Amazonlistings, explained.

Every listing is built from a title with an optional Item Highlights line, a main image and more images, bullet points under 'About this item', a description or A+ content, a hidden box of search terms and product details like size, flavour and pack count. Then there's the offer, meaning your price and stock. In search results shoppers mainly see the main image, title, highlights, price, star rating, delivery date and badges like Prime, so those win the click and the rest gets read on the page.

The main image must show the real product, not a drawing, on a pure white background, filling at least 85% of the frame, with no added text, logos or watermarks and no props that aren't included. Print on the product itself is fine. Aim for 1,000 pixels or more on the longest side so shoppers can zoom. A background that only looks white can still fail Amazon's checks and get the listing hidden from search.

Amazon suggests at least six images and a video, and most shoppers browse on a phone, where the pictures do the bulk of the explaining. Unlike the main image, the others can usually carry text, show dimensions, put the product in use or show the back of the pack. Brands in Brand Registry can add their own videos, and Amazon can show video from influencers in its own programme too, so not every video a shopper sees is one you made.

Since 27 July 2026 a title on amazon.co.uk, amazon.de and amazon.fr can be 75 characters at most, spaces included, in every category except media such as books. Details like materials or uses go in a 125-character Item Highlights box, and older rules still apply, so no word except small ones like 'for' can appear more than twice and symbols like exclamation marks aren't allowed outside brand names. Amazon gradually rewrites any title that's still too long, and brand owners get 14 days to review or edit the rewrite first.

You need your brand in Brand Registry, and then A+ content is free to add through Seller Central, replacing the plain text description further down the page with bigger images, comparison charts and brand information. The comparison chart can send a shopper who isn't sure to another of your products instead of a competitor's. Amazon checks each submission before it goes live and turns down things like prices, discount wording, quotes from customer reviews or links to your own website.

Amazon groups them as variations under one parent page, so shoppers can switch size, colour or flavour without leaving it. The parent can't be bought, and each option has its own product ID, called an ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number), plus its own price and stock. Since changes rolled out by category between February and May 2026, reviews only pool between options whose differences don't change what the product does, such as sizes, colours or pack counts, so a different flavour may end up with its own star rating.

In most categories you do, but only to create a listing, not to add your offer to one that already exists. Amazon wants a barcode issued by GS1, the global barcode body, and in the UK and EU that's usually a 13-digit European Article Number, or EAN. It checks each number against GS1's records and your brand name, so cheap resold barcodes often get rejected. Stock sent to Amazon's warehouses needs a scannable label too, either that EAN or Amazon's own. Brand owners without one can apply for an exemption.

Amazon calls the crossed-out 'before' price a reference price, and amazon.co.uk usually labels it RRP (recommended retail price) or Was Price. The Was Price is the median price shoppers paid over the last 90 days, mostly leaving promotions out. Since 23 April 2026 Amazon UK only shows an RRP if another retailer has been charging that price or shoppers have bought the Featured Offer at it. EU law measures a price cut against your lowest price of the previous 30 days, but UK law sets no day count and bans misleading comparisons instead.

Yes. Shoppers can put a question to Amazon's shopping assistant on the page, and it answers from your listing, your reviews and shoppers' earlier questions. They can also message you privately, and those messages land in the same inbox as your other customer messages. A gap in your product details can turn into a vague or wrong answer from the assistant, and nobody tells you when it happens, so it's worth asking it about your own product from time to time.

They can, because Amazon builds each product page from what several contributors send in, including other sellers of the same product and Amazon's own catalogue systems. So a title, an image or another product detail can change without you touching anything. Brand Registry gives the brand owner the strongest say, but Amazon's systems can still overwrite details. It's worth downloading a copy of your listing details from Seller Central every so often, so you can spot changes and put them back.

If you haven't run out of stock, it's most likely been suppressed, meaning Amazon has hidden it for breaking a listing rule, such as a main image that isn't on white, a missing required detail or a claim it won't allow. A price Amazon flags as a possible mistake can switch the offer off too, and on the EU stores so can missing product safety or packaging compliance details. It normally comes back once the problem's fixed, but stock in Amazon's warehouses keeps paying monthly storage while it's hidden.

Usually the category, the brand or that particular product is gated, which means Amazon wants to approve you first, and Seller Central says so when you try to add it. It can also be a barcode that doesn't match the records of GS1, the body that issues them. Approval usually means sending documents such as supplier invoices, compliance paperwork or clear label images, and it doesn't carry across from amazon.co.uk to amazon.de, so you may need to apply again.

Amazon bans promotional wording such as 'best seller' or 'free delivery' from titles, bullet points, descriptions and images, and it's worth keeping it out of the hidden search terms too. Health claims are tighter still. A food or supplement can never claim to prevent, treat or cure a disease or medical condition, and any health claim it does make has to be one on the official register. Great Britain's register is separate from the one the EU and Northern Ireland use, so a claim allowed on amazon.de isn't automatically allowed on amazon.co.uk.