Overview

Amazon has begun enforcing new attribute requirements for listings across roughly 1,750 product categories. The rollout, which started in September 2023 and will finish by early January 2024, forces sellers to provide additional product details when they create or edit listings. Missing or incomplete attributes will now block submission, making the change critical for anyone managing inventory on the marketplace.

Key Points

• Expanded mandatory fields — Attributes that were optional, such as “Material Type” for kitchenware or “Target Audience” for toys, are now required in many categories, meaning a seller listing a silicone spatula must now select “Silicone” before the listing can be saved.
• Phased implementation — Amazon introduced the new rules in stages, beginning on September 11 2023 and completing the rollout on January 1 2024, so sellers may notice the changes at different times depending on their product type.
• Updated flat‑file templates — The flat‑file upload templates that bulk sellers use have been refreshed; the latest version adds new columns like “Country of Origin” for electronics, and old templates will generate errors if used.
• Live listings stay unchanged — Existing listings that are already live remain as they are, but any edit— even a price tweak— can trigger a prompt asking the seller to fill newly required fields such as “Product Dimensions” for a bookshelf.
• Media, digital and handmade categories excluded — Products classified under Media (books, DVDs), Digital (software downloads), or Handmade (artisan goods) are not subject to the new attribute rules, so sellers in those niches can continue using the old workflow.
• Feedback loop for irrelevant fields — A question‑mark icon now appears next to each new required attribute; clicking it lets sellers flag a field as “not applicable,” which Amazon’s catalog team will review for possible removal.

How Listing Creation Works

1. Select product type — When a seller clicks “Add a Product” and chooses a category, the system now displays a revised attribute checklist; for example, a seller adding a “Kids’ Backpack” will see a mandatory “Target Age Range” field that was previously optional.