Acronyms

This page contains commonly used Amazon acronyms used by sellers. This list is in alphabetical order.  I recommend using the “find” function to search for the acronym you are searching for.  You can do this in any browser by holding the control key and pressing “F.”  Then type the acronym you are looking for.  If there is an acronym or term you are looking for that is not on this list, let me know in the comments and I will get it added.

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

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.

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.

ATOP – At time of posting – You are likely to see this in Amazon related facebook groups. This most often refers to the pricing of an item at the time the post was made.

AQ – Amazon Queen

AZ – Amazon

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

BOLO – Be on the lookout.  Typically this is used for an item that is profitable that you might be able to find in stores near you.

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

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

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

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.

FS – Financial Statements

FWIW – For what it’s worth

HTF – Hard to Find – This is often associated with a BOLO post, and comes into play when an item is rarely seen in stores anymore.

IL – InventoryLab – A service to assist in accounting and analysis related to your Amazon business.

IMO – In my opinion – Often used in facebook groups when a person wants it to be clear they are sharing advice, or something that they likely don’t want taken as 100% reliable.  You may also see the variant IMHO, which is in my humble opinion.

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

LTH – Long Term Hold – Storing inventory to be sold at a later date.  For example, buying christmas lights on December 28th and waiting to sell them until the following December.

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.

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 a 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.

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

PM – Price match or private message – Most likely refers to price matching other retailer, or a private message if you see it used in a Facebook group.

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

Q4 – 4th Quarter – Refers to October through December when Amazon sellers often see a large increase in sales.  You may also see Q1 (January through March), Q2 (April through June), and Q3 (July through September).

QB – Quickbooks – Service to help manage accounting.

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

Replen – Replenish-able product – An item that a seller is able to replenish from a supplier and sell continuously.  This term can be used in relation to just about any sourcing method.

ROI – Return on Investment

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.

SS – Seller Support – Basically customer service for Amazon sellers.

TIA – Thanks in Advance – Often seen in facebook posts when asking a question.

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.  Read more about using VAs for online sourcing HERE.

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

YMMV – Your mileage may vary – This is regularly seen in Amazon related Facebook groups related to posts that will not apply to all readers.  For example, there might be a deal available in a certain region that the poster is unsure if they are available nationwide.

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

Let me know if the comments if I missed anything.  I will continually add to this page as needed if new acronyms pop up.  If you found this page helpful, please consider sharing using one of the buttons on the top right.