Amazon: finding the Category Listings Report (often hidden) to optimize your listings

On Amazon, the file we care about has a specific name: the Category Listings Report. It's often hidden in Seller Central. We'll explain how to find it, and above all what you can (and can't) expect afterwards. We stay honest with you from start to finish.

The right file

The right file is the Category Listings Report. It contains your titles, your bullet points, your descriptions and your keywords.

It's not a sales, stock or performance report. Those reports are useless for optimizing your listings.

So, to avoid: business, sales, simple inventory, performance reports, or files that contain only the title.

Enabling it (it's often hidden)

This report is often hidden in your account. To get it:

Ask Amazon Seller Support to enable it (Help > request access to the Category Listings Report).
Usually count on a few hours before it's available.
Once enabled, download it from Reports > Inventory Reports.

Save the report in CSV format and upload it as is: we set aside the template rows specific to Amazon for you.

The expected columns

The best file contains these columns:

item_name (the title),
bullet_point1 to 5 (or bullet_point — the bullet points),
product_description (the description),
generic_keyword (or search_terms — the keywords),
as well as the SKU / ASIN / price columns, to be preserved.

If your file contains only the title, you can still upload it: we'll then only be able to improve the title.

Afterwards: be warned, it's a beta working file

Here, we tell you things straight, just like in the optimization assistant.

The optimized Amazon file is a beta working file, to be reviewed — not a guaranteed Seller Central import.

Concretely, this means:

It's a working file, not a guaranteed import into Seller Central.
You have to copy over yourself the validated titles, bullet points and keywords into Amazon Seller Central (depending on your brand rights).
The published display may depend on Amazon's content arbitration: what you copy over doesn't necessarily show up as is.

On the other hand, one thing is certain: your prices, ASINs, images and variants are never modified.

We prefer to be clear now rather than leave you with a false impression. Amazon keeps control over what's published; our role is to prepare clean content for you, ready to copy over.

Frequently asked questions

I can't find the Category Listings Report, is that normal? Yes, it's common: it's often hidden. Ask Amazon Seller Support to enable it (Help > request access to the Category Listings Report). It usually takes a few hours.

My file contains only the title. Is that a blocker? No. You can upload it anyway. It's just that we'll only be able to improve the title, since the bullet points, the description and the keywords aren't in your file.

Will the optimized file update my Amazon listings automatically? No. It's a beta working file. You copy over the validated content yourself into Seller Central. Publication isn't guaranteed: it depends on Amazon's content arbitration and on your brand rights.

Are my prices, ASINs or images at risk of changing? No, never. The optimization only touches the text content (title, bullet points, description, keywords). Your prices, ASINs, images and variants stay intact.