document target
  • Use the attribute you created in your PIM as source (ex: A+ Content)
  • Save your catalog once done

• You activate the push A+ content associations to Amazon
  • Go to your Activation channel settings
  • Turn “on” the toggle for “Send A+ Content Associations to Amazon”

• The Activation app sends the association between  A+ documents and your products to Amazon
• Note: The association is done automatically, every time you export products to Amazon

The PIM automatically becomes the source of truth for your A+ content/product associations because there was no baseline of association between products and A+ content in Amazon previous

You already have A+ content assigned to products in Amazon

Activate A+ Content Retrieval:

• Go to your Activation channel settings.
• Turn on the toggle for "Retrieve A+ Content from Amazon."

The Activation app will bring the A+ content into your PIM as a reference entity, which will be created automatically in your PIM.

Note: The retrieval process creates an automated job that runs daily

Assign A+ Documents in Your PIM:

• Go to the product edit form in your PIM.
• Create an attribute in your PIM that can fetch the reference entities you imported.

Note: This can be done using bulk actions if needed.

Map A+ Content in Catalog Mapping:

• Go to the Activation catalog mapping page.
• Search for the A+ Document target.
• Use the attribute you created in your PIM (e.g., A+ Content) as the source.
• Save your catalog once you are done.
• You activate the retrieval of the A+ content in Amazon
  • Go to your Activation channel settings
  • Turn “on” the toggle for “Retrieve A+ Content from Amazon” 

Activate Push of A+ Content to Amazon:

• Go to your Activation channel settings.
• Turn on the toggle for "Send A+ Content to Amazon."

The Activation app will send the association between A+ documents and your products to Amazon automatically every time you export products.

Note: Following this workflow, your PIM becomes the source of truth for A+ content/product associations, replacing the previous associations on Amazon.

When following this workflow, the PIM now becomes the source of truth for your A+ content/product associations, replacing the previous associations on Amazon.

Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)

While working with Amazon (Vendor or Seller), you can retrieve the Amazon ASIN identifier from Amazon into Activation and push the value to your PIM.

This feature is available by default but initially disabled. To enable it the ASIN fetch from Amazon to Activation, switch the toggle to "on."

This task is automated and you can schedule a time for when you would like it to run. Once the ASINs associated with your products are available in Activation, you can use these identifiers to help you govern your product data (i.e. search by them in the product grid, look up export errors via ASINs)

Then you have the option to push the ASINs back into your PIM to have these identifiers part of your product information source of truth. You can choose which PIM attribute will receive the ASINs from Amazon.

Before you enable this feature, you can create the attribute in your PIM where you want the ASINs to be stored, and then enter the correct attribute code in the text area provided. Once enabled, ASINs will be pulled into your PIM every time we receive data back from Amazon for accepted products.

If you want to use a scopable and/or localizable attribute, use this format:

pim_attribute_code#channel_code#locale_code

• For example, if your PIM attribute for the ASIN has the code amazon_asin and you want to assign the ASIN to the marketplaces channel for the fr_FR locale, the attribute code in Akeneo Activation should be: amazon_asin#marketplaces#fr_FR.
• For example, if your PIM attribute for the ASIN has the code amazon_asin and you want to assign the ASIN to  the fr_FR locale only, the attribute code in Akeneo Activation should be: amazon_asin##fr_FR.
• To learn more about scopable and localizable attributes, go to this article.

Sending FBA and FBM Product Offers to Amazon Seller

When selling on Amazon Seller, you may need to list the same product under two separate fulfillment models simultaneously:

• FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant): you handle storage, packaging, and shipping yourself
• FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon): Amazon handles fulfillment from its own warehouses

Each fulfillment model requires its own SKU on Amazon. Akeneo Activation supports three configurations: FBM only, FBA only, or both FBA and FBM simultaneously for the same product.

