When it comes to e-commerce, Amazon is undoubtedly the biggest player of them all. Did you know the Amazon logo was created with the “A” and “Z” connected by a (smile-shaped) arrow to represent the idea that Amazon sells everything from A to Z? With an expansive range of items, thousands of selling partners, and ever-growing reach, it has been a long and sometimes confusing road over the past 25 years of business. And if you are a seller or vendor, the storied A and Z are certainly not the only letters you’ve encountered.

If you’re using Seller Central and/or Vendor Central, dealing with Amazon, interacting with others on forums or Facebook groups, or even Googling terms and advice, you might have realized Amazon almost has its own language that is filled with terms and acronyms (abbreviations formed from a longer phrase). What is sales rank, ODR, and what is an ASIN? What is an Amazon Brand Store? What is the difference between a seller and vendor? Do you need help with Amazon acronyms for employees?

It’s a jungle out there. So, we’ve gathered up some of the most commonly encountered acronyms and terms and spelled it all out alphabetically. Hopefully, this Amazon terminology resource will help make life a little easier, especially if you are new to selling or the world of AMZ.

3P – Third-party seller. A business that sells a product that is not their own brand or product. Sellers, using Seller Central, sell product directly to consumers on Amazon under their own business name, taking on the role of retailers.

3PL – Third-party logistics

7-Day Deal – A promotion type for sellers on Amazon. Time-bound offer featured on Amazon’s Best Deals page.

A+ Content – A detail page where the product description has enhanced content and branding. This includes graphics and images embedded into the page.  A+ Content used to be specifically for vendors but has now also replaced Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) for sellers.

AA – Amazon Associate. FC position.

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

ACoS – Advertising Cost of Sale. The percentage of attributed sales spent on advertising. The formula for this is total spend / ad sales = ACoS.

ACS – Amazon Creative Services

Affiliates – A program by which referrals earn associate’s money for driving traffic and sales to Amazon through their marketing. Affiliates operate on many different sites, including individual blogs, forums, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

AGS – Amazon Global Selling

AM – Area Manager. FC position.

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

AMG – Amazon Media Group.

AMZ – Amazon. More specifically, Amazon’s stock abbreviation.

AMZL – Amazon Logistics abbreviation.

Andon or Andon Cord – An Amazon support agent can immediately pull a product from buyable status if they notice a significant issue, especially related to safety and quality. The term refers to a process implemented at Toyota factories in Japan. A physical cord was pulled allowing an immediate stop to production and a warning to management when a problem was noticed.

API – Application Program Interface.

AR – Amazon Robotics

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.

ARS – Amazon Robotics Sortable

ARSAW – Amazon Robotics Semi-Automatic Workstation

ASC – Associate Safety Committee. For FC employees.

ASIN – Amazon Standard Info Number. Each Amazon product will have a unique 10-character alphanumeric unique identifier that is used specifically for and within Amazon. ASINs can be further broken down into parent and child ASINs for products that have one overall item or style (the parent) with multiple choices when it comes to color, size, pack size, etc. (the child ASINs).

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

ASP – Average Selling Price. Calculated by net sales / number of products sold.

Associates – This term refers to the Amazon referral program and is now called Amazon Affiliates.

AZ – Amazon

AWS – Amazon Web Services

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. An abbreviation of the Amazon Buy Box, the button customers use to purchase a product on an Amazon detail page.

Best Deal – A time-bound promotional offer type for vendors on Amazon.

BISS – Business Industrial & Scientific Supplies. A specific selling category on Amazon.

Blue Badge – An Amazon full-time employee (as opposed to a temporary or contract worker.)

BOGO – Buy One Get One. A type of promotion for sellers.

Brand Analytics – A suite of features available to brands enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry.

Brand Registry – Amazon’s program for brands to verify and control their brand.

Brand HQ – The system that sellers on the Amazon Brand Incubator and Amazon Exclusives program can access. Within Brand HQ, sellers can connect with other brands via a forum, expand their knowledge with Amazon’s eLearning courses and have the option to participate in “office hours” and ask an Amazon Associate those pressing questions. Brands can also submit Best Deals and merchandising opportunities such as category page placements.

Brand Store – Amazon Brand Stores are created using a free, self-service tool to create a customized brand experience within Amazon. These can be customized and feature logos, products, and a curated experience that best represents a particular brand.

Browse Node – Numerical codes to identify Amazon product categories. Nodes may be top-level and have many subcategories under them. Sub-cats are known to change. Amazon uses thousands of these per locale, and they are unique to locale (ie, UK and US numbers are not the same).

