Amazon publishes two different kinds of value list for its attributes, and Zentail treats them differently. On a suggested list, Amazon accepts whatever you send. Your own wording will never break a listing or raise an error.

Matching Amazon's wording is still worth doing, because Amazon builds its shopper-facing search filters out of its own values. The wording you send decides whether a shopper filtering a results page can find you at all. This article covers both halves: what Zentail sends, and why the match is worth having.

An attribute is a single piece of product data on a SKU, such as Occasion, Color or Unit of Measure.

Your value is accepted either way. Accepted is not the same as discoverable, and three things run on the exact wording.

None of this makes your own wording wrong, and none of it is urgent in the way a listing error is. It is why the match is worth setting up once on the attributes shoppers actually filter by.

You don't need to chase every attribute. Two questions tell you whether a mismatch is costing you anything:

Where both answers are yes, check your value against Amazon's suggested list and set up a value map if they differ. Everywhere else, your own wording is fine as it is. The Listing Prep screen shows which attributes apply to a product type and what values Amazon accepts.

A closed list is a fixed set of values. Amazon calls these valid values. Amazon only accepts values that are on the list, so sending anything else earns a rejection. Zentail drops a value that isn't on a closed list rather than let the whole listing fail.

A suggested list works differently. Amazon publishes recommended values but accepts other values too. The list is advice, not a rule — but as above, taking the advice is what puts you in the filters.

Zentail checks three things, in this order.

Steps 1 and 2 are how you land on Amazon's wording, and they are the reason most sellers never have to think about this. Step 3 is the safety net.

Matching is deliberately conservative. Zentail will not guess at a value that merely looks similar to one of Amazon's — it matches on capitalization and punctuation only. A wrong guess is worse than your own word: it would put your product under a filter that misdescribes it, in front of shoppers who then bounce.

If an attribute holds several values and two of yours translate to the same Amazon value, Zentail sends that value once instead of twice.

On a suggested list, a value Amazon doesn't recognize is still a legitimate value, and Amazon will accept it. Dropping it would lose real product information and gain you nothing — it would still appear on your detail page, and it still tells a shopper who reads it something true about the product.

That's the opposite of what happens on a closed list, and the difference is deliberate. On a closed list, an unrecognized value gets the listing rejected, so Zentail removes it. On a suggested list there is no rejection to avoid, so your value goes through.

For example, say you use Casual or All Occasions on the Occasion attribute. Neither is on Amazon's suggested list for Occasion. Both reach your Amazon listing exactly as you typed them, and nothing errors. What you give up is the filter traffic: no shopper narrowing by occasion will surface the product, because All Occasions is not one of the occasions Amazon offers them. If one of Amazon's values genuinely fits the product, mapping to it is worth more than keeping your own word.

These translations are built in. Your catalog keeps your wording; only what Amazon receives changes. Every row is a filter you pick up without touching your catalog.

Two notes on reading that table. Amazon has more than one occasion attribute, and its suggested values differ between them and by product type — so a given row applies wherever Amazon actually suggests that value, which is why Wedding Shower has two possible destinations. And the four seasons all land on Amazon's single Seasons value, because that is the only seasonal option Amazon suggests; if you need the specific season on the listing, put it in the title or a product description rather than Occasion.

Contact Zentail support with three things: the attribute, the value your catalog holds, and the Amazon value you want sent. Once the map is in place it applies to every SKU using that value, so this is a one-time fix rather than a per-SKU edit.

Occasion values on Target work differently and have their own rules, including a three-value limit. See Target Merch Type Attributes (MTAs).