Key Requirements

Fulfillment configuration is managed through three requirements in your Activation catalog mapping. You can find these by searching for the requirement codes below in your catalog mapping page.

vendor_sku

The primary SKU used to push a product to Amazon. Its value depends on which fulfillment model(s) you are using:

• FBM only: set this to your FBM SKU
• FBA only: set this to your FBA SKU
• Both FBA and FBM: set this to your FBM SKU — the FBA SKU goes in secondary_vendor_sku

secondary_vendor_sku

This requirement is only used when you want to export a product as both FBM and FBA simultaneously. Set this to your FBA SKU. In all other cases (FBM only or FBA only), this field is ignored.

fulfillment_availability_fulfillment_channel_code

This requirement is a string collection that tells Amazon which fulfillment channel(s) apply to this product. The accepted values are:

• DEFAULT — for FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant)
• AMAZON_XYZ — for FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon), where XYZ depends on your Amazon marketplace region. For example:
  • Amazon US → AMAZON_NA
  • Amazon France, Germany, or other European marketplaces → AMAZON_EU

The correct AMAZON_XYZ value for your specific channel is indicated in the requirement description directly in the mapping interface.

Configuration Scenarios

FBM Only

• vendor_sku: your FBM SKU
• secondary_vendor_sku: leave empty
• fulfillment_availability_fulfillment_channel_code: DEFAULT

Activation exports one product record to Amazon using your FBM SKU.

FBA Only

• vendor_sku: your FBA SKU
• secondary_vendor_sku: leave empty
• fulfillment_availability_fulfillment_channel_code: AMAZON_XYZ (e.g. AMAZON_NA or AMAZON_EU)

Activation exports one product record to Amazon using your FBA SKU.

Both FBA and FBM

• vendor_sku: your FBM SKU
• secondary_vendor_sku: your FBA SKU
• fulfillment_availability_fulfillment_channel_code: both DEFAULT and AMAZON_XYZ

Activation automatically generates two separate product records in the Amazon feed — one for each fulfillment model — from a single product in your PIM.

Using Formulas to Automate the Mapping

If your products store their FBM and FBA SKUs as separate attributes in your PIM, you can use catalog mapping formulas to automatically populate the three requirements based on which SKUs are available for each product. This avoids manually managing the configuration product by product.

Below is an example formula set, assuming your PIM has two attributes: my_fbm_sku and my_fba_sku, and a channel-specific FBA fulfillment code stored in my_amazon_fba_fulfillment:

vendor_sku

IFS(IS_EMPTY(my_fbm_sku), my_fba_sku, true, my_fbm_sku)

→ Uses the FBM SKU when available, falls back to the FBA SKU if no FBM SKU exists.

secondary_vendor_sku

IFS(!IS_EMPTY(my_fbm_sku) AND !IS_EMPTY(my_fba_sku), my_fba_sku, true, "")

→ Populates the FBA SKU only when both SKUs exist. Returns empty in all other cases.

fulfillment_availability_fulfillment_channel_code

IFS(!IS_EMPTY(my_fbm_sku) AND !IS_EMPTY(my_fba_sku), SPLIT(CONCATENATE("DEFAULT", ",", my_amazon_fba_fulfillment)), !IS_EMPTY(my_fbm_sku), SPLIT("DEFAULT", "#%@"), !IS_EMPTY(my_fba_sku), SPLIT(my_amazon_fba_fulfillment, "#%@"), true, NULL)

→ Automatically sets the correct combination of fulfillment channel codes based on which SKUs are present for each product.

Sending products variations to Amazon Marketplace (Amazon Seller)

This section explains how to set up the parent/child (or variations) structure for the Amazon marketplace so you can successfully send product variations to Amazon Seller.

To send product variations to Amazon Marketplace, you must first establish a parent-child relationship between your products in your PIM and then configure the mapping in Akeneo Activation.

Set up a parent/child structure

To send variations to the Amazon Marketplace (Amazon Seller) via Activation, you need to complete a few steps in both your PIM data structure and the Activation catalog mapping.

Identify Parent

First, identify which product will serve as the "parent" in Amazon Seller Central. This can be a simple or variant product from your PIM, but it cannot be a product model because it requires a unique SKU. This designated product will be exported to Amazon as a child product that functions as the parent for its associated variations.

