Amazon Seller Glossary - An Ultimate Guide to Amazon ACRONYMS

A B C D E F G H I J K L M O P Q R S T U V W Y

A

Advertising Cost of Sales (ACOS): It is an extremely important metric used to measure the performance of your Amazon Sponsored Ads. ACoS indicates the ratio of the amount spent on ads to total generated sales. The Formula to calculate the Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS) is ACoS = Amount Spend On Ads / Total Generated Sales
Amazing Marketer (AM): 🙂
Amazon Marketing Services (AMS): It is an advertising console for the vendors that gives opportunities to drive their traffic to their listings and beat the competitors.
Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN): It is a unique 10-digit alphanumeric number given to every product on Amazon to distinguish from other products.
Average Selling Price (ASP): It is an average amount of money you make by selling a particular item again & again in a specified time interval. The formula to calculate the Average Selling Price (ASP) is ASP = Total Amount Generated By Selling An Item / Number of That Items
Amazon Trained Ecommerce Specialists (ATES): These are the experts trained for assisting sellers if they face any problem while selling on amazon
At Time of Posting (ATOP): You can see this in Amazon related Facebook Groups where it refers to the price of the product at the time of posting.
Amazon (AZ): It’s an abbreviation of word “Amazon”

B

Buy Box (BB)

“Add To Cart” button on the product page is known as Buy Box. This term is primarily associated with sellers, not with buyers. Every product has a Buy Box but not every seller has the Buy Box.

Winning the Buy Box increases your chances of sale by 82%. To Read in detail about Buy Box and How to win it, Read 👉 Amazon Buy Box – The Ultimate Guide

Business, Industrial, and Scientific Supplies (BISS)

It is a category on Amazon that deals in organization related equipments and laboratory items.

Brick & Mortar (BM)

It refers to a physical location of a business or organization.

Buy One Get One (BOGO)

It’s pretty simple and straight forward, just buy one item and get another one free with it. These are primarily promoted through coupons.

Be On The Lookout (BOLO)

This refers to a profitable item that you might be able to discover in physical stores near you.

Brand Registered (BR)

Amazon Brand Registry empowers you to protect your brand and report violations on Amazon to keep the customer experience safe & secure.

Buyer-Seller Messaging Service (BSMS)

The Amazon provides its own easy and secure Buyer-Seller communication service to reach out customers or third party sellers.

Best Seller Rank (BSR)

It is a rank awarded to each and every product available on Amazon based on the product’s sales volume in the same category within a specific time period. It usually updates on an hourly basis.

Back To School (BTS)

There are various “seasons” such as Easter, Valentine’s day, New Year, etc. One of them is “Back To School”

C

CashBack (CB): When you get a certain amount back on buying a product, it is called CashBack.
Credit Card (CC): Everyone of us is aware of what credit card is. Amazon sellers use it to run sposnored ads. It also provides flexibility to repay after sometime.
Cease and Desist (C&D): This is a notification sent to an individual or a company to stop presumptively illegal activity known as Cease and not to it again in future is know as Desist. The document clearly warn that if the recipient continued the illegal conduct and does not stop within the time frame mentioned on the document then, recepient will be sued. This is the best defence against hijackers.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is the cost attributed to the final product that includes direct raw material cost and direct labor cost.
Cost Per Click (CPC): It is the amount of money you will be charged when a customer clicks on your sponsored or paid ad.
Conversion Rate (CR): It is the ratio of number of conversions to the total number of visitors.
Click Through Rate (CTR): The CTR is a ratio of the number of clicks on ad to the number of impressions.

D

Drop Shipping (DS): Dropshipping is a fulfillment process in which product is shipped directly from a supplier to the end customer.

E

European Article Number (EAN): EAN is a standardized barcode and marked on almost all commercialized products in the world
Enhanced Brand Content (EBC): This tool gives you access to describe product features in detailed and unique way by embedding brand story, text placements and enhanced images. It increases your conversion rates, traffic and sales if used properly.
Employer Identification Number (EIN): This is a unique number provided by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to all the business operating in the United States. This 9-digit number is used to identify type of business and for tax reporting.

