Update to irrelevant or redundant variation theme removal
On August 20, 2025, we announced that irrelevant or redundant variation themes would be removed from our listing experiences. These variation themes are marked as “Deprecated: Do Not Use” in our new product templates. We also published a list of variation themes and product types affected by this change.
This change was only intended to impact variation themes that were not needed. We've revised the list to only remove variation themes that had no sales in the past 12 months. Additionally, we won’t remove any versions of critical variation themes like size, color, and style for applicable "Product Types".
Your existing variation families will continue to operate normally, with no disruption to sales. If you want to update them, you can do so at any time. Child ASINs will stay active even if you choose to update your variation themes.
To view the updated list of variation themes we’re removing, go to Variation themes planned for removal.
For more information about variation themes and how to manage variations, go to Variation relationship FAQ.
We appreciate your feedback and remain committed to providing you with a best-in-class listing experience.
Update to irrelevant or redundant variation theme removal
On August 20, 2025, we announced that irrelevant or redundant variation themes would be removed from our listing experiences. These variation themes are marked as “Deprecated: Do Not Use” in our new product templates. We also published a list of variation themes and product types affected by this change.
This change was only intended to impact variation themes that were not needed. We've revised the list to only remove variation themes that had no sales in the past 12 months. Additionally, we won’t remove any versions of critical variation themes like size, color, and style for applicable "Product Types".
Your existing variation families will continue to operate normally, with no disruption to sales. If you want to update them, you can do so at any time. Child ASINs will stay active even if you choose to update your variation themes.
To view the updated list of variation themes we’re removing, go to Variation themes planned for removal.
For more information about variation themes and how to manage variations, go to Variation relationship FAQ.
We appreciate your feedback and remain committed to providing you with a best-in-class listing experience.
31 replies
Seller_YgPPLgLYTiZ6h
Hi thanks for the update. One question though:
What does that mean?
Your existing variation families will continue to operate normally, with no disruption to sales. If you want to update them, you can do so at any time. Child ASINs will stay active even if you choose to update your variation themes.
Which option should I understand from this sentence?
1. If I have an existing variation with a theme that is being removed, I can keep this variation but I cannot make any updates such as adding new child under the parent.
2. "Existing variation themes" will be kept intact as long as their theme is not being removed. (If this is the way I should take it I am not sure why you guys wanted to explain this because otherwise there won't be any variation at all)
Thanks.
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
Nice information now let's have Seller News address the elephant in the Room. this is what all sellers want to know.
What is Amazon doing about Buyer Return Fraud?
- What happened to the Buyer Abuse Prevention Team?
- When filing Safe-T claims, why can't Amazon refund according to the published policies displayed to both the buyers and sellers?
- It is common knowledge that since the introduction of the RFS program, return fraud is rampant. Why does Amazon not only provide the tool (RFS) to commit the fraud, it always supports the buyer when they do?
Seller_vWuGqtGVyhZxm
Much appreciated. I actually joined Walmart after the last announcement, which I had resisted for 6 years to stay loyal to Amazon. I have no impacted themes any more as all of my themes are selling and not "irrelevant." Thank you!
Hopefully you all will create a stream lined process for the 8040 error on brand registered products where the seller is not in the registry, but is a trusted or authorized reseller. It is truly ridiculous. Businesses should not be suffering over "products falling off the page" and "never returning." It is not good for anyone: customers, sellers, brands, manufacturers and Amazon. It is the most boggling stupid thing on the planet. It is like your business is being held hostage and trapped. This would instantly cause growth for Amazon: sales will only go up and not down.
I have legitimately never seen the wrong product on the wrong page. If people are doing this Amazon should suspend them, investigate them and kick them off the platform permanently or for awhile until they get it together. A few bad apples should not make it impossible for the rest of us just trying to operate our businesses, especially if the variation exists globally such as in Canada or there is proof that it was previously part of that variation.
Seller_kj4XDVsSR4mzg
Hi thanks for the update. One question though: I have two identical products with different colours, merged under a color-name variant theme. However, when reviewing the removal plan, the color-name variant theme corresponding to my product type appears listed for removal. This indicates that the color-name variants will be removed. Will my variants be split on 2 September?
Seller_JwZBjWywUGYwx
Many of our products fall under the pitcher category, with variations in style and color. I’ve reached out to Seller Support but haven’t made much progress. According to the sheet provided, our listings are not currently at risk of being deactivated. However, could Amazon provide our team with an official confirmation of this?
Seller_xIcaJCup4Uxi7
I did upload a new template and it stated that the COLOR/SIZE option is not available option in the template. So if I try to change it will it go through?
Also will we have to change all the custom fields we have for our thousands of variations because this is going to be a huge issue if the custom fields are gone and we have to redo thousands of them. Will this reset the custom options? Why give us only a week to figure this out?
Also we have thousands of children for our sizes and obviously some have not sold in 12 months but customers order new sizes all the time since windows are custom made. How do I prevent these from losing there child parent relationship?
