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The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

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Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#21

Post by nraynaud »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #12
philwelch wrote: post #7

Here’s some ASIN trivia from my time at Amazon in the early 10’s. At least at that time, there was exactly one inventory item at Amazon that could change ASINs during its lifetime: Amazon Fresh used different ASINs for green bananas and yellow bananas.

That sounds like an inventory keeping nightmare! You buy 4000 units of green bananas and end the month having 0 units left, having sold none... while you somehow managed to sell 2200 yellow bananas you didn't even have and on top of that lost another 1800 (that never even existed!) to spoilage.

And then you introduce double entry accounting in your stock management and hell breaks loose.

Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#23

Post by HyperSane »

nraynaud wrote: post #21
ComputerGuru wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like an inventory keeping nightmare! You buy 4000 units of green bananas and end the month having 0 units left, having sold none... while you somehow managed to sell 2200 yellow bananas you didn't even have and on top of that lost another 1800 (that never even existed!) to spoilage.

And then you introduce double entry accounting in your stock management and hell breaks loose.

That seems like it would require tensor calculus.

Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#24

Post by eyelidlessness »

philwelch wrote: post #11
eyelidlessness wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know if I’m more surprised that Amazon Fresh existed in the early 10s or that Amazon Fresh sold green bananas in that timeframe.

Fresh dates back to 07, actually, though it was delivery-based and almost entirely in Seattle originally. They have gone through a few pivots since then.

I knew it started here, now I just feel very old haha.

Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#25

Post by dylan604 »

seniorsassycat wrote: post #13
philwelch wrote: post #7

Here’s some ASIN trivia from my time at Amazon in the early 10’s. At least at that time, there was exactly one inventory item at Amazon that could change ASINs during its lifetime: Amazon Fresh used different ASINs for green bananas and yellow bananas.

Is it actually a mutate or do you write off greens and add new yellows?

If you're Enron, you count both as being in the inventory

Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#26

Post by RockRobotRock »

oaththrowaway wrote: post #5

Years ago I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get a Kindle to "Whispersync" sideloaded books. Eventually I figured out it was as simple as having an ASIN included in the books metadata (Calibre does this automatically now, but it was fun figuring it out manually with Python scripts). Originally I thought the ASIN had to be valid, but eventually realized it didn't even matter, just had to match the patte…

Wow, TIL. So you're saying you can get the audiobook legit through Audible and use a downloaded EPUB and it will still work if the ASIN is in the metadata? This is definitely worth a blog post or something at least.

Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#27

Post by ignite »

philwelch wrote: post #7

Here’s some ASIN trivia from my time at Amazon in the early 10’s. At least at that time, there was exactly one inventory item at Amazon that could change ASINs during its lifetime: Amazon Fresh used different ASINs for green bananas and yellow bananas.

Really? Amazon (now) sells thousand of things that have an expiration date. I hope they track this.

Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#28

Post by ignite »

ignite wrote: post #27
philwelch wrote: post #7

Here’s some ASIN trivia from my time at Amazon in the early 10’s. At least at that time, there was exactly one inventory item at Amazon that could change ASINs during its lifetime: Amazon Fresh used different ASINs for green bananas and yellow bananas.

Really? Amazon (now) sells thousand of things that have an expiration date. I hope they track this.

Ah, I read the rest of the article: "They are using a new ASIN for each new expiration date on a given product."

Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#29

Post by ehnto »

ignite wrote: post #28
ignite wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Amazon (now) sells thousand of things that have an expiration date. I hope they track this.

Ah, I read the rest of the article: "They are using a new ASIN for each new expiration date on a given product."

I wonder if they have a different ASIN per batch on products where batches matter. Something like fabrics are not created identically each run, so getting all your fabric for one project from the same batch is important, otherwise the colour difference can be noticeable. Same goes for things like wallpaper, flooring, car wrap etc.

Re: The Story behind ASINs – Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (2021)

#30

Post by hef19898 »

philwelch wrote: post #7

Here’s some ASIN trivia from my time at Amazon in the early 10’s. At least at that time, there was exactly one inventory item at Amazon that could change ASINs during its lifetime: Amazon Fresh used different ASINs for green bananas and yellow bananas.

I never worked with Fresh. Among the more fun things so was getting X-ASINs to work at 3PL sites...

Seriously so, Amazon's ASINs are among the best part number systems I encountered in my life so far. And it is incredibly scaleable as well!

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