I used to be quite active in some Forums where newbies would be searching for information on how to become an Amazon Seller, whether it be FBA or FBM… or even private label.
The questions that would always appear would often be the same; What does IP mean? What does PL mean? What’s FBA?
So to keep things easy to understand and provide you with an encyclopedia of terms that you can rehearse, we’ve gone ahead and created a simple Amazon Seller Glossary of Terms.
To make things even more useful, we plan to create an article for each and every term provided, to explain it in detail.
Key Terms for Amazon Sellers
- A2A – Amazon to Amazon. This is where you buy something on Amazon, to later re-sell on Amazon.
- Account Health – This is a score of your seller account health within Amazon
- AMZ – Amazon
- API – Application Programming Interface. We only use these for connecting our seller accounts and sourcing software.
- ASIN – Amazon Standard Identification Number. Each product has a unique identifier which is used within Amazon fulfilment centers to help them understand what each product is.
- A to Z Guarantee. The program which will guarantee that your items arrive to the customer securely.
- B2B. Business to Business. This is a sale that’s conducted from one business to another, which may require additional invoices to be generated.
- BSR. The Amazon Best Sellers Rank. Whilst this rank algorithm is secret, we know that the lower the figure, the better it sells!
- Buy Box. The physical Add to Cart button that is found when shopping online.
- Category. This is the way that Amazon divide their products, for ease of use when shopping. for example, Video Games in their own section, instead of being in the same area as face wipes.
- COGS. Cost of Goods Sold. This is used on lots of Profit sheets, as it contains the exact amount of money that you paid for an item.
- EAN. European Article Number. This is a number that’s used for globally traded products, to identify it.
- EFN. European Fulfilmnet Network. New in 2022, this has given the option for sellers to sell inside other marketplaces within Europe.
- FBA – Fulfilment by Amazon. The act of Amazon monitoring your items and despatching them when an order is placed.
- FBM – Fulfilment by merchant. The seller has the item at their home, and packs this up to send to the customer. (Less fees than FBA).
- FC. Fulfilment Center. The warehouse where your goods are stored and shipped from, when sold.
- Feedback. Receiving comments from the customer for the item they have received. This can be positive or negative.
- Gated. This is where you are unable to sell in a specific category or brand, until you can upload an invoice to prove ownership. This is a fairly standard practice.
- GTIN. Global Trade Item Number. Identifiers that help countries to identify specific product information.
- HG (Hazardous Goods). These are goods that have to be shipped to a separate Amazon Warehouse, due to the nature of their contents.
- Inventory. This is the list of items that you have in stock with Amazon, at any given time.
- ISBN. A unique identifier provided solely for books.
- OA. Online Arbitrage. The art of buying items online and reselling for a profit.
- PL. Private Label. Manufacturing and creating a brand to sell items on Amazon.
- Q1 Q2 Q3 & Q4. The 4 quarters of the year, split into 3 months each.
- RA. Retail Arbitrage. Buying items in store and selling them on Amazon.
- Refund. Reimbursing a seller after they have returned an item that isn’t fit for purpose.
- ROI. Return on Investment. Usually calculated as a percentage, the profit that you make on the investment. For example, £20 profit on £100 spend is 20% ROI.
- SC (Seller Central). The dashboard of your Amazon Seller Account.
- WS. Wholesale. This is how some companies operate on Amazon, with smaller margins.
This is an area which will be compiled over the years. If you have a good one, feel free to drop them in the comments!
