Operator glossary
The terms that decide your P&L.
Every definition here is written the way we would explain it across the desk — what the term means, and what an operator should do about it. New terms land as the journal touches them.
A-to-z Guarantee claim
Amazon's buyer-protection claim on seller-fulfilled orders — granted claims refund the buyer from your pocket and stamp a defect on your ODR, which makes response speed a metric, not a courtesy.
Read the definitionA+ Content
The rich product-description modules for Brand Registry sellers, in two tiers: Basic A+ (free for everyone, up to ~8% sales lift per Amazon) and Premium A+ (video, hotspots, carousels — up to ~20% lift, free once eligibility is met).
Read the definitionA10 (Amazon search algorithm)
The working name for Amazon's product-search ranking system, which weighs conversion behavior, sales velocity, and relevance signals — and increasingly feeds semantic models like COSMO rather than raw keyword matching.
Read the definitionAccount Health Rating (AHR)
Amazon's color-coded score of your account's policy standing — Healthy, At Risk, or Critical — the number that decides how much benefit of the doubt you get before deactivation.
Read the definitionACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale)
Ad spend divided by ad-attributed revenue for a campaign or account — the standard Amazon ads efficiency ratio, and the easiest one to over-optimize.
Read the definitionAdjacent-intent keywords
High-volume phrases that contain your product's words but describe a different product — accessories, replacement parts, and competitor brands that keyword tools rank highly and listings must refuse.
Read the definitionAged inventory surcharge
Escalating monthly storage penalties on FBA stock older than 181 days — the fee that turns a slow SKU into a negative-margin one if nobody is watching sell-through.
Read the definitionAI-generated listing content
Amazon's built-in generative listing builder — describe the product or paste a URL, and it drafts title, bullets, and description — free drafts that still need an operator between them and publish.
Read the definitionAmazon Accelerate
Amazon's own annual seller conference — every September in Seattle — where features launch on stage, roadmaps leak in sessions, and the Seller Café books you face-to-face time with actual Amazon support.
Read the definitionAmazon Associates (affiliate program)
Amazon's affiliate machine — external sites and creators earn category-based commissions (roughly 1–10%+) linking to products, the demand engine behind every 'best X' listicle you have ever read.
Read the definitionAmazon Attribution
Free measurement tags for off-Amazon traffic — Google, Meta, email, influencers — showing which external clicks become Amazon conversions, and the key to the Brand Referral Bonus.
Read the definitionAmazon Brand Analytics (ABA)
The free data suite unlocked by Brand Registry — Top Search Terms with SFR and click/conversion shares, Search Query Performance, Market Basket, Repeat Purchase Behavior — the closest thing to Amazon's own demand telemetry.
Read the definitionAmazon Brand Lift
Survey-based measurement of what your upper-funnel ads actually changed — awareness, consideration, purchase intent — asked of exposed versus control audiences instead of inferred from clicks.
Read the definitionAmazon Brand Registry
Amazon's program tying a trademark to your seller account — the gate to A+ Content, Brand Analytics, Sponsored Brands, and real counterfeit takedowns.
Read the definitionAmazon Brand Stores
Your multi-page storefront on Amazon — the only ad-free destination you control inside the store, the landing zone for Sponsored Brands, and a source of its own analytics.
Read the definitionAmazon Business (B2B selling)
The B2B layer inside your existing account — business-only prices, quantity discounts, tax-exempt buyers, invoiced orders — corporate demand that most sellers serve accidentally and never optimize.
Read the definitionAmazon Currency Converter (ACCS)
The default currency pipe for international sellers — Amazon converts USD disbursements to your home-currency bank at a spread — convenient, automatic, and one of the most quietly expensive defaults in cross-border selling.
Read the definitionAmazon Custom
The personalization program — buyers configure text, images, or options on your listing before ordering — gated by application, and the moat commodity products cannot cross.
