Amazon requires you to supply a 12 digit UPC, 13 digit EAN or 14 digit GTIN code for any product you wish to sell through their platform. This is a bit of a problem if you don’t have that information, and it is NOT displayed on (or hidden in the source code of) the product page on Amazon.
To find the UPC/EAN/GTIN you can view the rss page of the product and search for the relevant tag such as <EAN>, or <UPC>. For example to get an RSS page for the 80GB Sony Playstation 3 which is listed on ASIN B001DTETLS, you’d use this URL:
http://webservices.amazon.co.uk/onca/xml?Service=AWSECommerceService&AWSAccessKeyId=youridhere&Operation=ItemLookup&IdType=ASIN&ItemId=B001DTETLS&ResponseGroup=Medium,Offers
You’ll need to substitue “youridhere” with your own AWSAccessKeyId. I’m not publishing mine here, but you can get one for free yourself by signing up to Amazon Web Services. You could also just Google for someone elses as other people do publish their keys.
You can substitue the domain extension in the URL if you want to look it up on other channels such as .com .de .fr .ca or .co.jp.
This RSS page has a bunch of useful information in it. The static URLs for images for example and also the lowest prices for both new and used and of course, the EAN and UPC code.
If you’re loading your products into Amazon using flat files (which you really ought to) then there’s another interesting option. Amazon’s flat files require the field “StandardProductID” (this is your UPC EAN or GTIN) and “ProductIDType” (this is just the right prefix for the “StandardProductID” you are using so the allowed values are UPC, EAN or GTIN).
What Amazon don’t tell us is that their is a fourth “StandardProductID” type the system will accept – have you guessed yet? Yes, we CAN put an ASIN number in “StandardProductID” and enter “ASIN” into “ProductIDType”.
This has a couple of advantages. Firstly, we don’t need to bother with an EAN, UPC of GTIN code and secondly we can be absolutely sure we’re listing onto the correct ASIN.
Some people may wish to NOT list onto the correct ASIN. Typically if you’re selling a product and you’re not the cheapest seller for it it is going to be very difficult to get the buy box on that product. So you stand a much better chance of a sale if your product sits on it’s own ASIN. To do this, you’d need to supply Amazon with a unique, and also incorrect UPC, EAN or GTIN code.
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That’s great Ted – had a look and the top 100 appears to be a little sparse though, with me all on my lonesome. Here’s another Andy Fletcher for you.
How do you go about finding UPC EAN for product when Amazon “hides” them? I was trying to list an item which did not come up when searched by model or part number. When I eventually found the UPC after 30 minutes of searching, Amazon popped up a picture of the item and said “Hey! We know about this product. You want to sell yours here?” Well, why didn’t they help me in the first place? Very aggravating. But I digress. How do you find EAN/UPC numbers for products? There has got to be a master list somewhere.
Hi Andy!
When I try this, the following message is displayed:
MissingParameterThe request must contain the parameter Signature.c98ac576-bea6-400b-bcf3-2a1224d9fd1eDo you know what I might be doing wrong?
Thanks
Maarten
Sorry, the post is now out of date due to changes to the Amazon Associates API. You now need a secret key to access it, and as far as I can determine this makes it impossible to get the data via a URL anymore. I’ll write a new post on this soon.
Hi
I am trying to list my items as a merchant pro seller in amazon.
But I am unable to list it as I can’t provide UPc code.
when I try to list with upc code of other sellers,my product is going to be displayed underneath that seller items.
I am confused.
As a merchant Pro Seller,Can I list my items individually without upc code.
If not tell me how to get upc code.
I would be happy if you help me in this.
The simple fact that I can use the ASIN instead of hunting for UPC codes just saved me, literally, hours of work today. Which means I can actually sleep tonight!
Thank you!
ps–this worked just fin through uploading an inventory file at 10:30pm on 2011-07-10
Er, you want to intentionally create duplicate listings eh? Presumably you are hoping to sell at a higher price or something, which is (correct me if I’m wrong) a pretty deceptive way of doing business. I should point out that deliberately listing products incorrectly would violate Amazon’s terms. OK, now I’ve said my piece, here’s how to do it.
You’ll need to create your own UPC’s. For that you’ll need to set up an account with one of the issuing companies such as GS1UK. Let me just say again, if Amazon realise you are deliberately supplying incorrect UPC’s, they will most likely close your account.
Andy,
I appreciate your tagline; “Do or do not; there is no try.” How true this is, Master Yoda.
Andy – this is a very valuable post, and it’s unfortunate that your (quite clever) method is no longer valid. Have you happened to find a new method to reach this same end? I am having to guess and check which UPC matches the Amazon item page I am trying to post to, and it would be a huge help if I could immediately find the correct UPC before I attempt to post my items. Thanks!
Hi Ben, you can do it with an API call. In fact, I’m afraid that’s the only way to do it that I’ve found. Smarter people than me could probably knock something up in PHP to do this. I’m pretty lazy, and found you can do it using the Amazon Module for Drupal.
Setting up a Drupal site is reasonably simple (tougher than WordPress, but a lot easier than learning PHP from scratch), and the Amazon Module has a test function that can be used to look up data (including the UPC/EAN). I’m considering setting one up that would be available for public use but don’t hold me to that. I have ideas for websites all the time and hardly ever see them through
One other tip – you can search on Amazon using UPC or EAN codes, so if you think you know it, and want to check just search for it on Amazon and Amazon will return the item from their catalogue.
Thanks for the direction, Andy. This looks promising, I will pass it along to my team.
I also appreciate you pointing out that you could search Amazon by UPC – I had no idea!
Keep up the good work
Hi Dev,
I’m also a pro-merchant. We sell cell phone batteries, with so many models we were in the need of a few thousand codes. I bought them at http://www.codeupc.net/ and they seem to be working fine.
Jason -
Hi guys, you do know you talk in another language to us mere mortals don’t you
I’m just a casual seller trying to make some space in my cupboards. Have managed to sell a few books but what can you do if your item isn’t listed? I have an unused kitchen ‘gadget’ I want to sell. Its probably only worth about £10 but all I can find is the company product code and nothing else. It’s an Italian company and their website is useless – just some very basic info. Should I just forget about items like this? Remember – I don’t speak your language so be kind and just use basic English please
Dear Mary,
Unless you are a Pro-Merchant you cannot create new listings. You have 3 options:
(1) upgrade your account and list the item yourself,
(2) wait for someone else to create the listing (A Pro-Merchant),
(3) forget about selling it on Amazon, and use Ebay.
use this -> http://erwinmayer.com/labs/asin2ean/index.php