BSR – Best Seller Rank. The order and ranking of a product in the category where it is listed. The rank is updated hourly and considers recent and past sales history. If there are no sales (ie, the product is new), the rank will be “None.”

Bundle – A group of complementary products sold as one ASIN unit.

Buy Box – The button customers use to purchase a product on an Amazon detail page. The phrase “winning the Buy Box” refers to the merchant (whether Amazon or third-party) that a customer buys from when added to cart. Buy Boxes are won through complex algorithms related to stock, ratings, customer service rankings, etc.

CA – Abbreviation for the Canadian marketplace.

CAGR – Compound Annual Growth Rate

Category Page – A landing page for a specific group of products within the Amazon website. Examples: Books, Electronics or Toys & Games.

CCR – Counterfeit Complaint Rate

CD – Continuous Deployment

Child ASIN – A buyable variant of a parent ASIN, when the customer must select an option such as size or color to purchase. All child ASINs should be on one detail page, under the parent ASIN.

Climate Pledge Friendly – An Amazon program launched in 2020 to make it easier for customers to shop eco-friendly, sustainable products on its sites. Learn more about the Climate Pledge Friendly badge.

CM – Change Management

CMBR – Change Management Bar Raiser

COGs – Cost of Goods Sold. The value of goods sold during a certain period of time.

Contra COGs – COGs including all backends, such as Vine, ARAP, etc.

Concessions – Amounts Amazon has refunded to customers related to your products or orders.

Coupon/Voucher – A promotional deal on Amazon where a vendor or seller offers an amount or percentage off for a limited time.

COW – Consumer Order Workflow

CP – Contribution Profit

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.

CPH – Cost Per Head

CPT – Critical Pull Time. The time in which an order is in danger of not shipping in time for customer delivery cut-offs.

CPS – Costs Per Shipment

CPU – Contacts Per Unit

CRAP – Can’t Realize a Profit. If, based on Amazon algorithms, a product is deemed CRAP, it means there is a reason it won’t realize a profit: Shipping costs, too much inventory, pricing issues, etc. can result in this designation.

CTI – Category Type Item

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

CS – Customer Service

CWGR – Compound Weekly Growth Rate

CX – Customer Experience

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.

DEA – Delivery Estimate Accuracy. In relation to Amazon FCs.

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.

DNR – Delivered Not Received. In relation to warehouse delivery queue.

DMG – Damaged abbreviation.

Dropship – Dropshipping is a fulfillment method for retailers. When a store or merchant does not physically have or ship the item. If the item is purchased by a customer, the retailer orders it from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. This can save on costs associated with storage and fulfillment.

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

DPMO – Defects Per Million Opportunities

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

DPVR – Detail Page View Rate

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

DSP – Delivery Service Provider. For warehouse deliveries.

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

Early Reviewer Program – An Amazon program that incentivizes customers who have purchased a product to leave an honest review.

EBC – Enhanced Brand Content. A detail page where the product description has enhanced content and branding, which includes graphics and images embedded into the page. EBC content used to be specifically for sellers. As of 2020, EBC is obsolete and has been replaced by A+ Content.

ECR – Executive Customer Relations

EDD -Estimated Delivery Date

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

EFN -European Fulfillment Network. A fulfillment option that allows selling in other EU locales, while logistics and shipping are fulfilled through the home country.

EOD – End of Day. Usually refers to the close of that particular business day.

EFN – European Fulfillment Network. Allows sellers with an Amazon Europe Marketplaces account who are also registered with Amazon to store their inventory in their local fulfillment center, and fulfill orders coming from other European marketplaces from the same local inventory pool.

Existing Customers – Audiences who have purchased or re-purchased your brand or items on Amazon.

EXSD – Expected Ship Date

FBA – Fulfillment by Amazon. When Amazon is responsible for storing your products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers. FBA means Amazon will pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products.

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

FC – Fulfillment Center. An Amazon warehouse.

FNSKU – Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit. An Amazon product identifier for products that are fulfilled by Amazon.

FPY – First Pass Yield

FFP – Frustration-Free Packaging. An Amazon program that eliminates excessive packing and overboxing. An Amazon sustainability initiative.

Gated Category – Businesses will need prior approval to sell in this category on Amazon. Access is limited.

Glance Views – Similar to DPV. The number of times a detail page has been viewed.

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

Global SKU – A SKU that is part of a shared inventory pool and is available to be sold and shipped in multiple marketplaces.

GL String – Amazon’s codification system for allocating costs to the correct P&L.

Goldbox – Amazon’s landing page, containing Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals, and a selection of categories’ best promotions and savings. Also known as Today’s Deals.