Read the definitionAmazon DSP (the term)
Amazon's demand-side platform: programmatic access to Amazon's audiences and inventory on and off Amazon — retargeting at scale, judged properly only through TACoS and NTB.
Read the definitionAmazon Freight
Amazon's truckload brokerage — booking the same carrier network that moves Amazon's own trailers, for anyone's FTL and LTL loads, priced by algorithm and bookable in minutes.
Read the definitionAmazon Global Logistics (AGL)
Amazon's own ocean freight line — book FCL/LCL from Chinese ports straight into the FBA network at Amazon-negotiated rates, with inbound treated as Amazon-controlled supply chain.
Read the definitionAmazon Global Selling
The umbrella for selling across Amazon's 20+ marketplaces from unified accounts — NA and EU as bundles, linked global views, and the sequencing question every US-success brand eventually faces.
Read the definitionAmazon Handmade
The application-gated marketplace for genuinely handcrafted goods — artisan storefronts inside Amazon's traffic firehose, with maker-verification instead of open registration.
Read the definitionAmazon Haul
Amazon's sub-$20 answer to Temu — a separate ultra-low-price storefront with longer shipping and its own seller program — the discount basement built inside the main store's building.
Read the definitionAmazon Influencer Program
The creator tier of Associates — qualifying influencers get their own amazon.com storefront and, crucially, onsite commissions: their shoppable videos earn on YOUR listings.
Read the definitionAmazon Launchpad
The startup showcase program — merchandising placements, premium content support, and startup-branding in exchange for a program fee on top of standard selling costs.
Read the definitionAmazon Lending
Working-capital offers inside Seller Central — term loans and credit lines (now largely through partner lenders) sized and priced from your sales telemetry, repaid straight out of disbursements.
Read the definitionAmazon Live
Amazon's shoppable livestreaming — brands and creators stream with a product carousel pinned below, on Amazon's Live hub, Fire TV, and detail-page placements.
Read the definitionAmazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)
Amazon's clean room: event-level ad and shopping signals you query with SQL — where path-to-purchase, overlap, and true incrementality questions get real answers.
Read the definitionAmazon Marketing Stream (AMS)
The push-based ads data pipe — hourly campaign metrics and near-real-time events streamed to your endpoint via API, the infrastructure under serious intraday bid automation.
Read the definitionAmazon Outlet
Amazon's clearance storefront for overstock — discounted deals on excess FBA inventory, a revenue-positive alternative to removal orders when a SKU must die gracefully.
Read the definitionAmazon Posts
Amazon's free image feed for brands — lifestyle posts that surface on detail pages and brand feeds, effectively free retail media impressions for the cost of repurposed social content.
Read the definitionAmazon Renewed
The certified-refurbished program — a gated marketplace for professionally refurbished products with mandated warranties, and the legitimate lane for selling refurb at scale.
Read the definitionAmazon Resale (Warehouse Deals)
Amazon's own used-and-open-box store — where your FBA customer returns resurface as discounted 'Used - Like New' offers sold by Amazon, competing on your listing whether you noticed or not.
Read the definitionAmazon search volume (exact vs. broad)
Third-party estimates of monthly searches per term, modeled on Amazon's own SFR data — with 'exact' counting the precise phrase and 'broad' absorbing variants; mixing the two is how keyword lists lie.
Read the definitionAmazon Seller app
The mobile command line — sales pulse, price alerts, message response within SLA, photo-based product scanning — the difference between issues found at breakfast and issues found Monday.
Read the definitionAmazon Seller Wallet
Amazon's hold-your-own-USD account — park disbursements in dollars, convert when rates suit you, and transfer at tiered FX pricing instead of eating the automatic ACCS spread.
Read the definitionAmazon SEND
Amazon's cross-border booking service for China-based sellers — parcels, air, and LCL sea booked inside Seller Central, paid domestically, tracked into the FBA network end to end.
