WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ASIN, A SKU, A FNSKU AND A UPC/EAN?

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There are so Many Different Acronyms On Amazon And In The Amazon Seller Community, Hopefully This Will Explain Some Of The Main Ones For You!

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ASIN

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ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. Every item that is in the amazon product catalogue is assigned a unique ASIN. If you create a new listing, it will get a new ASIN.  If you’re a Seller listing an existing catalogue item, you’re listing on an existing ASIN.  In short, each item that comes up in search is a unique product detail page, and it has an ASIN.

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Variations of the same product still have a unique ASIN for each variation.  For example, if you’re creating 2 variations for Yoga Mats, by colour, Purple and Yellow, you’d have 3 ASIN’s: 1 for Purple, 1 for Yellow, and 1 for the parent item that binds the two together (but is never seen in search). There will also be different ASIN’s for different amounts of the item. So if you are selling a bundle of 2 face creams and also a bundle of 3, each bundle will have its own ASIN.

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To sell an ASIN, you create an “offer” so that your offer can be listed on that ASIN’s product detail page. On popular items, there can be a hundred different offers per ASIN.

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SKU

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SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit – it’s what you call the product in your system.  You can use whatever naming system you want here.  A lot of people use a pattern to name their products. Always ensure you make SKU’s mean something so that when you are checking how much your item is selling for you know at a glance how much you paid, so you don’t lose money. Every time you create a new offer for an ASIN, you’ll be asked to provide a unique SKU. I have a guide on this here if you would like more info on how I make mine.

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FNSKU

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FNSKU stands for Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit. It is the alphanumeric number that is used to generate the barcode that you put on your product when you send inventory to the FBA warehouse.  Each “Fulfilled by Amazon” SKU you add to Amazon will have it’s own FNSKU Barcode. You’re not required to use FNSKU’s to list on Amazon but I would highly recommend it.  You can also use the manufacturer barcode (UPC) that is printed on the product package, but this will mean that your products are “Commingled” with other sellers. I wouldn’t recommend doing this as your well packaged, brand new condition, real, product, could be mixed with their badly wrapped, bashed up, fake product could be sent to a customer when you make a sale and then returned due to it’s crappiness, and you could get a bad review! 

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UPC

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A UPC stands for Universal Product Code.  Every item you buy in a supermarket has one, it’s what they scan at checkout.  UPC’s are purchased from GS1, who holds the rights to distribute them, and anyone in the world who looks up your UPC on any system can find out what the product is.  Each product on Amazon (unless you’ve been given an exemption) requires a UPC.

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EAN

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EAN stands for European Article Number and is the European version of the UPC barcode.