amazonHow to optimize your Amazon channel for speed

This article explains how to use the Listing requirement level setting in your Amazon channel settings to reduce processing times, particularly for large product catalogs.


Understanding Listing requirement levels

When setting up an Amazon channel, you need to decide whether you’re listing new products, or only offering items in Amazon’s catalog.

In Channable, you choose this by selecting your Listing requirement level. This tells Amazon whether you’re creating new listings, adding offers to existing listings, or doing both within one channel.

This table explains the three different levels and what they do:

Level

What it sends

When to use it

Action needed

Offer and product

Full product data (e.g. title, description, images) and offer data (e.g. price, stock, shipping).

When creating new listings or updating both product and offer data.

Map all relevant product and offer information fields Ensure each product has a valid GTIN, EAN, ASIN or UPC

Offer only

Offer-related data (price, stock, shipping) only

When products already exist in Amazon’s catalog.

Ensure each product has a valid ASIN. Map all required offer fields

Product only

Product data only. Creates a new product listing on Amazon, but the product isn't available for sale until offer details are added.

When adding new product content or updating catalog data without publishing an offer.

Ensure products have a unique identifier (GTIN, EAN, ASIN or UPC.*) and make sure it’s mapped. Map all required product fields


Why Listing requirement level impacts performance

The amount of information you send to Amazon significantly impacts your channel’s processing speed.

Creating new listings (Offer & Product or Product only)

Sending comprehensive product data like titles, descriptions and images to list new products is resource-intensive for Amazon.

This leads to:

  • Slower processing times: Amazon needs to validate more information

  • Longer feedback loops: It can take hours to confirm products are listed

  • Higher error risk: Missing or invalid data causes delays and errors

Adding offers to existing products (Offer only)

Adding your offer to a product that already has an ASIN sends a smaller and more focused dataset.

This leads to:

  • Faster processing times: Only sends minimal data (price, stock, fulfillment)

  • Shorter feedback loop: Updates are typically reflected faster on Amazon

  • Better equipped for price/stock sync: Ideal for pricing and inventory updates


How to split your channels for better performance

If you’re managing a large catalog (>25,000 products) and don’t plan on updating your product data (e.g. titles, descriptions) too often, splitting your setup into two channels can significantly improve speed and reliability.

1

Create an Offer-only channel

  1. In the Build step, set the Listing requirement level to Offer only.

This channel will manage price and stock updates for products that already exist on Amazon (have ASINs).

2

Create a Products-only channel

  1. In the Build step, set the Listing requirement level to Product only.

This channel will be dedicated to creating new products or updating rich content (e.g. titles, descriptions, images). It will take longer to process, but won’t delay offer updates.

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If you’re actively updating your product content for most of your products, it’s best to keep them together in a single channel.


Tips for faster processing

  • Check your identifiers: To create products and offers, Amazon requires your products to have a valid ASIN and GTIN, EAN, or UPC. Make sure these are mapped correctly in the Build step.

  • Dry run: Dry run your channel to test your setup and identify and resolve errors before sending to Amazon.

  • Monitor feedback: Check the Feedback tab to identify and resolve errors. This prevents a buildup of failed products that can slow down your channel.

  • Auto-map: Take advantage of the auto-map feature to speed up mapping in the Build step.

  • Avoid combining everything into one channel: Having both product creation and offers in one channel slows processing, even for simple updates like price changes.

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