Read the definitionAmazon Shipping (parcel delivery)
Amazon's parcel carrier for your non-Amazon orders — the vans that deliver FBA packages picking up your FBM and DTC parcels too, relaunched in the US as a UPS/FedEx alternative.
Read the definitionAmazon unBoxed
Amazon Ads' annual conference — each October — where the advertising product roadmap drops: new ad formats, AMC capabilities, and measurement products, a quarter before your ad console grows the buttons.
Read the definitionAmazon Vine
Amazon's invitation-only review program: enroll units, vetted reviewers take them free, and honest reviews land — the only compliant way to seed reviews on a new listing.
Read the definitionAmazon's Choice badge
The badge awarded per search phrase — not per product — marking a well-rated, well-priced, promptly shippable result for that specific query; a conversion asset you influence but cannot buy.
Read the definitionAmazon's dropshipping policy
Dropshipping is allowed with one non-negotiable condition: you are the seller of record on every document the customer sees — retail arbitrage from Walmart to a customer's door is a suspension, not a hustle.
Read the definitionAmelia (Amazon's AI seller assistant)
The generative-AI assistant inside Seller Central — announced at Accelerate 2024 — answering account questions, pulling your data conversationally, and inching toward taking actions on your behalf.
Read the definitionAPEX (patent neutral evaluation)
Amazon's private patent court — a neutral attorney evaluates your utility-patent claim against an accused listing, each side posts $4,000, loser's deposit funds the process — verdicts in weeks, not years.
Read the definitionASIN
Amazon's 10-character product identifier — one per detail page, the atom of the whole catalog, distinct from your SKU (internal) and UPC (universal).
Read the definitionAuto campaigns (and their four targeting groups)
Sponsored Products campaigns where Amazon picks the targets, split into close match, loose match, substitutes, and complements — a discovery engine when segmented, a slush fund when left whole.
Read the definitionAWD (Amazon Warehousing & Distribution)
Amazon's upstream bulk-storage network that auto-replenishes FBA for you — lower storage rates than FBA, no placement fees on the way in, and a way to keep selling through Q4 cutoffs.
Read the definitionBackend search terms
The hidden generic-keywords field — 249 bytes of indexable text for the words that do not belong in visible copy: synonyms, regional spellings, misspellings shoppers actually type.
Read the definitionBorn to Run (vendor launch program)
The Vendor Central program that lets a vendor request an opening purchase order for a new product — guaranteed initial inventory in exchange for funding the launch risk if it does not sell.
Read the definitionBrand followers
The shoppers who tapped Follow on your Store or Posts — a retention audience Amazon lets you actually reach — through MYCE emails, follower-targeted promotions, and feed distribution.
Read the definitionBrand Metrics (Amazon Ads)
Amazon's funnel scoreboard for your brand inside a category — awareness and consideration indices, engagement counts, and category benchmarks that locate you against the field.
Read the definitionBrand Referral Bonus (BRB)
Amazon's rebate for traffic you bring from outside — an average ~10% credit on sales driven through Amazon Attribution tags, quietly turning external ads into fee discounts.
Read the definitionBrand Story (the module)
The scrollable brand strip that renders above A+ Content — and the eligibility key that unlocks Premium A+ for free.
Read the definitionBrand Tailored Promotions
Targeted discounts to audiences Amazon builds from your own shoppers — cart abandoners, repeat customers, high-spend customers, followers — retention tooling native to Amazon.
Read the definitionBranded vs. non-branded search
The split between shoppers typing your brand name and shoppers typing the category — one measures brand equity compounding, the other measures new demand capture, and mixing them flatters every report.
Read the definitionBreak-even ACoS
The ACoS at which an ad sale makes exactly zero profit — equal to your pre-ad contribution margin — and the line every bid strategy should be priced against.
Read the definitionBrowse node
Amazon's category-tree ID for where a product lives — it decides which BSR you compete in, which filters can find you, and which fee category you may be charged under.
