Complete Amazon Glossary (A-Z): 160+ Terms and Acronyms You Need to Know

This Amazon Glossary includes over 160 terms and abbreviations you need to know when selling on Amazon.

Whether you’re doing business as a vendor or seller: This A-Z Amazon dictionary will help you navigate all the jargon, abbreviations, and technical terminology you are likely to come across when selling on the world’s largest marketplace.

Make sure to bookmark this page and come back whenever you need to look up any term in the future. I update this Amazon glossary regularly.

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• 1P – First Party, describes Amazon’s direct relationship with manufacturer brands and distributors that receive purchase orders from the retailer (refers to Vendor Central).
• 3P – Third-Party, describes sellers trading goods on Amazon’s marketplace without selling these items to Amazon first (refers to Seller Central).
• 3PL – Third-Party Logistics
• 3PS – Third-Party Seller

A

• A+ Content – Product page with enhanced content features on Amazon, e.g., feature comparison tables, enhanced imagery, etc.
• AA – Amazon Advertising
• ACoS – Advertising Cost of Sale. Describes the ratio of your ad budget to your ad revenue. ACoS = total ad spend ÷ total ad revenue.
• AGS – Amazon Global Store
• AMC – Amazon Marketing Cloud
• AMS – Amazon Marketing Services, now known as Sponsored Ads.
• AMG – Amazon Media Group, now known as Amazon Ads.
• AMZ or AZ – Amazon
• AMZL – Amazon Logistics
• AMZNCC – Amazon Carton Content Code. External Container ID to label cartons to be sent to Amazon and generated via Vendor Central.
• Andon Cord – If customers report a product as dangerous or as repeatedly delivered damaged, customer service representatives will remove a product’s listing from the website until the cause is identified and resolved.
• ARA – Amazon Retail Analytics, often referred to as ARA basic. A data reporting section in Vendor Central that brands can access to analyse their sales and inventory with Amazon.
• ARAP – Amazon Retail Analytics Premium. The advanced reporting section for vendors to analyse customer behaviour and traffic on their product pages.
• ASIN – Amazon Standard Identification Number. A unique 10-character alphanumeric identifier for a product on Amazon (for example, B07ZB5C3ZM). It is linked to a unique SKU/EAN/ISBN code and is used as a reference to manage catalogue attributes, prices and inventory of a product.
• ASN – Advanced Shipment Notification. A document that notifies Amazon about the time and characteristics of a pending shipment.
• ASP – Average Selling Price. Calculated by net sales ÷ volume sold.
• ATC – Add to Cart
• AVN – Annual Vendor Negotiation. Describes the yearly alignment of terms between Amazon and its 1P suppliers.
• AVS – Amazon Vendor Service, formerly known as Strategic Vendor Service (SVS). It’s a paid programme that gives vendors access to a dedicated contact to assist with operational matters such as ordering and catalogue.
• AWS – Amazon Web Services

B

• B2B – Business to Business
• B2C – Business to Consumer
• BA – Brand Analytics. Dashboard for brand owners registered with Amazon’s Brand Registry to understand the wider performance of their brand (not account) on the Amazon marketplace.
• BB – Buy Box. Refers to the Amazon product detail page area where customers can choose to add products to their shopping cart.
• BD – Best Deal. A type of price discount on Amazon that runs several days or weeks.
• BISS – Business Industrial & Scientific Supplies. A category on Amazon that targets sales to industrial and scientific customers.
• BOGO – Buy One Get One. A promotion type for sellers.
• Brand Analytics – Dashboard for brand owners registered with Amazon’s Brand Registry to understand the wider performance of their brand (not account) on the Amazon marketplace.
• Brand Registry – Programme for brands to verify their brand to access enhanced analytics and brand protection features.
• Brand Store – Part of Amazon Advertising. Brands can create a free store, showcasing their products with customisable images, logos and content.
• Browse Node – A numerical code to identify an Amazon product category.
• BTR – Born to Run. A programme that allows vendors to request an initial purchase order for new products from Amazon.
• BTS – Back to School
• BSR – Best Seller Rank
• Bundle – Multiple single items that can be identified with different EAN/ASIN codes sold together as a single offering.
• Buy Box – Refers to the area on the Amazon product detail page where customers can choose to add products to their shopping cart.
• BWP – Buy with Prime. A service that allows brands to sell through their online shop using Amazon’s order processing for end customers.

