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Amazon Acronym Glossary

If you have been a seller on Amazon for more than 10 minutes, you know that there are a TON of acronyms! It can be a little daunting at first, and even to the seasoned veteran seller, trying to understand and keep track of all the letters, numbers, and symbols involved with running an effective Amazon account. We did our best to compile as many as we could so you have a 1-stop spot for anything AMZ:

Amazon Acronyms Glossary

A+ – A detail page where the product description has enhanced content and branding, which includes graphics and images embedded into the page. A+ content is specifically for vendors.

AAP – Amazon Advertising Platform (now known as Amazon DSP). The program advertisers use to buy and create display and video ads.

ACOS – Average cost of sales – Related to Amazon sponsored product ads and is a metric of how well your ads are performing relative to their cost.

ARA – Amazon Retail Analytics. A selection of reports for vendors, sometimes referred to as ARA Basic. These are available to all vendors and look at topics like sales and inventory.

ARAP – Amazon Retail Analytics Premium. An add-on option with more detailed and varied reports that look at a vendor’s traffic and customer behavior for vendors. Vendors must pay a fee to access these.

ASIN – Amazon standard identification number – Amazon’s internal tracking identifier for each listing in their catalog. It’s similar to a UPC but is exclusive to Amazon.

ASN – Advanced Shipment Notification. Used to communicate a shipment’s tracking number and information to Amazon in advance of delivery.

ASP – Average Selling Price – Refers to the average price that a seller on Amazon sellers sell their items for. Calculated by taking the total sales for a time period divided by the number of items for the time period.

AMS – Amazon Marketing Services. This is now known as Amazon Advertising.

AMZ – Amazon

B2B – Business to Business. E-commerce between two businesses, rather than a business and consumer.

B2C – Business to Customer. E-commerce between a business and a customer.

BB – Buy Box – Refers to the seller associated with the add to cart button on any Amazon product detail page.

BSR – Best Seller Rank – often used interchangeably with sales rank, gives an idea of how well an item is selling in relation to others.

CCC – camelcamelcamel.com – this is a website that tracks price and sales rank history of products on Amazon.

COGs – Cost of Goods Sold

CPC – Cost Per Click. This relates to sponsored ads and the amount Amazon charges the seller or vendors when a customer clicks on their ad. The calculation is total ad cost / clicks.

CTR – Click Through Rate. A metric that measures the number of clicks per impressions of an advertisement. The calculation for this is # of clicks / # impressions = CTR.

DEA – Dynamic eCommerce Ads. A component of Amazon DSP, these ads will have eCommerce features built within the display ad, such as retail price and review ratings.

DOTD – Deal of the Day. On Amazon’s Gold Box or Deals page, a single item or small set of closely related items discounted for a period of one day only.

DP – Detail Page. A product page for an ASIN on Amazon. This displays important info such as price, title, bullets, description, customer reviews, etc.

DPV – Detail Page Views. A metric showing the number of impressions of a single detail page.

DS – Drop Shipping – The act of shipping a product direct from a supplier to the end customer.

DSP – Demand Side Platform. Amazon’s display advertising program.

EAN – European Article Number – 13-digit number system for identifying retail products.

EBC – A detail page where the product description has enhanced content and branding, which includes graphics and images embedded into the page. EBC is now A+ Content.

EDI – Electronic Data Interchange. A way for companies and businesses to send digital information to one another.

FBA – Fulfillment by Amazon

FBM – Fulfilled by Merchant – Also known as MF (Merchant fulfilled), this refers to shipping products directly to the end customer yourself.

FC – Fulfillment Center – Refers to one of Amazon’s fulfillment warehouses/centers.

FNSKU – Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit – Per Amazon these are: The FNSKU is the way that Amazon identifies a product as unique to the seller that the seller has sent it to an FBA warehouse. Every product that is processed through an FBA warehouse is given this unique identifier.

GLN – Global Location Number. Unique identification code of a physical location.

GTIN – Global Trade Item Number. Globally unique 14-digit number to identify items, products, and services.

IDQ – Item Data Quality. Refers to the condition of an item’s information, for example, if the product has bullet points and images.