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

Hazmat – Hazardous materials. These items may be flammable, dangerous, corrosive, pressurized, etc. They require special precautions and regulations when transporting or storing.

Headline Search Ads – Advertisements that are located on top of a search results page. These have been renamed to Sponsored Brands.

Hijacking – When a seller jumps on a brand’s listing to sell a counterfeit product at a lower price. This causes the legitimate brand to lose the Buy Box and can result in a few issues for the brand.

IAT – Inbound Andon Tracker

IB – Inbound

ICQA – Inventory Control Quality Assurance

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

Impressions – A measure of views or ad views. Determined by the number of single times a page is located and loaded.

IP – Intellectual Property

IRDR – Inventory Record Defect Ratio

ISBN – International Standard Book Number. A 13-digit identity number assigned to individual books by standard book numbering agencies. Until 2006, ISBNs were 10 digits. An ISBN, SKU, and ASIN may all be used in listings on Amazon.

KPI – Key Performance Indicators. A measurable value that determines how well your business or organization is performing against set objectives.

LBB – Lost Buy Box

LD – Lightning Deal. A promotion on Amazon offered in a limited quantity for a short period of time. Lightning Deals are available, one per customer, until either the deal’s promotion period expires, or all the available inventory is claimed.

Less Than Container Load – Shipment measure that means less than 18 cubic meters.

Less Than Truckload – Shipment measure for ground transport that means more than 30 cartons in a combined load with other merchants.

Lightning Deal – Discount type on Amazon’s Today’s Deals/Gold box page. Lightning Deals run for up to 10 hours.

Listing Optimization – The process of improving an Amazon detail page and product information, including titles, bullet points, features, description, and images.

Long-Term Storage Fee – Amazon’s chargeback for inventory that has been stored in a fulfillment center for more than 365 days.

Marketplace – What locale or domain you are selling in. Refers to a country (UK, DE, etc.) or overall third-party merchants.

MAP – Minimum Advertised Price. A special note on MAP by locale: In the US, if a retailer buys inventory from a manufacturer that has a MAP policy, they must not sell the product below that price. If they do, they risk no longer working with that manufacturer. However, this is not legal in Europe.

MCF – Multi Channel Fulfillment. For sellers who sell on Amazon and other marketplaces. Some inventory is fulfilled by Amazon, and other inventory by other sales channels or the merchant themselves.

MF – Merchant Fulfilled. Refers to shipping products directly to the end customer yourself, as opposed to Amazon doing it.

MNR – Manifested Not Received. In relation to warehouse delivery queue.

MOM – Month Over Month

MOQ – Minimum Order Quantity. The minimum amount Amazon must order.

MTD – Month To Date

MSRP – Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. Sometimes referred to as a “sticker price.” The purpose being to keep prices similar store to store. But retailers may not price items using MSRP, and customers may end up paying higher or lower prices based off supply and demand.

NAFN – North American Fulfillment Network. Vendors in North America (US, Canada and Mexico) may find their products shipped to any of these countries using Amazon’s fulfillment channels.

NDA – Non-Disclosure Agreement

NIS – New Item Setup. The initial creation of a product, from accepting terms and agreements, to developing an ASIN and filling out detail page info.

NP – New Product. A newly listed item.

NR – Non Replenishable. An item that is not available.

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. Businesses that purchase products at lower prices to resell them online for a greater price to reap profits.

OB – Obsolete. When referring to stock.

OB – Outbound. When referring to FC scheduling.

ODR – Order Defect Rate. The percentage of orders that have received negative feedback, an A-to-Z Guarantee claim, or a service credit card chargeback. It allows Amazon to measure overall performance with a single metric.

OLR – Organization and Leadership Review. This review process is done at Amazon during Q1 and Q3.

OM – Operations Manager. FC postion.

OOS – Out of Stock

OP – Order Picker

Ops – Operations, abbreviated term

ORDT – On Road Dynamic Transfer. For warehouse deliveries.

P&L – Profit and Loss

PA – Process Assistant. An Amazon warehouse position who works as a supervisor under the Area Manager.

Parent ASIN – An ASIN that serves to group variations on one detail page. Each main ASIN can have multiple variants, such as color, size, flavor, scent, etc. The variants are referred to as child ASINs.

PCOGS – Product Cost of Goods Sold. The formula is shipped units * cost price.

PED – Prime Exclusive Discount. A deal types available only to FBA sellers on Amazon for Prime-eligible items. Can be an amount or percentage off, a limited-time deal.

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

PMV – Process Map Visuals

PNOV – Preliminary Notice of Violation

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.

POPS – Proactive Outbound Problem Solve

PPC – Pay Per Click. A term often used for Amazon Advertising, in which advertisers pay a fee each time an ad is clicked.

