Amazon Standard Identification Number

The Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is a 10-character alphanumeric unique identifier assigned by Amazon.com and its partners for product identification within the Amazon organization.[1]

Usage and structure

Although ASINs used to be unique worldwide, global expansion has changed things so that ASINs are only guaranteed unique within a marketplace. The same product may be referred to by several ASINs though, and different national sites may use a different ASIN for the same product. In general, ASINs are unlikely to be different between the country sites specially if they are for a class of product where the ASIN is based on an externally defined and internationally consistent identifier, such as ISBN for books.

Each product sold on Amazon.com is given a unique ASIN. For books with 10-digit International Standard Book Number (ISBN), the ASIN and the ISBN are the same.[2] The Kindle edition of a book will not use its ISBN as the ASIN, although the electronic version of a book may have its own ISBN. In most cases, it is possible to convert an ASIN to obtain a corresponding EAN code, also known as an International Article Number.[3]

ASINs are also used for other items used by Amazon.com (and subsidiaries), such as businesses in the yellow pages (on A9.com) and OpenSearch feeds.

References

  1. ↑ "Amazon.ca Help: Product Identifiers". Amazon.ca. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  2. ↑ "FAQ: ISBN-13 for Amazon Associates". Affiliate-Program.Amazon.com. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "ASIN to EAN converter". erwinmayer.com.


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