F

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): FBA means “Fulfillment by Amazon” and its motto is “You Sell It, We Ship It”.
Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM): FBM means “Fulfilled by Merchant”. In this seller handles everything from pick, pack, and shipping of the product to the customer itself. Also, refer as MF (Merchant Fulfillment)
Fulfillment Center (FC): Fulfillment Center refers to the warehouse that process all the incoming orders from picking, packing, & shipping to the customers. Basically, it’s a storage facility that takes care of everything from end-to-end for eCommerce retailers.
Freight Forwarder (FF): Freight Forwarder are responsible for the delivery or shippment of your products to the Amazon fulfillment center. Also, known as forwarding agent or forwarder.
Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit (FNSKU): Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit (FNSKU) is a unique identifier given to the products by Amazon for storing and fulfilling in Amazon Fulfillment Center.
Financial Statements (FS): Financial Statements are a record or reports of financial performance and situation of business at a particular time.
For What It’s Worth (FWIW): This is often written when someone is giving advice and they are not sure if it will be helpful or not.

G

Gift Card (GC): Gift cards are type of discount provided to customer by the sellers to increase return on investment (ROI).
Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI): It is ratio of gross margin to the average cost of inventory.
GS1 (GS1): It is internationally accepted barcodes to identify and locate your brand or inventory throughout the fulfillment process.
Goods & Service Tax (GST): It is a type of tax that a seller in India has to pay on items as per the pre-defined tax bracket on the sold product.
Global Trade Item Number (GTIN): The GTIN is a globally unique number used to identify trade items, products, or services. GTINs may be 8, 12, 13 or 14 digits long. It incorporates the standards ISBN, ISSN, ISMN, EAN, and some UPCs into a universal number space.

H

Health & Beauty Aids (HBA): It is one of the gated catergory of Amazon that has been divided into Health & Personal Care as one category and Beauty as another category.
Headline Search Ads (HSA): These are the sponsored brands ads to promote a product that appears on the right top of the search results. These ads are not dependent or corelated with Buy Box.
Hard to Find (HTF): This is mostly related with a BOLO post and arises when an item hardly seen in stores any longer.

I

Inventory Lab (IL): It is cloud based software to list, research, and monitor amazon listings, profits & losses.
Intellectual Property (IP): It is a registered work or invention of a person or organization which have absolute sole right to use it. Anyone using it without permission will comes under intellectual property infringement that quite usual on Amazon.
International Standard Book Number (ISBN): International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique 13 digits (after January 01, 2007) number used to identify commercial books across the world. It is printed in Barcode format on the books.

J

Jungle Scout (JS): It is a leading product research tool that can help you to find your first profitable product. Click HERE to try NOW!

K

Key Word (KW): The one and only one thing that can make or break your online business i.e. Keyword. It is a search term that a customer uses to search its requirement. These keywords can be short tail, long tail, LSI or synonyms.

L

Long Term Hold (LTH): Putting inventory on hold to sell later in order to make more profit. This happens during festivals sales or special events where sellers buy and hold inventory beforehand and sell when that product is high in demand.
Less Than Truckload (LTL): The transport of freight that does not require the entire space of a truck is known as Less Than Truckload

M

Minimum advertised price (MAP): Minimum advertised price (MAP) is the lowest advertising price that a reseller agrees not to advertise below.
Merchant Fulfilled (MF): Merchant Fulfilled (MF) is the fulfillment process in which sellers pick, pack, & ship the products to the customers rather than using FBA.
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ): Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) is the minimum quantity one can order from a wholesaler or distributor.
Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) is a recommended price that a manufacturer suggests to the retailer to sell on.
Month To Date (MTD): This terminology is used to track and analyse profits, revenue, sold units, or any relevant parameter in your business that can be measured on month-to-date basis.
Marketplace Web Service (MWS): A web service API that integrates with third party softwares and Amazon together, to collect data about products and accounts.

