Setting up and listing products on Amazon Seller Central in bulk and individually

Are you adding products to your catalogue in Seller Central for the first time? Or have you tried doing it and just didn’t understand or like it? Do you know that there are a couple of different ways you can go about doing this? At eCommerce Nurse, we specialise in all things buying and selling when it comes to Amazon, so here is a basic guide that will save you a lot of time and wasted effort.

The best way to manage this depends on a few different factors, like how many items you want to add at the same time. It also depends on the categories they belong to and whether these items already exist and are being sold on Amazon. Essentially, it will come down to two options:

1. Add the items one at a time directly in Seller Central or
2. Add your items in bulk via the Amazon new item setup (NIS) sheet using the NIS Excel template.

Firstly, check if your product already exists in the Amazon catalogue

Adding products individually makes sense if you are only setting up a couple of items with basic information like title, description, and price. But if you need to add multiple products it is a lot quicker to do this via a bulk upload using the Amazon NIS template.

If you decide you want to set up your products individually, simply select ‘Inventory’ or ‘Catalogue’ in Seller Central and click on the ‘Add a Product’ option from the dropdown. Once you are on this page, you want to first search for the product you are adding. The easiest way is by using the barcode, EAN, or ASIN for your item. Once you enter a valid ID number, Amazon will confirm for you if that listing is already being sold on the website by another seller. No headaches there, right? 

Listing items already being sold on Amazon, one at a time

Moving on to the next step, if the item you want to sell already exists on Amazon and is being sold by another seller, you will be taken to a page where you have the option to either ‘Create a new listing’ or ‘Sell this product’ against the existing product page after first clarifying the product condition (new, collectable, used). From there, you will be required to input some basic information before you can push your listing live. 

The key pieces of information usually asked for include the following: 

• SKU number: this is your product code and you the seller will decide what you want it to be, once you submit the SKU it is permanent. 
• Price
• Condition: new, collectable or used.
• Fulfilment method: this would be either FBA or MFN. If you select MFN you will need to input the quantity you have in your inventory as you will be fulfilling the orders. You do not need to give the quantity for FBA as Amazon would manage that once they receive your inventory to store in their fulfilment centres. 

Once you have filled out all the information, click on save and your listing will then go live. Simple!

Listing completely new products, one at a time

If you are listing a brand-new unique product that didn't appear in the Amazon catalogue when you searched and you want to set it up from scratch, select ‘I’m adding a product not sold on Amazon’ after selecting ‘Add Products’ from the ‘Catalogue’ menu. You will then need to select the category in which the item needs to be set up in. If the specific product category does not exist as an option, select the closest and most relevant. You can also try searching for the item type on the Amazon website to see which categories those items are set up in.

Once you have selected your category, an additional screen will appear with fields for you to populate with your product data. You can choose to have access to a basic view where you only need to complete required data, or you can select the advanced view where you can add additional details such as product description and keywords. We highly recommend that if you are the brand owner to go for the advanced view and complete as much detail as possible. The more detail you can provide the customer, the higher the chance of a sale. Just a reminder that if you ever need advice and help with your listing optimisations, we at eCommerce Nurse are always here for you. 

Adding multiple products at the same time to your catalogue

So, you have multiple products both new and/or existing that you need to add to your catalogue, and you don’t want to waste time adding them one by one. It is definitely quicker and easier to add these into your Seller Central catalogue via a bulk upload. If you are unfamiliar with how this works, we have also got this covered this for you in our guide to adding or editing items using the Amazon NIS template.

Setting up multiple products can get a little complex but will save you so much time and effort, so is definitely worth mastering how to do it. Effectively what you will be doing is downloading an Excel sheet (the Amazon NIS template), adding in all the product data, and uploading it back into Seller Central. Once you have used the NIS template a few times, we guarantee you that you will find it easier and easier to add and edit your product listings. From there, all you will have to worry about is fulfilling those sales orders. 

If listing your items on Amazon is not a process you enjoy, or if you ever feel your sales can do with a boost through marketing, listing and keyword optimisation, we at eCommerce Nurse are always happy to have a chat with you. Contact us to find out more about how we can help you manage your account and boost your sales on Amazon.