Read the definitionBSR (Best Sellers Rank)
The hourly-updated sales rank within a category — a relative, recency-weighted popularity signal that powers the orange Best Seller badge and every revenue-estimating tool.
Read the definitionBudget rules
Native campaign budget automation — schedule-based raises for events and performance-based boosts when a campaign is converting — the built-in defense against ads dying at 2 PM.
Read the definitionBuild International Listings (BIL)
The sync engine between your marketplaces — source listings replicate to target countries with price rules that auto-adjust for currency and fees — expansion as configuration, with translation as the asterisk.
Read the definitionBulksheets (ads bulk operations)
The spreadsheet interface to Amazon Ads — export campaigns to Excel, edit thousands of bids and keywords offline, re-upload — the flat files of the advertising side.
Read the definitionBuy with Prime
Prime on your own website — the badge, FBA fulfillment, and Amazon Pay checkout embedded in your DTC store, sharing one inventory pool with your Amazon business.
Read the definitionBuyer-Seller Messaging rules
The regulated channel for contacting customers — necessary order messages only, one review request per order, no marketing ever, opt-outs honored — the compliance line between service and spam.
Read the definitionCart-add rate (SQP)
The middle of the SQP funnel: what share of clicks turn into add-to-carts — the purest read on whether the detail page holds the interest the search tile created.
Read the definitionCategory and brand gating (ungating)
Approval walls around restricted categories and brands — invoices, sometimes fees, occasionally impossibility — the first checkpoint before sourcing anything you cannot yet list.
Read the definitionCategory Listing Report
The hidden export of your entire live catalog — every attribute exactly as Amazon holds it — unlocked only by asking Seller Support, and the mandatory backup before any catalog surgery.
Read the definitionClick share (ABA)
In Brand Analytics' Top Search Terms, the percentage of a query's total clicks captured by each of the top three clicked products — the visibility scoreboard for every keyword that matters.
Read the definitionClimate Pledge Friendly badge
The green-leaf badge for products holding recognized sustainability certifications — a search filter, occasional placement boost, and trust mark that costs a certification, not a fee.
Read the definitionCo-op allowances (vendor)
The negotiated percentages Amazon deducts from vendor invoices — marketing accruals, damage allowance, freight allowance — agreed once in vendor terms and then subtracted forever.
Read the definitionCommingled (stickerless) inventory
FBA's option to pool identical products from multiple sellers under the manufacturer barcode — labeling savings purchased with exposure to every other seller's quality and authenticity.
Read the definitionContainer sizes & CBM math
20GP, 40GP, 40HQ and the cubic-meter arithmetic behind every 'should we fill a container' decision — usable capacity, not nameplate capacity, is the number that matters.
Read the definitionConversion share (ABA)
The companion metric to click share: each top-3 product's share of a query's total conversions. When your conversion share beats your click share, the listing over-delivers — bid accordingly.
Read the definitionCOSMO
Amazon's common-sense knowledge model that maps queries to products by inferred intent — why 'gift for new dad' can rank items whose listings never contain those words.
Read the definitionCounterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU)
Amazon's in-house anti-counterfeiting law unit — investigators and lawyers who sue counterfeiters, refer criminal cases, and act on the evidence brands escalate.
Read the definitionCoupons
The clip-to-save badge on search results — a discount whose real product is the green badge's click-through lift, charged per redemption plus a sales-based component in the current structure.
Read the definitionCPC (Amazon's ad auction)
Amazon ads bill per click through a second-price-style auction: you pay just above the next-highest bid, not your maximum — which changes how bold your bids should be.
Read the definitionCPR (Cerebro Product Rank)
Helium 10's estimate of how many units, sold through search over about eight days, it takes to reach page 1 for a keyword — a launch-budget calculator disguised as a metric.