C

• CAGR – Compound Annual Growth Rate
• Category Page – A landing page for product groups within the Amazon store. Examples include Home & Furniture, Grocery, Beauty, etc.
• Chargeback – Describes a penalty that Amazon charges for non-compliance with standardised processes or late/inaccurate product deliveries.
• Child ASIN – Describes a product listed under a parent ASIN (e.g., chocolate bar). The child ASINs are the variations under this parent ASIN (e.g., dark/white/milk flavour).
• Chime – Amazon’s instant messenger that lets employees and brands meet, chat, and place business calls inside and outside their organisation.
• Climate Pledge Friendly – Amazon’s programme to visibly mark eco-friendly and sustainable products on its marketplace.
• CM – Contribution Margin. The formula: (Average Selling Price – Average Cost per Unit + Contra-COGS – Var. Costs) ÷ Average Selling Price.
• COGS – Costs of Goods Sold. The value of goods sold during a selected time period.
• Contra COGS – The money vendors spend with Amazon to offset COGS. Calculated based on the cost price (list price) at which a product is sold to Amazon.
• Concessions – The dollar amount Amazon has refunded to customers.
• Coupon (also: Vendor Powered Coupon, or VPC)– A type of discount vendors and sellers can offer to customers. Customers redeem the coupons on the product detail page.
• CP – Contribution Profit. The dollar value of the Contribution Margin.
• CPC – Cost per Click. Measures the dollar amount Amazon Advertising charges vendors and sellers when customers click on their ads.
• CRAP – Cannot Realise Any Profit. Products that got delisted because they are unprofitable to Amazon.
• CSA – Cost Support Agreement
• CTR – Click-through Rate. Calculated as the number of clicks ÷ number of impressions.
• CS – Customer Service
• CX – Customer Experience

D

• DF – Direct Fulfilment
• DI – Direct Import
• DOTD – Deal of the Day. A type of promotion for vendors to discount a product for up to 24 hours during key deal events (e.g., Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc.). Nowadays also known as “Top Deal”.
• DP – Detail Page. The product page for an ASIN on Amazon.
• DSP – Demand Side Platform. A platform that enables brands to programmatically buy display and video ads.
• DPV – Detail Page Views. The number of impressions of a detail page in a selected time period.
• DSP – Demand Side Platform. Amazon’s display advertising programme.

E

• EAN – The International Article Number is a standard describing a barcode symbology and numbering system used in global trade to identify a specific retail product type, in a specific packaging configuration, from a specific manufacturer.
• EBC – Enhanced Brand Content. The seller equivalent of A+ Content that is available to Amazon vendors.
• EDD – Estimated Delivery Date
• EDI – Electronic Data Interchange. A method to send digital information between companies, mainly used to receive and process purchasing orders.
• EOD – End of Day
• EFN – European Fulfilment Network. Enables brands to sell across European marketplaces while only delivering to Amazon in their home country.

F

• FBA – Fulfilment by Amazon. Programme for 3P sellers who let Amazon handle and ship their products to end customers.
• FBM – Fulfiled by Merchant. Refers to 3P sellers shipping products directly to the end customer.
• FC – Fulfilment Center. Describes Amazon’s warehouses.
• FFP – Frustration-Free Packaging. An Amazon programme aimed at eliminating excessive and difficult-to-open packaging.
• FLOW – Forward-Looking Order Workflow. Amazon purchase orders with a shipping window for a future week for best-selling products.
• FNSKU – Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit. Identifies products fulfilled by Amazon.
• FOB – Free on Board. Relates to the Direct Import model with Amazon, under which vendors are responsible for all costs until the goods are on the vessel at the designated port.

G

• Gated Product – Refers to products that are blocked for sale by 3P sellers on the Amazon marketplace.
• GL – General Ledger. Describes the P&L of the main product category (e.g. Home, Consumer Electronics, Beauty, etc.)
• Glance Views – Equivalent to the number of impressions of a product detail page.
• Goldbox – Refers to Amazon’s deals & promotions page.
• GTIN – Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). A 14-digit code that uniquely identifies products, items and services.

H

• Hazmat – Hazardous materials. Refers to highly flammable, toxic or pressurised items that must therefore be handled with special care to protect the health of employees and customers.

I

• IDQ – Item Data Quality. Used to spot product listings with missing titles, bullet points or other content features that need improvement.
• Impressions – Describes the number of views of a product page.
• IP – Intellectual Property
• ISBN – International Standard Book Number. A 13-digit number assigned to identify products in a catalogue. Similar to EAN/SKU.

J

• JBP – Joint Business Plan. Describes the commercial alignment between Amazon and 1P vendors to review their performance and create a plan for growing their business together over a set period of time.

K

• KPI – Key Performance Indicator. A measurable value that shows how effective you are at achieving business objectives.

L

• LBB – Lost Buy Box
• LD – Lightning Deal. A type of discount on Amazon that is limited to 4-6 hours of running time.
• LFO –Lost Featured Offer. Expected to replace the Lost Buy Box metric in Amazon analytics dashboards in the future.
• Listing Optimisation – Refers to the process of improving the content of a listing to improve its organic ranking in the Amazon search results.

