Primary and Secondary ASINs

I mean, say you sell calendars. Would you consider a large calendar? The parent ASIN for both the plastic and stainless steel variations. Obviously not stainless steel products can get bent or dented in subpar packaging. Whereas plastic ones could snap completely. The packaging would need to be slightly different for each stainless steel products will also weigh more than the plastic ones.

However you could send the large white plaster calendar as a parent ASIN at its packaging would be the same as the other large plaster calendars in pink, blue, red, and purple. But you would then also need to send the medium white plaster calendar and the small white plaster calendar calendar as another two parent ASIN.

Given Amazon’s packaging to product ratio mentioned in the previous section, the large, small, and medium stainless steel calendars would all each be apparent ASIN. Let’s briefly look at what Amazon says about this. Amazon has what is called form factor certification rules, which can be found in your resources center on vendor central.

In this document, they explain if an ASIN or a group of asims are similar. Based on the rules described below to a primary ASIN that has been tested for and has passed the ISTA six, amazon.com transit test requirements. Then the ASIN or group of ASINs will be considered as secondary ASINs that are form factor variations of the corresponding primary ASIN and will receive the same FFP TS certification as the primary ASIN subject to review and approval by Amazon.

This process is known as FFP form factor certification. They then go further to say the form factor certification process will be limited to ISTA six, amazon.com ships in own container type a and ISTA six, amazon.com over boxing. For tier three prep, free packaging or PFP certifications only. This is important because when we get to the next video, where we look at categorizing your product into a type only type a will allow for the parent ASIN to be sent for testing for the entire family.

Right. So what does Amazon specify the rules to be for accepting a parent ASIN for form factor certification? Well, let’s go through Amazon’s own words on the form factor certification rules. Amazon will consider physically similar products or ASIN variations for form factor certification. Only if they meet the following criteria size variation, the secondary ASIN can be up to 25% smaller on one single dimension.

Or up to 25% smaller in terms of total volume as compared to the primary ASIN, Amazon will not accept ASINs that are more than 108 inches in length or 165 inches in girth for form factor certification, weight variation. The weight of the secondary ASIN may be up to 25% less than the weight of the primary ASIN items that are eight ounces or less will not be held to the 25% criteria.

ASINs that are 50 pounds or more in weight will not be eligible for certification through the form factor certification method and will require a separate is to six amazon.com packaging test to be completed as a weight of 50 pounds is the threshold where the ships in own container test type required changes from type a to type b.

Material composition. The secondary ASIN must be identical to the primary ASIN in terms of material composition, in order to be eligible for this program. This is critical to ensure that the primary ASIN and secondary ASIN will exhibit identical performance in ster six, amazon.com transit testing.

Packaging type and specifications. The secondary ASIN must have identical packaging type design and specifications as the primary ASIN. For example, if the primary ASIN is packaged in double world sea flute, board grade, Corrugated. Then the secondary ASIN must also be packaged using the same type and grade corrugate product to packaging ratio, the product to packaging ratio defined as the ratio of the volume of the product to the volume of the packaging must be similar for the primary and secondary ASIN fragile products.

Amazon will not accept products that contain 50% or more of fragile material for form factor certification, fragile materials include ceramics, glass, porcelain, clay, delicate electronics, or easily breakable parts. Some examples of non fragile items are bidding, sits, towels, clothing, paper towels, toilet paper.

Feminine care products and dryer sheets, liquid content. Amazon will not accept products that contain liquids for form factor certification, such products are highly susceptible to damage and leakage during the transit process and will require separate is to six amazon.com tests, motorized parts. Amazon will not accept products that contain any motorized parts that is parts with a moving power component.

Examples of such products include table fans, kitchen, blenders, and toys. With motorized wheels pack quantity, the primary and secondary ASINs must have the same pack quantity in order to be considered for form factor certification. For example, if a primary ASIN contains four units of an item, then the secondary ASIN being submitted for form factor certification will be considered only if it also contains exactly four items.

The only exception to this rule may be granted in the case of soft products, such as diapers, textiles, toilet, paper, and paper towel. now the document does go on to give more specifics regarding shoe size variations, but we will leave those of you who sell shoes to read through the rest of this document, as well as the frequently asked questions at the end, when you download it from your vendor central resources center at this stage of the process, you should now have identified and selected which parent or primary ASIN. You will be sending for packaging testing.