Overview

Amazon has overhauled its product listing templates, replacing older category-specific and custom inventory files with two new formats: Custom templates and Category Custom templates. These updated templates allow sellers to list products from multiple categories within a single file, streamlining the bulk listing process. Sellers who previously relied on the legacy templates must transition to these new versions, as Amazon no longer accepts older template formats for creating or modifying listings.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Legacy templates are no longer accepted — If you submit an older template version, Amazon will return an error in your processing report. Sellers must switch to the new Custom or Category Custom formats immediately.
• Two template options available — Sellers can choose between Custom templates (flexible, tailored to your needs) and Category Custom templates (comprehensive, full-attribute files for specific categories).
• Multi-category support — The new Custom template lets you combine products from different categories into a single file, eliminating the need to maintain separate templates for each product type.
• Excel format with automatic updates — The new templates use an Excel format and are regularly updated to reflect current listing requirements, ensuring sellers always have access to the latest required and optional attribute fields.
• Download updated versions of past submissions — Sellers can retrieve previously submitted data in the new template format through the Check Upload Status page in Seller Central.
• Listing Book, Offer, and some specialty templates are unaffected — Not all template types are changing. Listing Loader, Offer Loader, and certain other templates remain the same.

How Custom Templates Work

Custom templates are designed to give sellers maximum flexibility when building their inventory files. Instead of downloading a pre-built file for a single category, sellers can select the specific categories and attribute groups they need, and Amazon generates a tailored template based on those selections. The selected categories automatically appear as dropdown options within the template, making it easy to assign products to the correct category during data entry. This approach is ideal for sellers who carry diverse product lines across multiple categories and want to manage everything in a single upload. To get started, sellers can visit the "Build your inventory file template" page within Seller Central to configure and download their Custom template.