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Categories on Amazon are made up of 3 different parts: product type (PTD), GL and item type keyword (ITK)/browse node. Each category plays a special role which is explained in detail below.
What Is A Product Type?
-The product type is the main part that makes up the category. This is the most important part of the category, as this determines what “main” category your product will be listed under.
-Example: If you are selling a pillow the product type would be “PILLOW”, and your item would be listed in the home category.
-You will notice that product types will always display in all caps when they display on Amazon’s internal website.
What is a GL?
-The GL is the second part that makes up the category. This information is internal to Amazon and not visible to sellers when viewing the detail page. The GL is determined by the product type that is selected along with the item type keyword.
-Example: If your item could fall into two different categories and the item you are listing has an item type keyword for one category and a product type for another, the GL will likely follow the product type that was selected.
-The internal value for the GL will appear as “gl_home” if your listing belongs in the main category of Home. These values will always appear lower case and will always have an underscore before the category value.
-If you are ever questioning what the GL is for your product, you will need to contact Amazon, as this information is internal.
What is an Item Type keyword aka Browse Node?
-An item type keyword (browse node) is the third and final part that makes up the category. The item type keyword is determined by the last value selected when you are determining what category your item is listed under.
-Example: If you are listing a throw pillow for sale, your item type keyword would be “throw-pillows”.
-These values will always appear as a plural value, be all lower case and have a hyphen.
– These values mean the same thing; however, a browse node is a string of numbers vs. verbiage. You can find the browse node values in the browse tree guide (BTG).
-If you are selling on Amazon Canada, you will notice this marketplace only uses browse nodes vs. item type keywords. If you are updating this value for Canada, make sure you are taking this information from the Canadian marketplace as the values may differ.
How do I determine what value I need to contribute to my listing?
-To determine what value you need for the specific product you are listing, please follow the product classifier or browse tree guide (BTG) linked below:
Product Classifier: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/listing/download?ref_=xx_download_tnav_status
Browse Tree Guide: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help-popup.html/?itemID=1641
-Because each category has its own browse tree guide, you will need to search for your specific category on the above link to find the correct guide to follow.
-When contributing a category to your listing, make sure you are following the process for the specific marketplace you are selling in, as this information may differ depending on the marketplace.
IMPORTANT NOTES
-If your items are listed in a variation, your category MUST match across the parent and all variants. For example, you cannot list a body pillow and a throw pillow in the same variation, as the product types will be different. Doing this will cause the variation to break, and Amazon will not fix the variation until the product types match.
-If you would like your reviews to be synced across the variation, all three parts of the category MUST match. If there is any mismatch between the three values this may cause the reviews to break apart across the variation.
-If you see that the reviews are not synching across the variation, we recommend running a full update on the entire variation using a feed upload. If this does not fix the issue, you will need to contact Amazon support to verify that the categories are the same.
-If your item is cross browsed by the system (automated action), your item will have the higher of the two referral fees.
-Cross browsing typically happens when your product could belong in more than one category. The system does this automatically based on the buyer’s search history. For example, a beauty product could fall under both the beauty category and the health & personal care category. When listing your product, you will select the category that best fits your product, however, Amazon may cross browse your item automatically based on the buyer’s search history.
-When creating a listing, make sure you are selecting the category that best suits your product, as it can be difficult to get this updated.