Match your products

The Amazon catalog features products sold by many sellers. To prevent the same product from appearing multiple times and diminishing the customer experience, Amazon uses product matching to find and eliminate duplicate listings.

Product matching helps you match your product to an existing listing. It then adds your offer information to that listing. If a product does not yet exist in the catalog, you can create a new product detail page.

Good product matching directly benefits you. When you match your product to an existing listing, you ensure that customers can find your offer.

When customers find a product, they see the product detail page, which includes the Featured Offer and, if there are multiple offers, More Buying Choices (outlined in red):

When multiple sellers are selling the same product, the customer can view a list of offers.

Troubleshoot product matching errors

For more information on matching errors, go to Error 8541 and Error 8542.

Here are some possible errors that might occur when matching a product or creating a new product entry:

Multiple products using the same standard ID.

In this case, we cannot determine which entry should be matched to your product. Contact us about this error.

Multiple products using the same product data.

The product data, such as the manufacturer name and manufacturer part number, is not distinctive enough. For example, you submitted a manufacturer name and manufacturer part number that appears to match more than one product. Enter more specific information to find a match.

Same product using multiple SKUs.

A product match was found, but you already have a different SKU associated with it. This can happen if you re-used a SKU previously associated with a different product. To fix this problem, delete the SKU and resubmit the product data.

Adding a new product fails.

If you submit a product, but you do not include the required fields for that product type, you will get an error message and the listing will not be added to the catalog. This ensures that wrongly classified or cataloged products do not appear on the live website. To resolve this problem, re-submit the product with all the required data.

Tips for successful product matching

Use unique standard product identifiers.

Use a standard product identifier when submitting your products. The three top standards are ISBN, UPC, and JAN/EAN. This is the most important and reliable piece of data in the matching process.

Always use a standard ID when creating a new product.

It's a best practice to use a standard product identifier when submitting your products. The three top standards are ISBN, UPC, and EAN. This is the most important and reliable piece of data in the matching process.

Use the manufacturer part numbers issued by the manufacturer.

The manufacturer part number is different from the SKU. The manufacturer part number is the standard by which manufacturers identify their products.

Provide manufacturer name, brand, or publisher.

This data is almost always required to create a new product.

Use the specific attribute fields correctly.

For example, product dimensions such as height, width, and weight should be specified in the Height, Width, and Weight attributes. Do not use general purpose merchandising fields for these values.

Do not re-use SKUs.

If you must change your SKU for a product, do not re-use or recycle old SKUs. Issue a new SKU for the item, and then re-assign the product to the new SKU.