This product will be sent to Amazon Seller as a child product and will also act as a parent (or product model) once exported. All "child" products associated with this "parent" will be listed under the "product parent" on Amazon Seller.

After selecting the simple or child product to act as a parent, you can proceed with setting up the parent/child association in your Activation catalog mapping.

Map the association parent/child

In your Activation catalog mapping for your Amazon Seller channel, specific fields are required to correctly configure the parent-child relationship. Searching for "Parent" in the mapping will display four key targets.

If you type “Parent” in the mapping search, you will see four mapping targets. Below are instructions on how to map these targets correctly to establish the parent/child relationship successfully.

Product will generate a parent

This setting determines if a product will act as a parent on Amazon Seller.

In your PIM:

• Create a New Attribute: You can create a new attribute in your PIM to use as a source for easier Activation mapping.
• Attribute Type: Yes/No
• Attribute Label: "Is Parent on Amazon Seller"

Example: In the product edit form, the product chosen to act as a parent will have a Yes/No attribute labeled "Is Parent on Amazon Seller." Set this attribute to "Yes" for the product that will act as a parent, and "No" for products that will remain as children only.

• In the Activation mapping
  • Fetch the source attribute from your PIM that will help identify the parent

Parent SKU

This identifier is used to link the parent product with its child products.

In your PIM:

• Create a New Attribute: You can create a new attribute (ex type: text, number, identifier) to use as a source for easier Activation mapping.
• Attribute Type: Text
• Attribute Label: "Amazon Parent SKU"

Example: In the product edit form, the product selected to act as a parent will have a text attribute labeled "Amazon Parent SKU," with a value that is unique and different from the product's own SKU.

In the Activation Mapping:

For the Product Acting as a Parent:

• Defines the SKU of the generated parent and links the child products to this parent.
• The parent SKU should be distinct and unique.

For Products That Do Not Act as Parents:

• Associates the product with the defined parent SKU.

Product Name (when used as parent)

Use this if you want the parent product to have its own unique product name.

In your PIM:

• Create a New Attribute: You can create a new text attribute to use as a source for easier Activation mapping.
• Attribute Type: Text
• Attribute Label: "Amazon Parent Product Name"

Example: In the product edit form, the product selected to act as a parent will have a text attribute labeled "Amazon Parent Product Name."

In the Activation catalog mapping:

• It will be used in place of the product name on the generated parent

Parentage Level

This is not needed as our system automatically assigns the parentage level when using the parent creation mechanism

Export your product with variations to Amazon Marketplace (Amazon Seller)

1. After you have finished mapping the parent-child associations, save your catalog mapping.
2. In Activation, run a dry-run export to verify that the parent product is correctly identified in the feed document artefact.
3. Next you can export your product catalogs to Amazon Seller.
4. If the export is successful, your products will have a variant menu in Amazon Seller Central where you can identify both parent and child products. 

Common errors found when sending product variations to Amazon Seller Marketplace

When troubleshooting your Amazon parent-child setup, you may encounter several common errors. Here are some detailed steps and solutions for handling these errors:

• Error 8016: Missing Variation data

Details: This error indicates that the product data provided was insufficient for creating a variation (parent/child) relationship for a specific SKU

• Error 8017: Variation Theme Missing

Details: This error indicates that a Variation Theme is missing from your product data. Make sure that all necessary Variation Themes are specified correctly.

• Error 8018: Cannot Delete Non-Existing Relationship

Details: This error occurs when attempting to delete a relationship that does not exist. Ensure that the relationship you are trying to modify or delete actually exists.

• Error 8019: Parent and Child Have the Same SKU

Details: This error happens when the parent and child products are assigned the same SKU. Ensure that each product, whether parent or child, has a unique SKU.

General errors related to the Amazon API often involve issues with the product information in the Attributes step in the mapping. Ensure that all mandatory attributes are filled and do not return empty values.

For more details on common Amazon Marketplace API errors and how to resolve them, you can refer to this error catalog guide.