M

• Marketplace – The locale or domain in which Amazon is active. Examples are Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, etc.
• MAP – Minimum Advertised Price. Used by brands to ensure a product is not sold under a minimum set price (only applicable in the US).
• MCF – Multi-Channel Fulfillment. A service that allows brands to use Amazon warehouses to store and ship products sold outside of Amazon.
• MCP – Matching Compensation. Refers to Amazon’s request to support low-margin products with investments to keep them listed in the catalogue.
• MF – Merchant Fulfilled. Refers to sellers shipping products directly to the end customer.
• MoM – Month over Month
• MOQ – Minimum Order Quantity. Describes the minimum amount Amazon needs to order.
• MTD – Month to Date
• MSRP – Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price

N

• NDA – Non-Disclosure Agreement
• Net PPM – The ratio between your average selling price and cost price, which also considers any accruals and C-COGS a vendor has with Amazon. Calculated as (Average Selling Price – Average Cost per Unit + Contra-COGS) ÷ Average Selling Price (Net PPM calculator).
• Net Receipts – Expresses the volume received by Amazon multiplied by the vendor’s cost price.
• NIS – New Item Setup. Describes the listing process of a product.
• NP – New product. Refers to a newly listed item.
• NR – Non-Replenishable. An item that cannot be restocked.
• NTB – Reflects whether an ad-attributed purchase was made by an existing or new customer.

O

• OB – Obsolete
• Ordered Revenue – Refers to the orders placed by end customers that have not yet shipped by Amazon. It’s based on the average selling price at the time of the order. Calculated as: ASP * Volume Ordered.
• Ordered Volume – Equals Ordered Revenue ÷ ASP.
• OOS – Out of Stock
• OPS – Operations
• OTC – Over the Counter
• O2C – Order to Cash. Describes the process that entails all aspects of handling the sale to Amazon. This includes shipping goods to Amazon, creating invoices, receiving payments, and reporting on the end-to-end process.
• OTP – One-Time Password

P

• P70 – Amazon estimates with a 70% probability that future weekly customer demand will be at or below this value.
• P80 – Amazon estimates with an 80% probability that future weekly customer demand will be at or below this value.
• P90 – Amazon estimates with a 90% probability that future weekly customer demand will be at or below this value.
• P&L – Profit and Loss
• Parent ASIN – Describes the ASIN under which the variants of a product are grouped together. The parent ASIN could be a chocolate bar, while the child ASINs are the flavour variations (e.g., dark/white/milk flavour).
• PCOGS – Product Costs of Goods Sold. Expresses the quantity sold multiplied by the cost price of a vendor. PCOGs equal Shipped COGS in Vendor Central.
• PDP – Product Detail Page. The webpage a shopper views when browsing an item on Amazon.
• PIB – Perfect Inbound. Describes the number of shipments that Amazon fulfilment centres can process quickly, without delays or problems.
• PIBDR – Perfect Inbound Defect Rate. Measures the number of inbound defects as a % of all received units at Amazon fulfilment centres.
• PICS – Pan European Inbound Consolidation Service. A logistics programme that helps vendors reduce the number of fulfilment centers they need to supply.
• POC – Point of Contact
• POD – Proof of Delivery
• PPA – Price Protection Agreement. Protects Amazon against a reduction in value of the units currently on hand and in transit.
• PPC –Pay Per Click. A type of Amazon Advertising where a brand pays when an ad gets clicked.
• PPM – Pure Profit Margin. Describes the ratio between the average selling price and cost price. In other words, it is the amount of money Amazon makes from the sale of a product before costs. Calculated as (Average Selling Price – Average Cost per Unit) ÷ Average Selling Price.
• PPOOS – Procurable Product OOS. Describes the out of stock (OOS) rate on all products that are procurable. Procurable Product OOS = OOS Glance Views (GVs) on Procurable ASINS / Total GVs.
• PPV – Product Price Variation. When the cost price of a vendor invoice does not match the cost price of the Amazon purchase order.
• PQV – Product Quantity Variation. When the product quantity of a vendor invoice does not match the number of received items at the Amazon warehouse.
• PR – Planned Replenishment
• Prime – Amazon’s subscription service for free delivery, which also entails services like Amazon Music and Video.
• PL – Private Label. Describes products sold by Amazon under their own brand name but made by other manufacturers.

