E-commerce can be extremely competitive and working with a marketplace like Amazon can come with a lot of new challenges. The experts at GS1 US have experience with a few of the common issues that Amazon sellers may encounter, especially when it comes to using GTINs, UPCs, and ASINs.
Unless your product category is exempt, sellers need valid Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) as a key component of a successful product listing. They are the numbers that appear below a UPC barcode and in addition to helping with inventory management, they work in the background of your product listing to feed into search algorithms and boost visibility. An ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) is an internal identification number that Amazon assigns to your product.
Here are some common challenges that we hear from GS1 US members:
Someone Hijacked my GTIN
Once you have your GTIN, you may start the listing process only to find out another seller has associated your GTIN with their product!
This is called GTIN hijacking, and it is usually caused by two things: bad actors posing as legitimate sellers who then steal a company’s product listing, claim it as their own, and collect sales earnings for products that are never shipped. Also, some sellers operate outside of the marketplace’s GS1 Standards requirements and put in whatever GTIN they can find without any real knowledge of how unique GS1-sourced identification works. No matter the cause, hijacking should be immediately reported to Amazon. Here’s a breakdown of the most common error message related to GTIN hijacking:
Error message 8541
Amazon won’t allow a new ASIN to be created if the identifier is already being used on a different product in the Amazon catalog. This error is commonly referred to as a “single matching error” and occurs when your Product ID, such as a UPC or EAN, corresponds to the Product ID of an existing ASIN. That means some of the information you’re submitting contradicts the product information, such as, title, brand, color, and size, that is already present for that particular ASIN.
To help resolve this situation, be prepared to provide Amazon with proof that you are the correct licensee of your GS1 Company Prefix or GS1 US GTIN. Download your certificate by logging into myGS1 US (or select Login at the top right corner of this website).
Amazon Seller Support can then make sure that the existing invalid GTIN can be suppressed from the platform. Be sure to make reference to the error code 8541, and state this is a GTIN hijacking scenario. This will help ensure the correct resolution within Amazon’s support team.
I got my barcodes today – can I use them?
If you just got your barcodes today and you’re trying to use them on Amazon immediately, you might be experiencing an error because the databases need more time to sync. Amazon pings your information off the GS1 database (formerly called GEPIR) to validate your barcodes. This is usually resolved within 2-3 business days.
If you need to resolve this immediately, you can log into myGS1 US and download your GS1 Company Prefix Certificate or your GS1 US GTIN Certificate and provide it to Amazon Seller Support to resolve the issue manually.
Selecting the Correct Product ID
Product identification is required in product listings for more than 25 Amazon product categories. Seller Central provides guidance on when products may be exempt, or if multipacks or bundles require additional GTINs. Generally, Amazon recommends that each sellable unit have its own GTIN, including bundles or multi-packs.
The drop-down menu in the Product ID section of your product listing setup will ask you to select from a number of different types of identifiers, including EAN, UPC, or GTIN. Knowing which one to select is linked to the number of digits of a brand’s product identification number.
If the GTIN has 12 digits, the brand owner should select UPC, as GTIN-12s are encoded into UPC barcodes (this is the most common scenario). If the GTIN has 14 digits, this signifies an outer case identification number and should be used for when a case of items is listed on Amazon, as well as the individual item. Sellers in Europe will likely choose the EAN option, as their GTINs typically have 13 digits.
Here’s a quick Identifier cheat sheet:
- GTIN = 14-digit number
- EAN = 13-digit number
- UPC = 12-digit number
Providing Proof of Brand Ownership
Sometimes Amazon’s validation finds a mismatch in the company name associated to the identifier and the brand name that is provided when listing on Amazon’s marketplace. Company names commonly don’t match brand names. For example, a beverage company named Power Soda owns the brands Lemon Fizz and Cola Fizz. It doesn’t make sense to change the either to same name, as it will only cause confusion in the marketplace and poor inventory management.
You can work to eliminate the mismatch by providing proof of brand ownership to Amazon. You will need to fill out their Brand Name Authorization Form. It’s important to note that changing your brand name with GS1 US does not help this situation. GS1 US member support will direct you to work with Amazon to clear up any brand ownership issues affecting your Amazon listing.
Changing Over GTINs from Another Source
For sellers who acquired GTINs from a source other than GS1, there is a real possibility that Amazon will flag your account as having an issue. In recent years, Amazon has placed greater emphasis on unique product identification so that there will be less confusion about which company is connected to each product, and only identifiers issued from GS1 can provide that benefit.
If Amazon flags your account, we recommend you license GTINs from a GS1 organization and work with Amazon’s Seller Support team to switch them over to your product listing. In most cases, you are still able to retain your long-standing purchase history and reviews.
Important note: Sellers who voluntarily reach out to Amazon to alert them to a non-GS1 identifier should evaluate the risk of potentially losing sales data and reviews associated with that listing. It may be more beneficial to react to Amazon’s error message rather than risk negatively impacting an otherwise productive product listing.
For more detailed troubleshooting support, please visit Amazon’s support pages for Seller Central and Vendor Central.
*In this article, the letters “U.P.C.” are used solely as an abbreviation for the “Universal Product Code,” which is a product identification system. They do not refer to the UPC, which is a federally registered certification mark of the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to certify compliance with a Uniform Plumbing Code as authorized by IAPMO.