Amazon seller glossary: ads, fees, stock and account health

A

A-to-z Guarantee claim

A request a buyer makes for Amazon to step in when an order did not arrive, arrived late, was not as described, or a return refund was not paid. Granted claims are charged to the seller, and every claim counts toward the Order Defect Rate. More

Account Health Rating (AHR)

Amazon's 0 to 1,000 score of how well a seller follows its selling policies. 200 and above is healthy; 100 to 199 is at risk; under 100 is critical and can lead to deactivation. More

ACOS (advertising cost of sales)

Ad spend divided by the sales attributed to those ads. $20 of spend for $100 of ad sales is 20% ACOS. Lower is not always better: it depends on margin and goals. More

ASIN

Amazon Standard Identification Number: the 10-character ID Amazon gives each product in its catalog, shared by every seller of that product in a marketplace.

Attribution window

How long after a click Amazon credits a sale to an ad: 7 days for Sponsored Products bought by sellers, 14 days for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display. Recent days look worse than they are while late orders are still arriving. More

B

Backend search terms

Hidden keywords in a listing that help it appear in search without showing on the page. Amazon limits them (under 250 bytes in most marketplaces) and ignores repeats, punctuation and words already in the title. More

Best Sellers Rank (BSR)

A product's sales rank within its category, updated often. Lower is better. It reflects recent sales relative to other products, which is why sales estimates are always estimates. More

Brand Analytics

Amazon's reports for brand owners in Brand Registry: what shoppers search, which products they click and buy, and Search Query Performance for your own products. More

Brand Registry

Amazon's programme for brand owners with a registered trademark. It unlocks Brand Analytics, Sponsored Brands, A+ content and more control over listings.

Break-even ACOS

The highest ACOS at which an ad sale makes no loss: profit per unit before ads divided by the price. Above it, ads lose money; your target ACOS sits below it. More

Buy Box

The Add to Cart box on a product page. When several sellers offer the same product, Amazon gives the Buy Box to one offer at a time; ads for a product without the Buy Box rarely convert. More

Buyer-Seller Messaging

Amazon's channel for messages between buyers and sellers. Sellers may send only messages needed to complete the order or answer the buyer, without marketing, links or review requests outside Amazon's own tool. More

C

Case pack

The number of units in one carton from your supplier. Shipment plans are rounded to full case packs. More

CPC (cost per click)

What you pay on average for one click on an ad. In Amazon's auction you usually pay less than your bid, just enough to beat the next advertiser.

CTR (click-through rate)

Clicks divided by impressions. A low CTR usually means the main image, title, price or reviews do not stand out on the search page.

Conversion rate (CVR)

Orders divided by clicks (for ads) or by sessions (for the listing). A falling conversion rate is often the first sign of a pricing, stock, review or listing problem.

D

Dayparting

Running ads only in certain hours of the day, by pausing campaigns in hours that rarely convert and restarting them afterwards. More

Days of cover

How many days current stock lasts at the current sales speed: units on hand (and inbound) divided by units sold per day. More

Direct Fulfillment (DF)

Amazon's dropship programme for vendors: the vendor ships Amazon's customer orders from its own warehouse using Amazon's labels. More

F

FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon)

Amazon stores your stock in its warehouses, ships orders and handles returns, for an FBA fee per unit and monthly storage fees. FBA offers usually qualify for Prime. More

FBM (fulfilled by merchant)

The seller stores and ships orders itself. FBM orders count toward the late shipment, cancellation and valid tracking rates, and are where most A-to-z risk sits. More

H

Harvesting (search term harvesting)

Moving a customer search term that converts in an automatic, broad or phrase campaign into an exact-match keyword with its own bid, and adding it as a negative where it came from. More

L

Late shipment rate

The share of merchant-fulfilled orders confirmed as shipped after their ship-by date. Amazon's target is under 4%. More

Lead time

Days from placing a purchase order with your supplier until the stock is available to sell at Amazon, including production and shipping. More

M

Match type

How closely a search must match a keyword for the ad to show: exact (the same search, with close variants), phrase (contains the phrase) or broad (related searches). More

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

An open standard that lets AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT use outside tools. SellerPilot's connector uses it to give your assistant your store data and actions. More

N

Negative keyword

A search you tell Amazon not to show an ad for. Negative exact blocks one search; negative phrase blocks every search containing the phrase. More

Net PPM

Net pure product margin: Amazon's margin on a vendor's products after its costs and the vendor's allowances. Vendors watch it because it shapes Amazon's buying and negotiations. More

O

Order Defect Rate (ODR)

The share of orders with negative feedback, an A-to-z claim or a chargeback in the period. Amazon's target is under 1%. More

P

Placement

Where a Sponsored Products ad shows: top of search, rest of search, or product pages. Advertisers can raise bids by a percentage for top of search and product pages. More

Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate

The share of merchant-fulfilled orders the seller cancels before shipping. Amazon's target is under 2.5%. More

R

Referral fee

Amazon's commission on each sale, a percentage of the price that depends on the category (often 8% to 15%), with a minimum per item in many categories. More

Reimbursement

Money Amazon pays when it loses or damages FBA stock, or when a refunded return is not sent back. Many are automatic; others need a claim within a short window. More

Reorder point

The stock level at which to order more: daily sales × lead time, plus safety stock. More

Request a Review

Amazon's own button and API that sends a standard review request to the buyer, once per order, between 5 and 30 days after delivery. More

ROAS (return on ad spend)

Sales from ads divided by ad spend; the inverse of ACOS. A 25% ACOS is a ROAS of 4. More

S

SAFE-T claim

A request a merchant-fulfilled seller files for reimbursement when a buyer returned an item damaged, different or not at all after a refund. More

Search Query Performance (SQP)

A Brand Analytics report showing, for each search, impressions, clicks, add-to-carts and purchases for your products against the whole market. More

Settlement report

Amazon's report of every transaction in a payout period: sales, refunds, fees, advertising and reimbursements. It is the ground truth for profit. More

Share of voice

How much of the search results for a keyword are your products, against competitors. More

Sponsored Brands

Amazon ads for brand-registered sellers and vendors that show a logo, a headline and several products, or a video, usually at the top of search results. More

Sponsored Display

Amazon ads that target audiences or products, on and off Amazon, such as retargeting shoppers who viewed a product. More

Sponsored Products

Amazon's main ad type: cost-per-click ads for single products in search results and on product pages, targeted by keywords or products. More

Stranded inventory

FBA units in Amazon's warehouses that cannot be sold, usually because the listing is inactive or has an error. They keep paying storage. More

T

TACOS (total advertising cost of sales)

Ad spend divided by all sales, ads and organic. A falling TACOS with steady ACOS usually means ads are lifting organic sales. More

Target ACOS

The ACOS your bids aim for: break-even ACOS minus the profit you want to keep, adjusted for the goal (higher to launch or rank, lower for profit). More

V

Valid tracking rate

The share of merchant-fulfilled shipments with a valid tracking number. Amazon's target is above 95%. More

Vendor Central (1P)

Amazon's portal for vendors, who sell to Amazon wholesale; Amazon then sells to shoppers. Sellers who sell directly to shoppers use Seller Central (3P). More