Q

• Q1 – First Quarter (Jan-Mar)
• Q2 – Second Quarter (Apr-Jun)
• Q3 – Third Quarter (Jul-Sep)
• Q4 – Fourth Quarter (Oct-Dec)
• Q5 – Fifth Quarter. Refers to a hectic first quarter right after the Christmas period (colloq.).
• QA – Quality Assurance
• QBR – Quarterly Business Review

R

• ROAS – Return on Ad Spend. Describes how much revenue a brand gets in return for its advertising budget. Calculated as ROAS = 100 * total ad revenue ÷ total ad spend.
• ROI – Return on Investment
• RRP – Recommended Retail Price

S

• SAS – Strategic Account Services. A programme that gives sellers access to a designated Amazon account manager to help them increase sales and optimise their business.
• SC – Seller Central. The admin interface used to market and sell products directly to Amazon customers.
• SD – Sales Discount. Describes amounts related to promotional activities that Amazon conducts at the customer checkout.
• SDA – Selective Distribution Agreement. Used by suppliers to maintain control over the resale of its products by only selling to distributors meeting specific criteria.
• SDN – Selective Distribution Network. Describes the distributors that are part of an SDA.
• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
• SFP – Seller Fulfiled Prime. Refers to sellers that ship products from their own warehouses and comply with Amazon’s strict SLA.
• Shipped COGS – This metric is based on the cost price of a product at the time of Amazon purchasing it, multiplied by the shipped volume during the selected time period. Expressed as a dollar value and calculated as: Vendor Cost Price * Volume Shipped (to end customers). Shipped COGS equals Amazon PCOGs.
• Shipped Revenue – The revenue Amazon makes by shipping a vendor’s products. It’s based on the average selling price to the end customer at the time of shipment and multiplied by the sold volume during the selected time period. Calculated as: ASP * Volume Shipped (to end customers).
• Shipped Volume – Equals shipped revenue ÷ ASP.
• SIOC – Ships in Own Container. Describes products that don’t need an Amazon overbox.
• SKU – Stock Keeping Unit. A unique code to identify a product.
• SLA – Service Level Agreement
• SnS – Subscribe and Save. Amazon’s loyalty programme to entice customers to make repeat purchases of replenishable products on its marketplace in exchange for a small discount.
• SnL – Small and Light. Fulfilment programme that results in low shipping costs for qualified products that fit into an envelope.
• SOA – Sell-out Agreement. Margin funding for Amazon that is granted as a percentage or $ amount per sold item to end customers.
• SPN – Service Provider Network
• SR – Sales Rank. The ranking of an item in a product category.
• SRP – Suggested Retail Price
• SSCC – Serial Shipping Container Code. External Container ID to label cartons to be sent to Amazon, which can be passed via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
• STR – Sell Through Rate. Calculated as the number of units shipped compared to the number of units at Amazon at the start of the period, plus any units received during the same time period. Sell Through Rate = (Shipped units – customer returns) / (On hand units + received units).
• Storefront – A curated brand store, typically paid for by vendors.

T

• Third-Party Seller – Describes sellers trading goods on Amazon’s marketplace without selling these items to Amazon first.
• TOS – Terms of Service

U

• UFT – Ultra Fast Track (UFT). The percentage of time that an ASIN can be shipped to the customer from a fulfilment centre, versus the selection Amazon intended to carry.
• UPC – Universal Product Code. 12 numeric digits that are uniquely assigned to a product item for tracking it in-store.
• UX –User Experience

V

• Variation – Products available in different colours, sizes, and forms, grouped on a detail page.
• VAT – Value Added Tax
• VC – Vendor Central. The admin interface used by manufacturers and distributors who work directly with Amazon as a first-party vendor (1P).
• Vendor – Describes brands that sell directly to Amazon instead of to end customers. Amazon places the orders and takes care of pricing and inventory management.
• Vflex – Vendor Flex. A supply chain programme through which vendors supply products to end customers out of their warehouse.
• VFMC – Vendor Funded Managed Coupons. Set up and managed by Amazon’s Subscribe and Save team.
• Vine – An Amazon programme where sellers can register their products to receive reviews from verified product testers.
• VIP – Vendor Improvement Plan. Outlines the metrics that the AVS Brand Specialist is targeting to improve with a vendor.
• VIR – Volume Incentive Rates. Refers to rebates that are granted either as a fixed or tiered percentage. They incentivise Amazon to buy additional volume from vendors.
• Voucher (also: Vendor Powered Voucher, or VPV) – A type of discount vendors and sellers can offer to customers. Customers redeem the vouchers on the product detail page.

W

• Warehouse Deal – Used or returned items sold at a discount to Amazon customers to prevent waste and reduce the liquidation of imperfect products.
• WoW – Week over Week

X

• X-Channel Management – Refers to brands selling their products across multiple Amazon channels (e.g., Amazon Core, Fresh, Go, etc.).

Y

• YTD – Year to Date
• YoY – Year over Year

Z

• Zero Inventories – Refers to an inventory control mechanism that eliminates any waste due to built-up inventory levels. Sellers stock only the items they need and intend to sell within a certain time period.

Still having questions?

I hope this glossary has helped you understand some of the most common Amazon terms that you’ll come across as a vendor or seller.

Spotted any term or abbreviation that I haven’t covered here? Then let me know on Twitter!