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If you’re selling on Amazon, or thinking about it, there’s one term you’ll need to know inside and out: ASIN. You’ll hear it everywhere in ecommerce conversations. You’ll see it show up in your URLs, your backend reports, and inside Seller Central. But what exactly is an ASIN? And, why does it matter to your business in 2025?
ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. It's a 10-character combo of letters and numbers that Amazon uses to keep track of every product in its store.
Every item you browse, click, or buy on Amazon has one. It's how Amazon organizes billions of listings and helps shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for. That blue camping hammock? It has one. The USB-C cable you reordered last week? Also has one.
You can think of it like a fingerprint for products. It connects everything about your listing like the title, price, reviews, and inventory to a unique ID that Amazon can instantly reference.
For books, the ASIN is the same as the ISBN. For everything else, Amazon generates a unique ASIN when the product is first listed.
ASINs aren’t just for internal tracking. They’re at the core of how the Amazon ecosystem works. When a shopper types in "noise cancelling headphones," the ASIN helps decide what shows up, how results are grouped, and what product variations are displayed.
They also power a bunch of crucial processes like:
If your ASIN is wrong or duplicated, your listing might be suppressed. If you create a new ASIN when one already exists, your account could get flagged. If you don’t set up your ASINs correctly for variants, your reviews won’t consolidate. All that can lead to lost traffic, lost sales, and a whole lot of frustration.
Let’s start with the easiest way. Head to any Amazon product page. Look at the URL—it’ll look something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015UKRNGS
You can also scroll to the "Product details" section of the page. You’ll typically find the ASIN listed alongside weight, dimensions, model numbers, and other technical info.
If you’re managing a catalog of hundreds or thousands of products, checking URLs manually isn’t realistic. This is where ASIN lookup tools come in. Software like ASINTOOL, Synccentric, and JungleScout lets you bulk upload product IDs and retrieve associated ASINs. Perfect for scaling sellers or agencies managing multiple brands.
This is one of the most important distinctions in the whole process. When you go to list a product, Amazon asks: is this already in our catalog?
If the item already exists on Amazon, your job is to match it. That means:
You’re now one of potentially many sellers offering the same product. Amazon groups all of you on the same detail page. Whoever offers the best combination of price, fulfillment, and seller rating wins the Buy Box.
Matching is efficient, but you don’t control the listing’s content. It can also be very competitive.
If Amazon doesn’t recognize your product, you’ll need to create a new ASIN. That means building a full product detail page from scratch:
Amazon will then generate a unique ASIN for your product. This is now the master record for that item across the entire marketplace. Something important to note is Amazon does limit how many new listings you can create per week based on your sales history, performance metrics and listing accuracy. New sellers should prioritize their best products to earn higher limits over time.
Let’s say you’re selling a hoodie that comes in 5 colors and 4 sizes. You don’t want to create 20 separate listings, but rather you’ll want to build a parent-child relationship.
The parent ASIN is a non-buyable shell that groups related products. Each child ASIN represents a specific variation (e.g., blue hoodie, size large). This structure allows sellers to create easier browsing for customers, consolidated reviews across all variants, and better SEO and discoverability.
Setting up your variations correctly impacts your ad performance and ad tracking. Amazon has very strict rules about what can be grouped this way. For example, you can group different sizes and colors, but not different product types or unrelated accessories. Misusing variation relationships (like changing what a child ASIN represents later on) can lead to penalties or suppressing listings.
For someone who is new to selling on Amazon, we can understand how it could be confusing to distinguish between ASINs and SKUs. But getting it right is essential if you want your catalog, inventory, and ad performance to stay organized and optimized.
ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. It’s Amazon’s official product ID i.e. a unique, 10-character alphanumeric code assigned by Amazon to every product in its marketplace. That code stays the same across the entire platform, no matter who’s selling the item. It’s how Amazon catalogs and indexes products in search, advertising, and backend systems.
SKU, on the other hand, stands for Stock Keeping Unit. This is your internal identifier, meaning it’s something you, the seller, create and control. Amazon doesn’t assign it. You use SKUs to track and manage inventory on your own terms.
So what’s the real-world difference?
ASINs are more universal. If you and 50 other sellers list the same black yoga mat, you’ll all be using the same ASIN. SKUs are private. You decide how to label that black yoga mat for your business. Want to separate the FBA inventory from in-house stock? Or maybe you want to split it by color, size, warehouse location, or ad campaign? That’s where SKUs come in. For example, you could create SKUs that look like:
“MAT-FBA-BLK-24IN” for your Fulfilled-by-Amazon stock
“YMAT-HOUSE-BLK-24IN” for the same item stored in your own warehouse
“YMAT-FBA-BLK-BFDEAL” for a Black Friday campaign version
It’s all the same product, and the same ASIN, but different SKUs depending on your fulfillment strategy, inventory location, or promotion.
If you don’t set up SKUs intentionally, things can get messy. You’ll lose visibility into what’s actually selling, which campaigns are working, or where your inventory’s going. And if you confuse ASINs and SKUs, you risk misreporting product data or mismanaging stock.