PPE – Personal Protective Equipment. Often required for working in certain positions at an Amazon FC.

PPM – Pure Product Margin. The formula for calculating this is: (Revenue – PCOGS) / Revenue

PPQA – Process Path Quality Assurance

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.

PR – Planned Replenishment (when referring to stock).

Prime – Amazon Prime. A paid subscription service for free, fast delivery on millions of items. Also includes a range of services and streaming entertainment options such as Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Pantry, Twitch, and more.

Private Label – Products legally owned by a retailer or supplier and sold under their own brand name, but made by other manufacturers.

Professional Seller – A selling account on Amazon where a business pays a monthly fee (but no per-item fee). Allows access to a range of tools, discounts, and reports that are not available as an individual seller.

Project Zero – An Amazon program for Brand Registry businesses to weed out counterfeits and IP infringement through self-service reporting, serialization, and more.

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.

QA – Quality Assurance

QBR – Quarterly Business Review

RA – Retail Arbitrage. Businesses that purchase products at lower prices to resell them for a greater price to reap profits.

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. Performance metric to determine success of an investment relative to the costs.

RRP – Recommended Retail Price

RSP – Robotics Service Platform. In the context of working at the FC.

RSR – Reserve Stow Racks

Sales Rank – Amazon’s internal ranking of products in search and browse.

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

SBC – Simple Bin Count

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.

Sessions – One session is a group of interactions/page views/loads that one user takes on a website within a certain time frame. A useful metric when it comes to shopping or customer habits on Amazon.

SFP – Seller Fulfilled Prime. Sellers that stick to the Amazon Prime SLA, but ship from their own warehouses and control their own fulfillment.

SIOC – Ships in Own Container

SKU – Stock Keeping Unit. A unique code to identify a product.

SLA – Service Level Agreement

SLAM – Shipping Label Auto Manifest

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.

Small and Light – An Amazon fulfillment program for smaller items that, when qualified, results in reduced shipping costs.

Sponsored Brands – Keyword-targeted ads that promote a brand with the logo, creative, and a collection of products.

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

SPN – Service Provider Network

SPOO/SP00 – Shipping Package #

SRC – Simple Record Count

SRP – Suggested Retail Price

Storefront – An Amazon brand store, and a mini shop within Amazon curated for your brand.

Third-Party Seller – A 3P merchant is a business that sells a product that is not their own brand or product. Sellers, using Seller Central, sell product directly to consumers on Amazon under their own business name, taking on the role of retailers.

TOS – Terms of Service

TOT – Time Off Task. An FC term used to determine task completion duration.

TTT – Tote Transition Time

Twister – Amazon’s detail page function for merging ASINs of various colors and sizes onto one page. This is more customer-friendly than having each seller or item with a specific size or color on its own detail page.

Unverified Review – A product review from someone who may or may not have purchased the item.

UPH – Units Per Hour

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

UR – Universal Receive

URP – Universal Receive Prep

URS – Universal Receive Sort

UTA – Unable to Access

UTL – Unable to Locate

UX – User Experience

Variation – Many products have one main item with options for size, color, flavor, pack sizes, and more. Often the main product is a parent ASIN with the variants being child ASINs.

VAT – Value Added Tax. For products sold in the UK and EU.

Verified Review – A review obtained from a genuine purchaser of the product in question.

Vendor – Vendors, using Vendor Central, sell product to Amazon’s retail side to be sold by Amazon to end consumers, taking on the role of wholesalers.

Vine – An Amazon program in which vendors or sellers can enroll their products to obtain verified, legitimate reviews.

VIR – Volume Incentive Rebate. Higher volume sales result in a greater discount, making this a beneficial scenario for both the seller and the supplier.

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.

VNHO – Virtual New Hire Orientation

Voucher/Coupon – A promotional deal on Amazon where a vendor or seller offers an amount or percentage off for a limited time.

Warehouse Deals – Sold by Amazon Warehouse, a business of Amazon that sells quality “used” (usually just items with damaged packaging or returned) products and rents out used textbooks. All items are inspected and graded using Amazon’s rigorous 20-point quality inspection process and sold at a discount. Purchases are Prime-eligible and backed by Amazon’s 30-day return policy and customer service.

WHS – Warehouse Health and Safety. Alternatively, may just be shorthand for warehouse.

WOW – Week Over Week

YOY – Year Over Year

YTD – Year to Date

Need something explained? Notice something is missing. Feel free to contact us so we can address it and help other sellers and vendors.

(Note: This Amazon terms glossary was last updated in April 2021.)