Amazon has announced a new update to its product listing system that will affect sellers using variation themes. Beginning September 2, 2025, and continuing through November 30, 2025, Amazon will begin removing irrelevant or infrequently used variation themes from its product templates as part of an effort to simplify the listing experience for sellers and improve the customer shopping experience.
What’s Changing?
Amazon is deprecating variation themes that are no longer considered relevant or widely used. These deprecated themes have already been marked as “Deprecated: Do not use” in the Variation theme name field of the product templates.
Starting from the removal date:
- Listings using deprecated variation themes will not be updatable.
- If a seller attempts to update a listing using one of these themes, they will receive an error message:
“The value specified is invalid.”
What Sellers Need to Do
If your listings use any of the deprecated variation themes, Amazon recommends the following steps to update your ASINs:
- Go to Manage Inventory and delete the existing parent ASIN.
- For each child ASIN previously linked to the parent, remove the following attributes:
- Parentage level
- Child relationship type
- Parent SKU
- Variation theme name
- Create a new parent ASIN using one of the currently supported variation themes.
- Reassign your child ASINs to the new parent ASIN using the updated variation structure.
If you choose not to update the variation theme:
- Your child ASINs will remain active as standalone listings, and customers will still be able to purchase them individually.
Why This Matters
Variation themes help customers navigate product options like size, color, or style. However, unused or irrelevant themes can clutter the catalog and confuse buyers. By removing these themes, Amazon aims to:
- Enhance listing clarity and accuracy
- Improve catalog consistency
- Streamline the listing and browsing experience for both sellers and customers
Resources and Support
- To learn more about variation themes and how to manage them, visit the Variation Relationship FAQ.
- To view the complete list of variation themes scheduled for removal, go to Variation Themes Planned for Removal.
22 Aug, 2025
