Product not visible on otto.de? Reading the marketplace status and fixing the causes

Two checks: technical and content

After upload, every variation goes through two checks. First the update task: it shows technical errors. According to the documentation, you poll the "self" link until the state changes from "pending" to "done", then see under "failed", "succeeded" and "unchanged" what arrived.

Then comes the marketplace status (GET /v5/products/marketplace-status): it reports non-technical errors that keep a SKU from going live and, for successfully processed variations, includes a link to the listing on otto.de. OTTO recommends fetching it regularly per SKU or as a list with fromDate.

The five status values

The specification (as of October 2026) lists the marketplace status values PENDING, ONLINE, RESTRICTED, REJECTED and INACTIVE; it doesn't define them further, but the names speak for themselves: under review, visible, restricted, rejected, inactive. Only ONLINE means shoppers can find the product.

According to the specification, each status comes with an errors list (each with code and title), the variation's MOIN, the time of the last change (lastModified) and links to the partner data ("variation") and the shop page ("shop").

Cause 1: content errors in the product data

The errors list names the reason. Typical are an invalid or duplicate EAN, a brand without "usable" status, a category whose name isn't exactly from OTTO's list, empty LEGAL attributes, missing images or manufacturer details. Every error has a code; fix it in your master data and resend the variation.

Cause 2: MOIN missing or not adopted

The MOIN is the marketplace-generated identifier for a variation together with its content. According to the documentation, it appears in the marketplace status first, before the SKU is fully live. If another seller offers the same variation, you confirm the existing content by adding the assigned MOIN to your product data – otherwise your offer stays stuck. More in OTTO MOIN, product reference and SKU.

Cause 3: stock, active status and delivery information

• Zero stock: you send quantities as an integer from 0 upwards to the Availability interface – and, according to OTTO, only for SKUs that already have a MOIN. A variation with quantity 0 can't be bought and loses its position in search; see Stock and availability on OTTO.
• Active status: the API keeps a field active per SKU ("the product variation is supposed to be active or not"). An accidentally deactivated variation is invisible even though data and stock are fine.
• Delivery information: every SKU needs a shipping profile; according to the specification, the processing time is between 1 and 99 days or DEFAULT (then the profile's value applies).

The "unchanged" trap

If you send exactly the same data again, OTTO ignores it as a duplicate – it ends up under "unchanged". According to the documentation, unchanged variations are also not re-reported with an error if the initial export failed. So anyone who just "uploads again" after an error without changing anything sees no new error and wonders why the product is still missing. Only an actual change triggers a new check.

Check routine and monitoring

1. Fetch the marketplace status of all SKUs with fromDate since the last check.
2. Group all variations that are not ONLINE by error code.
3. Fix errors in the master data, adopt the MOIN, check stock and active status.
4. Resend the changed variations and test the "shop" link.

MarktRank additionally checks from the outside: if the product page on otto.de answers with "Willkommen bei OTTO" or "Seite nicht gefunden", MarktRank marks the product as not live and rechecks it daily – so a silent drop offline is noticed before revenue goes missing.

Frequently asked questions