Read the definitionCRaP (Can't Realize a Profit)
Amazon's internal label for items it loses money retailing — CRaP-flagged products stop getting reordered, lose content support, and quietly vanish from 1P assortments.
Read the definitionCreator Connections
Amazon's in-console brand-creator marketplace — you fund a commission pool, opted-in influencers earn it promoting your products, and attribution runs on Amazon's own rails.
Read the definitionCTR on Amazon (click-through rate)
Clicks divided by impressions on the search page — the metric your main image, title, price, and review stars fight over, and one of the strongest behavioral inputs to rank.
Read the definitionCubiscan remeasurement
Amazon's automated dimension scans set your fee tier — and when the machine measures your packaging wrong, every unit pays the wrong fee until you file for remeasurement.
Read the definitionCustomer Questions & Answers
The Q&A section on every listing — buyers ask, past buyers and sellers answer — a conversion asset, an objection database, and now raw material for Rufus's answers.
Read the definitionDayparting (ad scheduling)
Running ads harder in the hours that convert and lighter in the hours that browse — implemented on Amazon through budget rules and bid schedules rather than a simple on-off switch.
Read the definitionDDP shipping (double-clearance channels)
The all-inclusive door-to-FBA channel — one per-kg price covering freight, both customs clearances, and duties — the default for China-to-US parcels, and a compliance bet you are silently making.
Read the definitionDe minimis ($800 rule — and its death)
The old $800 duty-free threshold that powered Temu, Shein, and half of dropshipping — killed for China-origin goods in May 2025 and broadly suspended after — repricing every direct-from-China parcel model overnight.
Read the definitionDeal of the Day (DOTD)
The homepage-tier deal slot — one day, deep discount, massive placement — invitation-only through your account team or deal recommendations, and the single largest one-day volume lever Amazon offers.
Read the definitionDemographics report (Brand Analytics)
Who actually buys you — age bands, household income, education, gender, marital status of your customers — the audience truth that ends persona guesswork, where available.
Read the definitionDigital services fee (DST pass-through)
Amazon passing national digital-services taxes back to sellers — a percentage surcharge on fees for sellers based in or selling into certain countries — the line item that appeared in 2024 without a vote.
Read the definitionDirect Fulfillment (vendor dropship)
Vendor Central's dropship mode: Amazon sells it, you ship it from your own warehouse — 1P economics without Amazon holding the inventory.
Read the definitionDisbursement reserve (DD+7)
Amazon holding your money until 7 days after delivery — the account-level reserve policy that turns sales into cash on a delay every cash-flow model must respect.
Read the definitionDrayage, demurrage & detention
The port-side trucking leg and its twin meter-running fees — demurrage while your container sits at the terminal, detention while you sit on their container — where ocean savings go to die in Q4.
Read the definitionExpiration-dated FBA rules
The shelf-life regime for consumables in FBA — arrive with enough dated runway, get pulled automatically as expiry approaches, and label dates the way the machines read them.
Read the definitionFair pricing policy
Amazon's rule against prices that 'harm customer trust' — gouging spikes, reference-price games, or pricing above your own off-Amazon price — enforced by suppressing the offer, not by asking.
Read the definitionFast boats (Matson / ZIM expedited)
The premium ocean lanes — Matson's CLX and ZIM's expedited services — trans-Pacific in 11–13 sailing days, off the vessel fast, and the workhorse compromise of China-to-Amazon logistics.
Read the definitionFBA capacity limits
The monthly cap on how much volume you may hold in FBA, set per storage type — with a Capacity Manager auction to buy more, refunded as credits when the extra space performs.
Read the definitionFBA carton requirements
The box specs receiving enforces — 50 pounds max, 25 inches per side, labels flat on top surfaces — the checklist that decides whether your container unloads in hours or gets flagged for problem receive.
Read the definitionFBA Donations
The default charitable path for disposed inventory — sellable returns and overstock route to charity partners instead of destruction — write-offs with paperwork instead of landfills.