O

Online Arbitrage (OA)

Online Arbitrage (OA) is the process of buying products online to resell further on Amazon.

Order Defect Rate (ODR)

Order Defect Rate (ODR) is a performance metric that Amazon uses to measure seller’s customer experience standards. It is calculated by dividing the number of orders with the negative “defects” by the total number of orders from the same time period. It is important to ensure that your Order Defect Rate stays less than 1% failing which, your account may be suspended.

Know all about Order Defect Rate. Read 👉 Amazon Account Suspension due to high Order Defect Rate – Plan of Action and Appeal

Out of Stock (OOS)

Out of Stock (OOS) refers to the product that is not available in the store or Amazon inventory.

Over the Counter (OTC)

OTC refers to over the counter medication, vitamins, supplements, etc. This term is used when someone need any special license to or certificate to sell things like Tylenol, Advil, or other over the counter medications.

P

Permanent Account Number (PAN): is an unique identification number assigned to all taxpayers in India.
Profit & Loss Statement (P&L): Profit & Loss Statement (P&L) is a financial statement that comprises of revenues, costs, and expenses incurred during a specified period. Also, known as the income statement.
Product Display Ads (PD/PDA): These types of ads allows you to promote a specific product or target customer based on their interest.
Pack (PK): A pack is combination of many items. This type of examples can be seen in grocery and health category.
Private Label (PL): Putting your own brand on a generic product and make it your own is private labeling.
Private Message or Profit Margin (PM): In terms of social media, it means Private Message (~ Hey! PM me)
In eCommerce, it represents Profit Margins. It simple means how much percentage of sales has converted into profits.
Pay per click advertising (PPC): Pay per click (PPC), also known as cost per click, is an advertising mechanism in which advertiser pays the publisher only when its ads get clicked.

Q

4th Quarter (Q4): Refers to the month of October to December when sales are high for Amazon sellers. Also, Q1 (January to March), Q2 (April to June), and Q3 (July to September).

R

Retail Arbitrage (RA): Retail Arbitrage (RA) is the process of buying products offline on physical stores to resell further on Amazon.
Return on Investment (ROI): Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance metric used to measure the gain & loss on overall investements in monetary terms.

S

Sponsored Brands (SB): These are keyword based pay-per-click ads that promote your brand and product portfolio. These ads appear at highly visible positions showcasing your brand logo, a custom headline, and upto 3 product listings.
Seller Central (SC): It is a web inteface for sellers and brands to sell their products on Amazon.
Stock Keeping Unit (SKU): Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is a machine-readable format to manage inventory movement efficiently and effectively.
Read 👉 Complete Guide on What is SKU and How to create it to learn how to track your inventory efficiently.
Service Provider Networks (SPN): It is a network of professional service providers trained and certified by Amazon.
Sponsored Products (SP): It is an advertising method to promote your product via pay-per-click mechanism using relevant keywords that helps you to appear at most visible positions on Amazon.
Seller Support (SS): Similar to Amazon’s customer service, this is dedicated only for sellers.

T

Trademark (TM): A trademark is a symbol, name, word, device or any combination (of all these) which is adopted by a company to differentiate their products or service or both from the rest of the brands/companies/product or services.
Terms of Service (TOS): The guidelines that one has to follow as a customer or seller to act according to Amazon. Never take risk to violate these terms & conditions else your account may get shut down permanently.

U

Universal Product Code (UPC): Universal Product Code (UPC) is a 12 digit numeric codes used to track trade items across the world.

V

Value Added Tax (VAT): It is a form of tax that is being charged on sold products by Amazon within European Union.
Vendor Central (VC): It is an interface by which you can sell to Amazon in bulk. And, you will be treated as a first party seller. Registration on Vendor Central is invitation based.

W

Wholesale (WS): Sourcing products in mass or bulk quantity directly from manufacturer or distributor.

Y

Year to date (YTD): Year to Date (YTD) refers to the first date of the calendar year or fiscal year to the current or present date.