ISBN – International Standard Book Number – An ISBN is a 13-digit number assigned by standard book numbering agencies to identify individual books. ISBNs used to be 10 digits until the end of 2006

MAP – Minimum advertised price – This most often comes into play with wholesale sourcing. This is a price that you agree not to list below when you purchase a product from a wholesaler/distributor.

MF – Merchant Fulfilled – Items that you ship directly to the customer yourself, rather than using FBA.

MOQ– Minimum Order Quantity – The minimum amount you are able order. This typically applies to orders from a wholesaler or distributer.

MSRP – Manufacturer’s suggested retail price

MTD – Month to Date – Often seen when sharing sales or a certain metric since the beginning of the month.

NTB – New to Brand. Launched in 2019, Amazon’s advertising metric that determines whether an ad-attributed purchase was made by an existing customer or one buying a brand’s product on Amazon for the first time over the prior year. With NTB, advertisers receive campaign performance metrics such as total new-to-brand purchases and sales, new-to-brand purchase rate, and cost per new-to-brand customer.

OA – Online Arbitrage – buying items at online retailers to resell on Amazon.

ODR – Order Defect Rate – The percentage of orders that customers report a significant issue on. Per Amazon, an ODR is: ODR is the percentage of orders that have received negative feedback, an A-to-Z Guarantee claim, or a service credit card chargeback. It allows us to measure overall performance with a single metric.

OOS – Out of Stock – Refers to an item being out of stock in a retail store or Amazon themselves being out of stock on an item.

P&L – Profit & Loss Statement – Also known as the income statement.

PDA – Product Display Ads. A type of display advertising where a product’s ad appears throughout Amazon on category and product pages.

PL – Private Label – Putting your own brand name on a generic product and branding it as your own.

POD – Proof of Delivery. When Amazon has not received an item a vendor has sent and needs proof that the item was delivered by the carrier.

PPV – Product Price Variance. When a vendor raises an invoice and the item price on the invoice differs from what Amazon has in the system.

PQV – Product Quantity Variance. When a vendor sends inventory to Amazon and the amount they shipped differs from the amount Amazon received.

PPC – Pay-per-click advertising – This relates most often to using Amazon-sponsored product ads.

Q1 – First quarter. Jan-March of any given year.

Q2 – Second quarter. April – June of any given year.

Q3 – Third quarter. July – Sept of any given year.

Q4 – Fourth quarter. Oct – Dec of any given year, also notable for containing Black Friday and the holiday shopping season.

RA – Retail Arbitrage – buying items in retail stores to resell on Amazon.

RoAS – Return on Ad Spend. Used to determine the effectiveness of an ad campaign. Should tell you how many dollars you will receive for every dollar you spend on advertising.

ROI – Return on Investment

SB – Sponsored Brands. Keyword-targeted ads that promote a specific brand and are on a cost-per-click basis.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization. A process to increase traffic and visibility to a website, brand, or product through a search engine on the web. Refers only to “organic” or unpaid or free results, as opposed to paid placement, such as ads.

SKU – Stock Keeping Unit – This is a number and letter combination that is used to identify items in a seller’s inventory. Used to efficiently manage inventory.

SnS – Subscribe and Save. Amazon’s service that allows customers to routinely auto-order delivery on certain products at a discounted price. Bundling more of these products increases the discount level.

SP – Sponsored Products. Keyword-targeted ads that promote an individual product are on a cost-per-click basis.

TACOS – Total Advertising Cost of Sale

UPC – Universal Product Code – A 12-digit number displayed with the barcode on the vast majority of retail products.

VA – Virtual Assistant – Virtual assistants are generally from another country and perform various tasks, such as online sourcing or administrative tasks.

VIS – Video In Search. Offers advertisers a content-rich medium in which to make a direct connection with Amazon customers through videos in mobile search results.

WS – Wholesale – Refers to sourcing products wholesale. Generally purchased direct from the manufacturer or from a distributor.

YTD – Year to date – Often used when sharing sales numbers or a certain metric since the beginning of the calendar year.

amazon seller consultant at evolved commerce

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