Read the definitionFBA fulfillment fee
The per-unit pick-pack-ship charge, set by size tier and weight bands — the second pillar of unit economics, and the reason packaging dimensions are a pricing decision.
Read the definitionFBA Grade and Resell
The program that turns your returns into your own used listings — Amazon grades the unit and relists it under YOUR account as Used, keeping the recovery value that Resale would otherwise capture.
Read the definitionFBA inbound placement service fee
The per-unit fee Amazon charges to spread your inbound shipment across its network — avoidable in part by sending more boxes to more locations yourself, or by routing bulk through AWD.
Read the definitionFBA New Selection
The auto-enrolled program that waives early costs on new-to-FBA ASINs — temporary free storage and removal benefits that make testing new products in FBA nearly risk-free.
Read the definitionFBA pallet requirements
The pallet spec for LTL/FTL inbound — 40×48 four-way GMA grade B or better, 72 inches max height, clear-wrapped, labeled on all four sides — the difference between a scheduled dock and a rejected truck.
Read the definitionFBA prep requirements
Amazon's packaging rules per product type — poly bags with suffocation warnings, bubble wrap, taping, expiration labeling — done at your factory for cents or by Amazon for a fee.
Read the definitionFBA reimbursements
Amazon's compensation for inventory it loses or damages — increasingly automated, tightly time-windowed, and defaulted to your manufacturing cost unless you document better.
Read the definitionFBA size tiers
Amazon's classification bands — small standard, large standard, large bulky, extra-large — set by a unit's dimensions and weight, which together with weight bands fix your fulfillment fee.
Read the definitionFeatured Offer (the Buy Box)
The default add-to-cart offer on a listing with multiple sellers — won on price, fulfillment quality, and account health, and the number one silent revenue killer when lost.
Read the definitionFirst-leg freight
The origin-to-FBA move and its three-speed menu — express in days, fast boat in three weeks, slow boat in five — where every Q4 plan and every stockout postmortem begins.
Read the definitionFlat files (inventory feeds)
The spreadsheet interface to Amazon's catalog — category templates with hundreds of attribute columns, partial-update semantics, and the only sane way to edit at bulk scale.
Read the definitionFNSKU
Amazon's fulfillment-network barcode — the X00-prefixed label that ties a physical unit to your specific offer, and your protection against pooling with other sellers' stock.
Read the definitionFreight forwarder
The orchestrator of your international leg — booking space, consolidating, filing customs paperwork, arranging final delivery — the vendor relationship that quietly determines your landed cost and your Q4 sanity.
Read the definitionGTIN / UPC exemption
Amazon's permission to list products without a universal barcode — the legitimate path for private label, bundles, and handmade goods, and the alternative to gray-market UPC resellers.
Read the definitionHandling time (and SSA)
The days between order and carrier scan that you promise — now measured against your actuals by Shipping Settings Automation — where honest configuration beats optimistic marketing every time.
Read the definitionHazmat (dangerous goods) review
Amazon's classification gate for batteries, aerosols, and chemicals — an SDS-driven review that decides if FBA will store your product at all, in limited hazmat capacity.
Read the definitionHigh-volume listing fee
The catalog rent above 100,000 ASINs — a fraction of a cent per listing per month that only matters when your strategy is listing everything — aimed squarely at catalog-spam models.
Read the definitionHoneymoon period (new-ASIN launch window)
The community's name for the early weeks when a new ASIN seems to rank with unusual ease — never confirmed by Amazon, widely operated on, and best treated as a reason to launch prepared, not a magic window.
Read the definitionHTS codes & Section 301 tariffs
The ten-digit classification that sets your duty rate — plus the China-tariff layers stacked on top since 2018 — where a defensible reclassification is worth more than most price negotiations.
Read the definitionImpression share (SQP)
In Search Query Performance, your share of the total impressions a query generated — how much of the shelf you actually occupy when demand shows up.
