Glossary
General terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| ASIN | Amazon Standard Identification Number. Unique product identifier on Amazon. |
| SKU | Stock Keeping Unit. Seller's internal product code. |
| Buybox | Featured purchase box on Amazon. Winning the buybox significantly increases sales. |
| BSR | Best Seller Rank. Product's position within its category based on recent sales. |
| FBA | Fulfillment by Amazon. Amazon's storage and shipping service. |
| FBM | Fulfillment by Merchant. The seller manages storage and shipping themselves (as opposed to FBA). |
| Seller Central | Amazon seller panel (direct retail model). |
| Vendor Central | Amazon vendor panel (wholesale model, selling to Amazon). |
| Marketplace | Amazon store in a country (amazon.es, amazon.de, amazon.com, etc.). |
| Listing | Product page on Amazon with all its information. |
| Bullet Points | The 5 descriptive points of a product listing on Amazon. |
| Workflow | Automated flow that executes actions based on conditions and triggers. |
| Credits / Tokens | Epinium's internal currency for AI operations. |
| Cluster | Grouping of products with similar behavior or characteristics. |
| Forecast | Demand forecast for FBA inventory planning. |
Vendor Central specific terminology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Vendor | Supplier who sells products to Amazon wholesale. Amazon buys stock from the vendor and resells to end consumers. Different from the Seller model, where the seller sells directly to the customer. |
| Sell-in | Vendor sales to Amazon: units and revenue that Amazon purchases from the supplier (sell-in = sale to the channel). Reflected in Ordered Revenue and Shipped Revenue metrics from the vendor's perspective. |
| Sell-out | Amazon sales to the end consumer: what Amazon sells to customers once it has the stock in its warehouses. The vendor doesn't directly control sell-out but can monitor it in Retail Analytics to understand real market demand. |
| Ordered Revenue | Revenue from orders placed by Amazon to the vendor that have not yet been shipped to the end customer. Represents real-time demand before orders are processed. |
| Shipped Revenue | Revenue from orders that have already been shipped to the end customer. The most reliable indicator of actual sales. |
| Ordered Units | Units ordered by Amazon from the vendor, regardless of whether already shipped to consumer. |
| Shipped Units | Units actually shipped to the end consumer. |
| COGS | Cost of Goods Sold. The direct cost Amazon has for each unit sold, reflecting the purchase price from the vendor. Key for calculating product profitability (Net PPM). |
| Net PPM | Net Pure Product Margin. Net profitability margin of the product for Amazon. Formula: (Shipped Revenue − COGS + CCOGS − Discounts) ÷ Shipped Revenue. A low Net PPM may lead to Amazon pressuring the vendor to improve commercial terms. |
| CCOGS | Customer-influenced Cost of Goods Sold. Adjustment to COGS derived from customer-related factors (returns, etc.). |
| Manufacturing view | Data view that aggregates brand-wide performance regardless of sourcing origin. Shows everything Amazon sells under that brand, even if part of the stock comes from other distributors. |
| Sourcing view | Data view showing only the metrics generated by direct Amazon purchases from that specific vendor. More restrictive and accurate for evaluating the direct commercial relationship. |
| Net Received Units / Sales | Net inventory or sales received by Amazon, after deducting returns to vendor. |
| Glance Views | Equivalent to "sessions" in Vendor Central. Number of times customers have viewed the product detail page when the vendor had the Featured Offer (Buy Box). |
| Sourceable Product OOS | Out-of-stock metric for products Amazon can source. Indicates how often a sourceable product runs out of stock. |
| Vendor Confirmation Rate | Percentage of Purchase Orders the vendor accepts vs. total received. A low rate can generate penalties. |
| Sell Through Rate | Inventory turnover rate: shipped units minus returns, divided by available stock plus received stock. Measures how quickly Amazon sells the inventory purchased from the vendor. |
| Purchase Order (PO) | Purchase order issued by Amazon to the vendor when it needs to restock. The vendor accepts or rejects it. |
| Unhealthy Inventory | Amazon classification for excess stock units considered overstock. May lead to Amazon taking measures to reduce inventory. |
| P70 / P80 / P90 | Confidence levels in Amazon demand forecasts. P70 means there is a 70% probability that actual demand will not exceed that figure. P90 is more conservative (more safety stock). |
Amazon Advertising terminology
Advertising metrics
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| ACoS | Advertising Cost of Sale. Advertising spend as a percentage of ad-attributed revenue. Formula: (Spend / Ad Sales) × 100. Lower is better. |
| ROAS | Return on Ad Spend. Return on advertising investment. Formula: Sales / Spend. Higher is better. |
| TACoS | Total Advertising Cost of Sales. Advertising spend over total sales (paid + organic). Measures overall advertising dependency. |
| CTR | Click-Through Rate. Percentage of users who click the ad. Formula: (Clicks / Impressions) × 100. |
| CVR | Conversion Rate. Percentage of clicks resulting in a sale. Formula: (Orders / Clicks) × 100. |
| CPC | Cost Per Click. Price paid for each click on an ad. |
Ad types
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sponsored Products (SP) | Amazon ad type that promotes individual products in search results and product pages. |
| Sponsored Brands (SB) | Amazon ad type that showcases a brand with logo, custom headline and multiple products. |
| Sponsored Display (SD) | Amazon ad type appearing on product pages and off-Amazon (retargeting). |
Campaign structure
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Bid | Maximum price paid for a click on an ad. |
| Target | Ad objective (keyword, ASIN, category). |
| Ad Group | Group of ads within a campaign with common targeting. |
| Campaign optimizer (Smart Campaigns Optimizer) | Epinium workflow that optimizes your Sponsored Products campaigns every day: it adjusts bids and creates keywords and negatives. See Campaign optimizer. |
Profitability (P&L)
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Net sales | Gross sales minus refunds. It is the base for the margin in the P&L. The TACoS and cost coverage, on the other hand, are measured over gross sales. |
| Net proceeds | Net sales minus commissions, logistics (including your own shipping), storage and the other fees of the sales channel. |
| Product cost | What each unit sold costs you (purchase or manufacturing). You add it in Epinium. It is not the same as the Vendor Central COGS, which is what Amazon pays the vendor. |
| Contribution margin | What is left of net sales after fees, logistics, advertising and product cost. It does not deduct overheads or taxes. |
| Cost coverage | What share of gross sales has a product cost. Below 100%, the margin shows higher than it really is. |