Amazon seller glossary: 50 terms that matter
Direct answer An Amazon seller needs to understand account roles, catalog identifiers, fulfillment, advertising, traffic, conversion, fees, and contribution economics. The most important first ten terms are Seller Central, ASIN, SKU, GTIN, FBA, FBM, Featured Offer, referral fee, contribution margin, and ACOS.
How should you use this glossary?
Do not memorize fifty definitions in isolation. Use the glossary when a report, fee, or workflow contains a term you cannot connect to a decision. Pay special attention to pairs that look similar but answer different questions: keyword vs search term, ordered vs shipped revenue, ACOS vs TACOS, ASIN vs SKU, and FBA vs FBM.
Definition discipline Amazon interfaces and program names evolve. Where a metric is account-specific, this glossary tells you to check the definition in the report rather than pretending one universal denominator exists.
Account and registration terms
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Seller Central | The account hub used by third-party sellers to manage listings, offers, inventory, orders, payments, advertising access, and account health. |
| Vendor Central | The account environment used by invited first-party vendors that sell products to Amazon for resale. |
| Selling plan | The fee and feature model under which a seller account operates, such as Individual or Professional in the US store. |
| Beneficial owner | A person who ultimately owns or controls the business under the ownership criteria used in the registration flow. |
| Legal representative | A person authorized to act for the business, accept terms, and manage the selling account. |
| Store name | The public seller name shown to customers; it can differ from the legal business name but must meet Amazon rules. |
| GTIN | Global Trade Item Number, an umbrella term for product identifiers such as UPC, EAN, ISBN, or JAN. |
| UPC | A type of GTIN commonly used for retail products, especially in North America. |
| SKU | Stock Keeping Unit: a seller-created identifier used to track an offer and inventory. |
Fulfillment terms
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| FBA | Fulfillment by Amazon: inventory is stored in Amazon’s network and Amazon handles eligible picking, packing, shipping, customer service, and returns. |
| FBM | Fulfilled by Merchant: the seller or its logistics provider stores inventory and fulfills customer orders. |
| MCF | Multi-Channel Fulfillment: Amazon fulfillment services used for orders placed outside Amazon’s store, subject to current program terms. |
| Fulfillment fee | A per-unit fee for fulfillment services; the calculation depends on the product and the current fee schedule. |
| Storage fee | A fee based on inventory space and time in Amazon’s fulfillment network under the applicable schedule. |
| Aged inventory | Inventory held beyond an age threshold that may attract additional costs under current FBA policies. |
| Removal order | An instruction to return, dispose of, or otherwise remove FBA inventory, usually for a per-unit charge. |
| Inbound placement | The process and potential fee associated with distributing inbound inventory across fulfillment locations. |
| Restock limit | An account or product-level limit that can influence how much inventory may be sent into FBA. |
Advertising terms
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| ACOS | Advertising cost of sales: ad spend divided by ad-attributed sales, expressed as a percentage. |
| ROAS | Return on ad spend: ad-attributed sales divided by ad spend; the inverse presentation of ACOS. |
| TACOS | Total advertising cost of sales: ad spend divided by total sales. It is widely used operationally but may not appear as a native Amazon metric in every interface. |
| PPC | Pay-per-click advertising, where a charge is generally incurred when an eligible ad click occurs. |
| CPC | Cost per click: ad spend divided by clicks. |
| CTR | Click-through rate: clicks divided by impressions. |
| CVR | Conversion rate: orders or purchases divided by the relevant traffic denominator; confirm the denominator used in each report. |
| Keyword | A word or phrase selected in manual targeting to match relevant customer shopping queries. |
| Search term / shopping query | The actual words entered by a shopper or the target surfaced in reporting that triggered an ad interaction. |
| Match type | The control that determines how closely a customer query must relate to a keyword: broad, phrase, or exact. |
| Negative keyword | A phrase or term used to prevent ads from serving for unwanted queries under the selected negative match type. |
| Product targeting | Manual advertising targeting based on products, categories, brands, or product attributes rather than only keywords. |
| Placement | An ad location or placement group, such as top of search or product pages, depending on ad product and marketplace. |
