Tag: ASIN

FNSKU Vs. ASIN: Understand the Difference Between Them

When selling on Amazon, it is important to have your particular product properly registered so that it can be uniquely identified on the platform. Amazon has an extremely large catalog of products, so your product has to be differentiated from the rest. Now, that unique identifier can come in the form of an ASIN and FNSKU number. Your product will be assigned both of these numbers by Amazon, but what exactly do they mean? Oftentimes people confuse one for the other, but make no mistake, they each provide something different. We will delve into these differences below so that you have a better understanding of what they do.

What is an FNSKU? 

An FNSKU represents a type of barcode that Amazon uses to identify a product and connect it with a particular seller. It stands for:

Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit

Just like an ASIN, an FNSKU is also a unique 10-digit code assigned by Amazon. Only an FNSKU is for you, the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) seller, and encompasses the specific products you are listing. (If you are fulfilling orders by yourself (FBM), then you do not need to worry about an FNSKU.)

Amazon uses the FNSKU code for tracking products within their internal fulfillment centers. After listing your product on Amazon and it shows up on your inventory page, Amazon automatically generates the FNSKU labels that you will need to print off and affix to the packaging of all products you send to Amazon. Any and all UPC or EAN codes that exist need to be covered up with a blank label or the FNSKU label to avoid any confusion or your products ending up in commingled inventory.

Sometimes an FNSKU is confused with a UPC code because they are both used to identify what a specific product is. The difference is that a UPC can be used in every store or online marketplace, whereas the FNSKU is unique only to Amazon.

What is an ASIN? 

An ASIN is one of the more common acronyms within the Amazon seller space. It stands for:

Amazon Standard Identification Number

Basically, every product on Amazon utilizes its own 10-digit ASIN, which can be found on its Amazon listing. Usually, the number is near the bottom amongst the “Additional Information” section. It is also present within the product page’s URL. 

Even variations of the same product still each get their own, unique ASIN. For instance, if you’re creating two variations of cellphone cases, by color, Black and Grey, you would end up having three ASIN’s: 1 for Black, 1 for Grey, and 1 for the main “parent” item that binds the two together. However, the parent ASIN is never seen in a search.

ASINs can be used by sellers to look up products on Amazon and check to see if they are eligible to list the products. An actual product name can also be searched, however an ASIN will provide a product’s exact match. 

FNSKU vs ASIN: The Printing Factor

A common question Amazon sellers have is whether both the ASIN and the FNSKU need to be printed onto their product’s labels. It all depends on whether you ship products directly to your customers (FBM) or ship your products to Amazon who then ships to your customers (FBA).

  • FBM: Because FNSKUs are generated by Amazon, you do not need to print them on your FBM labels. Feel free to utilize that space for anything else.
  • FBA: If Amazon is shipping out your products, then you need to follow all regulations it has set forth. In order to be a legit vendor with Amazon, you have to include both the ASIN and FNSKU somewhere easily visible for an efficient fulfillment process. 

In Closing

The main difference between an ASIN and an FNSKU is the purpose of the code. An ASIN code is used for identifying items on Amazon’s website as opposed to in the Amazon FBA warehouses. An FNSKU code is used for shipping products to Amazon warehouses and to make sure the products are properly identified in the Amazon FBA warehouses. It may not seem like it, but understanding the difference between ASINs and FNSKUs is very important when starting out as a seller on Amazon. Things can get confusing when there are so many numbers involved. At least now, you have some good sense on what number goes where!

Taking the Reverse ASIN Lookup to the Next Level

You may be familiar with a Reverse ASIN* Lookup, a popular feature of many Amazon keyword tools. It’s a search that allows you to see every keyword that a single ASIN, or product, is indexed for.

Some people like to use Reverse ASIN lookups to do keyword research, mining their competitors’ listings for juicy, high-volume terms. But while this may seem like a great way to optimize your listing, it’s actually hugely problematic.

The Problem with the Reverse ASIN Lookup

Here’s the thing about a Reverse ASIN Lookup … It only shows you the keywords that a single listing is indexing for. So if you’re basing your keyword strategy on a Reverse ASIN report, you had better hope that the listing has every single relevant keyword for your product.

But wait, you’re running Reverse ASIN Lookups on 10 different listings? How could you possibly be missing keywords when you’re looking at a sample group like that? Well, where are you getting those listings? If you’re hand picking them yourself, what are your criteria for selecting each one? As hard as you try, your selection process is going to be imperfect and time-consuming.

The Keywords You’re Missing

For example, let’s say you select a handful of listings. Competitor listing A is indexing for 20% of all relevant keywords, and competitor listing B is indexing for 50% of all relevant keywords. Competitor listing C is indexing for 70% of all relevant keywords. But all three listings have a 90% overlap.

If you run a Reverse ASIN Lookup on these listings, you’re still missing 68% of the keyword landscape! That could mean thousands of dollars in missed sales. And that’s not even considering the search volume of the keywords you’re missing.

How it Should Work

Ideally when running a Reverse ASIN Lookup, every listing would be completely relevant to your product and have as little keyword crossover as possible with the other listings you’ve selected. They would span the breadth of your market, including unlikely search terms you may not ever think to look for.

But that’s not the reality of Reverse ASIN Lookups. And that’s the problem. Reverse ASIN Lookups are only as strong as the listings’ you input. The good news is that a solution does exist. It’s called a Reverse Market Lookup.

Reverse Market Lookups

A Reverse Market Lookup shares many of the same features as a Reverse ASIN Lookup with one major difference: the set of listings it pulls from. While Reverse ASIN Lookups depend on you to select the right listings for consideration, Reverse Market Lookups find that optimal set of listings for you, using advanced data analytics to scan as many as 10,000 listings.

Keyword Research is the only Amazon seller tool available that uses this advanced system for keyword collection. When you enter your product’s main keyword in Keyword Research, we immediately begin to scour Amazon’s immense catalogue to find all of your product’s most relevant keywords and markets.

We then run our Reverse Market Lookup on thousands of top ranking listings across a diverse range of relevant markets. Can you imagine the amount of time it would take you to find and evaluate thousands of relevant listings for your product’s market?

The beauty of Keyword Research and all the Viral Launch software is that you get thousands of data points analyzed and summarized for you at the click of a button. That means you get a comprehensive view of the market without having to do the work of collecting the information. Create a free Viral Launch account, and try out Keyword Research to see the power of the Reverse Market Lookup.

TRY KEYWORD RESEARCH

Want the power of Keyword Research and our Reverse Market Lookup but don’t have the time to write your own listings? Have our team of professional copywriters create optimized listing copy for you. Click here to learn more and sign up.  

 

*Reverse ASIN is a trademark of Keyword Inspector 

Exit mobile version