Merchant Shipping Group

In your Amazon catalog mapping, the Merchant Shipping Group (merchant_shipping_group) attribute allows you to assign a shipping configuration template to your product offers on Amazon Seller. It tells Amazon which of your seller-defined shipping rules apply to a given product — for example, which regions you ship to, your handling times, and your carrier options.

This attribute is required for standard FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) offers that are not parent products.

Available Values

There are two types of values you can use for this attribute in the Activation mapping:

• Amazon's default template: legacy-template-id — this value is universal and works for all Amazon Seller accounts without any additional setup. Use this if you have not created custom shipping templates in your account, or if Amazon's default template is the one you want to assign.
• Your custom shipping templates: these are UUID-format IDs specific to your Amazon Seller account (e.g. 2218fa98-8ce4-4eb5-83fd-41fcb03513e7). They correspond to shipping templates you have created in your Amazon Seller Central shipping settings. These IDs are unique per seller and must be retrieved directly from your Amazon Seller account — see the steps below.

How to Find Your Shipping Template IDs in Amazon Seller Central

The shipping template ID is found in the URL of the shipping template edition page in Amazon Seller Central. Follow these steps:

1. Open your Amazon Seller Central account and click on the Settings icon (cog icon) in the top navigation bar

2. Click on Shipping Settings

You can also navigate directly using your marketplace-specific URL, for example:

• Amazon France: https://sellercentral.amazon.fr/sbr/ref=xx_shipset_dnav_xx#shipping_templates
  • Ex for template ID 41a8191a-434c-436b-b662-45024a6940e1, the URL can be quite long and look like this:
    • https://sellercentral.amazon.fr/ap/signin?clientContext=260-0036708-3408655&openid.pape.max_auth_age=0&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fsellercentral.amazon.fr%2Fsbr%2Ftemplate%3Frequest%3D%257B%2522templateId%2522%253A%252241a8191a-434c-436b-b662-45024a6940e1%2522%252C%2522action%2522%253A%2522edit%2522%257D&openid.identity=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0%2Fidentifier_select&openid.assoc_handle=sc_fr_amazon_v2&openid.mode=checkid_setup&language=en_FR&openid.claimed_id=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0%2Fidentifier_select&pageId=sc_amazon_v3_unified&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&ssoResponse=eyJ6aXAiOiJERUYiLCJlbmMiOiJBMjU2R0NNIiwiYWxnIjoiQTI1NktXIn0.msxhX9oY5cczB-EobD7Yzi7ZO5aHH1-Bol3h8aJJClMTkVlfX18yLg.7eNMCviLRMWiQu-J.rrKAQro33gVSszY4FRvYAVAnF37e7i5vCKyZ0CWTCyleo5RvBwNKoik5QwrZ9XIZ9IYsu6WzO_LvScNMsmU0njC_m5UVEyxwCApOEZSSrM74P0-OGxUX44iNj81mET5pkJcMNe8RY3PV9H__xkvDe4plipmwvGMtOdozYJGAbcnVFohcfhK2cOZkkBOUHsJnoMKsAahgvQ.9jZwXnXvYXSvGnlvIcVgYQ
• Amazon US: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/sbr/ref=xx_shipset_dnav_xx#shipping_templates

3. On the Shipping Templates tab, click on the name of the shipping template whose ID you want to retrieve to open its edition page
4. Once on the edition page, look at the URL in your browser's address bar. The shipping template ID is the UUID that appears after templateId%3A in the URL
5. Copy the UUID — this is the exact value to use in Akeneo Activation for the merchant_shipping_group attribute
6. Repeat for each shipping template you need to use across your products

How to Use the ID in Activation

Once you have retrieved the correct shipping template ID(s), you have two options for mapping them in your Activation catalog:

• Static default value: if all products in a catalog use the same shipping template, enter the ID directly as a default value in the merchant_shipping_group mapping target. No PIM attribute is required.
• PIM attribute: if different products use different shipping templates, create a text attribute in your PIM to store the shipping template ID per product, then map that PIM attribute to the merchant_shipping_group requirement in your Activation catalog mapping. You can also use catalog mapping formulas to assign the correct ID dynamically based on product data.