| Bid | The advertiser’s configured willingness to pay for an eligible click, subject to auction and bidding controls. |
Listing and catalog terms
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| ASIN | Amazon Standard Identification Number: Amazon’s catalog identifier for a product detail page. |
| Buy Box / Featured Offer | The selected offer prominently shown with purchase buttons on a product detail page; Amazon now commonly calls it the Featured Offer. |
| Product detail page | The shared catalog page that presents product information and one or more seller offers. |
| Variation | A parent-child catalog relationship that groups related options such as size or color when policy permits. |
| Backend search terms | Non-customer-facing catalog keywords entered to help describe and index a product, subject to Amazon’s rules. |
| A+ Content | Brand content modules that can add richer text, imagery, video, or comparison elements to eligible product pages. |
| Brand Registry | Amazon’s brand program that provides eligible rights owners with protection and brand-building tools. |
| Category approval | Permission required before listing certain products or categories that are restricted or gated. |
Data and reporting terms
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Impression | An instance in which eligible content or an ad is displayed under the applicable reporting definition. |
| Session | A Seller Central traffic grouping of customer activity; the exact definition and aggregation should be checked in the report help. |
| Glance View | A traffic measure used in some Amazon analytics environments, especially vendor contexts; use the in-report definition. |
| Ordered revenue | The value of customer orders under the definition and timing used by the relevant report. |
| Shipped revenue | The value of units shipped to customers under the definition and timing used by the relevant report. |
| Best Sellers Rank (BSR) | A category-relative indicator of sales performance displayed for eligible products; it is not the same as search position. |
Fees and profitability terms
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Referral fee | A selling fee generally charged as a category-based percentage or under the applicable fee schedule. |
| Contribution margin | Revenue remaining after specified variable costs; the exact cost scope must be explicitly defined by the business. |
| Break-even ACOS | The ACOS at which pre-ad contribution is fully consumed by ad spend on the same revenue basis. |
| Landed cost | The full cost to bring a unit to the point where it is ready for sale, often including product, freight, duty, and preparation costs. |
Which ten terms should a new seller learn first?
1. Seller Central
2. ASIN
3. SKU
4. GTIN
5. FBA
6. FBM
7. Featured Offer
8. Referral fee
9. Contribution margin
10. ACOS
These ten describe where you work, what you sell, how you fulfill, how the customer buys, what Amazon charges, and whether advertising can be profitable.
Frequently asked questions
Is ASIN the same as SKU?
No. The ASIN identifies the Amazon catalog product. The SKU is the seller’s identifier for its offer and inventory.
Is ACOS the same as profit margin?
No. ACOS is an advertising ratio. Profitability requires product cost, platform fees, fulfillment, returns, promotions, and other variable costs.
Is the Buy Box still the official name?
Amazon increasingly uses “Featured Offer.” Sellers still commonly use “Buy Box” in conversation.
Are sessions and Glance Views interchangeable?
No. They appear in different analytics contexts and can use different definitions. Check the report help text.
Why do the same metrics have different names across reports?
Reporting surfaces evolved separately and terminology changes over time, so one concept can appear under several labels. Anchor on the definition and the source report rather than on the name.
Do these terms mean the same thing on other marketplaces?
Rarely exactly. Concepts such as offer share, conversion and contribution translate across platforms, but definitions and calculation bases differ — always confirm against the platform’s own documentation.
Which terms matter most when starting out?
Identity terms so your catalogue is correct, conversion and offer share so you can diagnose demand, and contribution so you know what you keep. The rest can be learned as the situations arise.
How often do these definitions change?
Often enough that a glossary should be treated as a living document rather than a memorised list. When a number stops behaving as expected, re-read the definition before rebuilding the analysis.
Related guides
➤ Selling on Amazon US from abroad · Marketplace P&L: do you actually make money?
Sources & verification note. Definitions are concise operational summaries based on Amazon’s public registration, pricing, fulfillment, advertising, and SEO materials. Account-specific report definitions should be verified in the live interface.