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This is a kind of follow up post. Got a few I wanted to do. At Prague airport now, and got some time to kill, so I’ll try one now.

There was some discussion here about whether GS1 codes are now needed for Amazon. According to “speedy bar codes”, yes. The general opinion from those who have spoken to Amazon is no. If you want to go into retail, or think you may, then GS1 seems to be “safer”. But this post isn’t about that.

You don’t need ANY bar codes for Amazon. This is something I only recently realized. I actually made a mistake a while ago, and now I don’t need them for my brand. This info is regarding Amazon japan, but I assume it is similar in other marketplaces. Please mention in the comments if it isn’t.

A while ago Amazon used to have one form for product registration, and for registering to not use bar codes (can’t remember the form name). The info in seller central is still old, and so when I was filling out brand registration, I was actually filling out the no bar code form. I got approved in a few hours. I then did my brand registration after that. Anyway, I selected manufacturer part number for my “key attribute”, so I only need to use this when adding products. I don’t need a bar code.

This is getting a little tricky, but if you want to add a variation, you need to make a new listing using this part number. You then use the assigned asin instead of the bar code when you add the variation to the parent in SC. This will merge the first listing you made into the child of your parent listing. BTW, we needed to use flat files for this in the past, but it can be done in SC now.

I bet that doesn’t make sense! Sorry. Difficult to put into words.

Anyway, if you are only selling on Amazon, and have brand registry, then you don’t need any bar codes.

One last thing, do you know that brand registry will not apply to your product if you did it after listing? You have to go back and set your “key attribute”. Only then will it “lock” the listing to the brand register. I would guess that many people have brand registry, but don’t know that it’s not turned on!

As usual, if any of this info is incorrect, please let me know in the comments.

*This post originated from a post in the Amazon Japan Facebook group, “Amazon Japan PL”. The information may well have changed by the time you read this. Please check the DATE of the post before you make any decisions based on this information!

The Japan Guy

The Japan Guy, Nick Katz, is a full time Amazon seller, consultant and speaker.

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