Removal of irrelevant variation themes will start September 2
Hi sellers,
Please see the new announcement thread which covers updates made to the variation theme change: Update to irrelevant or redundant variation theme removal.
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Between September 2, 2025, and November 30, 2025, we will remove variation themes from our product templates that aren’t relevant or frequently used, to simplify your listing experience. We’ve already marked the impacted themes as Deprecated: Do Not Use in the product template Variation Theme Name field.
If you try to update a listing with a deprecated variation theme, you’ll receive an error message that states, “the value specified is invalid” and the update will not be successful.
To update your ASINs with impacted variation themes, we recommend that you take the following steps:
- Go to Manage Inventory, and delete the existing parent ASIN.
- Remove Parentage Level, Child Relationship Type, Parent SKU, and Variation Theme Name attributes from the child ASINs that were tied to the parent ASIN.
- Create a new parent ASIN with an available variation theme.
- Assign your relevant child ASINs to the new parent ASIN.
If you’re unable to update impacted variation themes, your child ASINs will remain active as stand-alone listings so customers can continue to purchase your products.
For more information about variation themes and how to manage variations, go to Variation relationship FAQ.
To view the complete list of variation themes we’re removing, go to Variation themes planned for removal.
Removal of irrelevant variation themes will start September 2
Hi sellers,
Please see the new announcement thread which covers updates made to the variation theme change: Update to irrelevant or redundant variation theme removal.
---
Between September 2, 2025, and November 30, 2025, we will remove variation themes from our product templates that aren’t relevant or frequently used, to simplify your listing experience. We’ve already marked the impacted themes as Deprecated: Do Not Use in the product template Variation Theme Name field.
If you try to update a listing with a deprecated variation theme, you’ll receive an error message that states, “the value specified is invalid” and the update will not be successful.
To update your ASINs with impacted variation themes, we recommend that you take the following steps:
- Go to Manage Inventory, and delete the existing parent ASIN.
- Remove Parentage Level, Child Relationship Type, Parent SKU, and Variation Theme Name attributes from the child ASINs that were tied to the parent ASIN.
- Create a new parent ASIN with an available variation theme.
- Assign your relevant child ASINs to the new parent ASIN.
If you’re unable to update impacted variation themes, your child ASINs will remain active as stand-alone listings so customers can continue to purchase your products.
For more information about variation themes and how to manage variations, go to Variation relationship FAQ.
To view the complete list of variation themes we’re removing, go to Variation themes planned for removal.
105 replies
Seller_8ineEp6prq7LQ
Respectfully, following the advice of deleting parents and recreating them would likely be catastrophic for sellers. Having worked with more parent-child relationships than most Amazon associates, following this advice will most likely prompt the algo to flag seller listings for variation abuse, as it has many times for us. Sure, sellers could recover the listings after a few days to a week of lost sales and hours lost.
This is another instance of Amazon staff staying busy, not productive.
Thank you for the update News_Amazon. This will really drive the needle for sellers.
Seller_jvfhuXWiqaKrs
"To view the complete list of variation themes we’re removing, go to Variation themes planned for removal."
Surely this has to be an error, and Amazon isn't removing "Size" and "Color" as variation options for the Coat category, right? That would be absolutely bonkers. Did you attach the wrong file to this link?
@Sandy_Amazon @Dougal_Amazon @Sunnie_Amazon
Seller_QeFe6GpYlfyoK
Is there a way for us to request relevant variation types? For example the Drywall Taping Knives browse node needs SIZE so bad, instead everyone uses STYLE/SHAPE or just lists under an entirely different browse node. Half of my ITKs need more options than they have.
Seller_Ha6JyVvDK6Ybs
Just wondering is this just money grab right before the holidays? How much FBA product will this strand allowing Amazon to collect storage or forcing sellers to dispose or recall which we all know when we recall you destroy product by improper handling!
Seller_lCX40xAkSs1xm
Oh... oh no. This will result in weeks or months of work to re-build our decade old listings.
Seller_4boPEXejbwdzY
The policy is well intentioned to remove redundant variant attributes. But the problem is that it's not practical, many items can't be categorized by a simple color quantity size match, and you guys actually removed style as well, so doesn't that part of the item that can't be properly covered create another variant abuse?
Seller_PCshC7t8gZjqm
Some of the inconsistency of what remains is kind of wild.
Acceptable Variation Themes: POOL_SPA_WATER_TREATMENT
- Color
- Color/Item package quantity
- Color/Number of items
- Item package quantity
- Item package quantity/Color
- Item package quantity/Material type
- Number of items
- Number of items/Style
- Size
- Style
- Style/Unit count
Color and Material Type for pool/spa chemicals is 'funny' to me. But whatever. The real oddity here is that "Style/Unit count" and "Number of items/Style" are allowed, but Style + Size is not. So, a pool chemical sold as 100 vs. 50 vs. 20 tablets can vary on style, but one sold as 50 lbs vs. 25 lbs vs. 10 lbs cannot. The super majority of pool chemicals are sold by weight or volume, not by unit counts.
Seller_3qllv6SY8mdjV
Where can we see what variation options will be acceptable?
For PET_FOOD it looks like every variation theme I recognize is being removed.
How in the world can these be removed as options?:
(Just a small sample):
FLAVOR
FLAVOR/NUMBER_OF_ITEMS
FLAVOR_NAME
FLAVOR_NAME/NUMBER_OF_ITEMS
FLAVOR_NAME/SIZE_NAME
Seller_NKoWxmzeYrtUa
Exactly! Having this same issue in Trailer Lighting
Seller_2bJk9R7yUgNTc
As with any changes to variations on Amazon, it's really confusing. The easier way to look at this is by seeing what variation themes will NOT be deprecated. The easiest way to do so is when you're downloading a flat file, be sure to Opt-IN to the Beta version of the flat file. This clearly lists out what variation themes will be deprecated for your product type, but more importantly it lists out the variation themes that are not set to be deprecated.
- However IMO if you're going to submit any changes to your listing using the beta version of the flat file, expect a lot of un-intended errors to be kicked back because it only works about half of the time.
