Variation listings can be very confusing if you don’t know what to look for.
Unlike typical products on Amazon, you won’t be able to make an informed buying decision with just the Keepa chart - and that’s a good thing. This increases the skill ceiling and allows you to get ahead of the competition.
This article aims to show you the different things to evaluate when you come across one of these listings and understand how to use some of the more niche data points available to you with Keepa.
What Variation Listings Are
Simply put, a variation listing is an item that comes in different sizes, colors, or styles.
This is most commonly seen in the Clothing & Shoes category since everything comes in multiple colors / sizes, but it applies to other categories as well.
What Makes Variation Listings Different
One of the great things about SellerAmp (which every seller should use) is that it estimates the monthly sales for a listing. This number isn’t 100% accurate and can give you varying results, but for the most part it gives beginners a general idea of how much an item sells.
On variation listings, the estimated sales is for the whole listing and not the individual variation. You could see a listing for a golf shirt that’s rank 400 and SellerAmp says it’s selling 15,000 units per month, but the particular variation you’re looking at could get less than 5 sales per month.
With this information in mind, if we want to sell on variation listings we’re going to have to use other kinds of data at our disposal in order to make an informed buying decision.
Now, let’s go over 3 ways to evaluate a variation listing so you can separate yourself from the competition.