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Best Practices for Catalogs

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This topic provides best practices when you Create and Manage Catalogs.

Which product identifier to use

When you Create and Manage Catalogs, you can associate each product with multiple product identifiers. Although you can use any of these values to identify a product when you call the Buy with Prime API, we recommend that use your own identifiers, such as the following IDs:

For example, when you render a product detail page, you likely already have a listing ID (external product ID) in the context.

Make sure that you use a stable, immutable identifier that is unique for each product in a catalog. For example, if the product's listing is regenerated when the details in an internal catalog change, use the SKU as the ID. If a listing identifier stays the same throughout the product lifecycle but the SKU can change, use the external ID.

Understanding SKU and Amazon SKU

Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) and Amazon SKU are both product identifiers used in Buy with Prime, each serving different purposes in your catalog and order fulfillment.

SKU is a product identifier from your website or catalog. When adding the Buy with Prime widget to your website, you can use the SKU to look up the corresponding Buy with Prime product and display it in the widget. To display the product in the widget correctly, you must use unique SKU values in your Buy with Prime catalog.

Amazon SKU is a product identifier from your Seller Central or Vendor Central catalog. This field links your Buy with Prime product to the associated SKU in your Amazon catalog. When a Buy with Prime order is placed, the Amazon SKU and related inventory in the Amazon warehouse gets picked, packed, and shipped to the shopper. When you specify a valid Amazon SKU value for a product, the API returns the corresponding ASIN in the product response.

  • Both SKU and Amazon SKU values are case-sensitive.
  • Both can be duplicated within your Buy with Prime catalog, but duplicates limit their usefulness as unique identifiers.
  • If you need guaranteed unique identifiers, use one of the alternatives below.

Alternative identifiers for widget display:

  • ExternalID: This is guaranteed to be unique and is only available using the API. The ExternalID is commonly used for API-based integrations like the MCF and Buy with Prime app for Shopify.
  • Buy with Prime product ID: This is guaranteed to be unique.

Calculating inventory for product detail pages and checkout

The available number of products is a point in time calculation, with potential delays. To determine whether a shopper can purchase a product on your storefront using their Prime benefits, we recommend that you determine inventory based on whether Create a delivery preview for a product detail page or Create a delivery preview for checkout succeeds. If you encounter an ItemAmountUnavailable error, the requested quantity isn't available. For example requests and responses, see Create a Delivery Preview for a Product Detail Page and Create a Delivery Preview for Checkout.

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Updated 4 days ago