Marpipe Hot Tip: When creating SKUs, build a naming system that works for your workflow. Short, clear, and consistent. Use dashes or underscores to separate key details like product type, color, size, and fulfillment method. You’ll thank yourself (or us) later.
The only way two products can share the same ASIN is if they are exactly the same in function, branding, and physical characteristics.
You cannot list a knockoff, bundle, or modified version under an existing ASIN. Doing so is a direct violation of Amazon’s listing policy and can lead to suspension.
But, if your product differs in size, material, version, or packaging, even ever so slightly, you need to create a new ASIN. Always err on the side of accuracy. If you’re not sure, open a case with Seller Support and ask before listing.
Managing 5 listings? You can handle that manually. Managing 500? You’ll need spreadsheets.
Amazon lets you bulk upload products via inventory file templates. You download the relevant template based on your product category, fill out the necessary details, and upload it back to Seller Central.
There are some different templates depending on your goal:
This saves tons of time and is a must-have process for wholesalers, agencies, and multi-brand sellers. We recommend keeping copies of your uploads so you can track changes and batch updates later without starting from scratch.
Ever wish you could peek behind the curtain of your competitor’s Amazon strategy? With Reverse ASIN Lookup, you can. It’s a little… ethical espionage, but the kind that helps you out-rank, out-optimize, and out-perform.
Here’s how it works:
You plug a competitor’s ASIN into a tool like Helium 10, Jungle Scout, or ZonGuru. That tool scrapes Amazon’s public data to show you what keywords that ASIN is currently ranking for, both organically and through paid ads. You can see which keywords drive the most traffic, what position they rank in, and how competitive those terms are.
Even better? You can see which keywords they’re not ranking for, which creates opportunities for you to slide in and steal visibility.
But it’s not just for competitors. Use reverse lookup on your own ASINs to:
This tool isn’t optional. It’s a must-have for Amazon sellers serious about SEO, ad strategy, and conversion lift. You wouldn’t run a Google Ads campaign without keyword research, don’t do it on Amazon either.
Once your ASIN is live, your job isn’t done. Not even close.
Every ASIN is a living entity on Amazon, and it needs regular maintenance, protection, and strategic tuning if you want it to thrive long-term. The good news is we know how to keep your ASINs healthy.
If you’re a brand owner, join the Amazon Brand Registry. It gives you more control and powerful protection tools like:
Report a Violation: Instantly flag and remove unauthorized sellers trying to profit off your listing.
Transparency: A unit-level serialization program that stops counterfeiters before your product even ships.
A+ Content: Custom image modules, comparison charts, and rich formatting to boost conversions and trust.
The best-performing brands on Amazon treat ASIN protection as seriously as product development. Why? Because your ASIN is your digital shelf, and if that shelf gets hijacked or misrepresented, your brand equity suffers.
ASINs aren’t just some backend technicality. They’re the DNA of your Amazon business. From how your product ranks to how it converts, every decision you make connects back to your ASIN strategy.
Whether you're launching your first listing or managing thousands across marketplaces, understanding and owning your ASINs is non-negotiable. They’re the building blocks for growth, reputation, and profitability.
Is an ASIN the same as an ISBN?
Not quite, but close. For books, the ASIN is the same as the ISBN (International Standard Book Number), which publishers assign. But for all other product categories, Amazon generates a separate ASIN internally. So unless you’re selling books, ASINs and ISBNs are two distinct things.
How do I get an ASIN for my product?
There are two ways to get an ASIN:
Only create a new ASIN when your product is truly unique. Duplicating listings can get flagged.
How do I find an ASIN for an item?
You can locate an ASIN in a few ways:
Whether you're researching competitors or analyzing your own listings, knowing where to find the ASIN is key.
Can two products have the same ASIN?
Only when they’re absolutely identical i.e. same brand, size, color, material, version, and packaging. If there’s any variation (like a bonus item, new model, or different label), Amazon requires a new ASIN. Listing mismatched products under the same ASIN can result in policy violations or account suspension. When in doubt, contact Seller Support before listing.
Can I change an ASIN?
No, ASINs are permanent once assigned. You can’t edit or modify an existing ASIN to reflect a new product, version, or variation. If your product has changed significantly (new model, size, or material), you’ll need to create a new listing and get a separate ASIN.
However, you can update the product information within your listing such as title, images, or bullet points, especially if you’re the brand owner or have listing authority. Just make sure the changes accurately represent the original product. Misleading edits can get your listing suppressed or flagged for manipulation.
What happens if an ASIN is suppressed?
A suppressed ASIN means your product listing has been temporarily hidden from search and may not appear in customer results. This usually happens when the listing violates Amazon’s guidelines. Some common triggers include:
You can view suppressed ASINs in Seller Central > Inventory > Manage Inventory > Suppressed. From there, you’ll see the exact issues flagged by Amazon and how to fix them. Restoring a suppressed ASIN is often as simple as uploading a compliant image or updating product specs, but act fast. Long-term suppression can hurt your sales velocity and SEO rank.