Read the definitionIncoterms for Amazon sellers (EXW, FOB, CIF, DDP)
The three-letter codes deciding where the factory's job ends and yours begins — FOB is the container default, DDP the parcel default, and EXW the trap quoted to look cheap.
Read the definitionINFORM Consumers Act verification
The US law forcing marketplaces to verify high-volume sellers — identity, bank, tax data, annual recertification — and the compliance deadline that suspends accounts that ignore the email.
Read the definitionInventory Ledger
The FBA reconciliation report — starting balance, receipts, sales, returns, adjustments, ending balance per SKU — the source of truth when units go missing and claims need grounding.
Read the definitionIP Accelerator
Amazon's curated trademark-law marketplace — file through a vetted firm at pre-negotiated rates and your PENDING application unlocks Brand Registry immediately instead of a year later.
Read the definitionIP complaints (trademark, copyright, patent)
Rights-owner reports that remove listings on assertion — the account-health event where response speed and paperwork quality decide whether it stays a scratch or becomes a suspension.
Read the definitionIPI (Inventory Performance Index)
Amazon's 0–1000 score of how well you manage FBA inventory — driven by excess stock, sell-through, stranded inventory, and in-stock rate — historically the gatekeeper for storage space.
Read the definitionItem Highlights
The 125-character searchable field Amazon added below the product title in July 2026 — the indexed home for the material, compatibility, and use-case qualifiers a 75-character title can no longer hold.
Read the definitionKeyword cannibalization
Your own campaigns bidding against each other for the same query — broad stealing exact's traffic at worse economics, two ASINs splitting one term's demand — paying yourself less by paying twice.
Read the definitionKeyword coverage
The share of a category's measured search demand that your indexed words can actually reach — the metric that turns a character limit into a business number.
Read the definitionKeyword indexing
Whether Amazon has filed your listing as relevant for a term at all — the binary beneath ranking: unindexed means invisible at any rank, and index checks are the five-minute audit that explains 'we rank nowhere.'
Read the definitionLightning Deals (and the deals stack)
Time-boxed promotions on the Deals page — hours-long spikes that buy velocity and rank, priced per event with eligibility bars, and profitable only when the halo is part of the math.
Read the definitionListing hijacking
Unauthorized sellers attaching to your ASIN — counterfeiters or gray-market resellers undercutting your price and taking your Featured Offer, met with test buys, takedowns, and serialization.
Read the definitionListing Quality Dashboard (LQD)
Seller Central's attribute-defect radar — which listings are missing the data that drives suppression risk, lost filter visibility, and weak Item Highlights — the punch list for catalog hygiene.
Read the definitionListing suppression (search-suppressed)
Listings hidden from search for content or policy defects — still technically live, earning nothing, and silently draining rank while your ads and inventory sit idle.
Read the definitionListing videos (and video shorts)
The video slots on your detail page — brand-uploaded demos in the image block and the related-video shelf below — plus the third-party creator videos that show up whether you like them or not.
Read the definitionLong-tail keywords
The low-volume, high-specificity queries — 'yoga mat extra thick for bad knees' — individually tiny, collectively enormous, and the only search real estate a new listing can actually win first.
Read the definitionLow-inventory-level fee
A per-unit surcharge on products that stay under about four weeks of historical demand in FBA — Amazon charging you for the network cost of running too lean.
Read the definitionLow-Price FBA rates
The automatic fee discount that replaced Small and Light — products priced under $10 get reduced FBA fulfillment fees with standard delivery speeds, no enrollment required.
Read the definitionLTL vs. small parcel inbound
The two ways freight enters FBA — loose cartons via parcel carriers or palletized less-than-truckload — with different rates, receiving speeds, and failure modes.
Read the definitionManage Your Customer Engagement (MYCE)
Amazon's permitted email marketing — campaigns to your brand followers and customer segments, composed in Amazon's templates, the legal exception to 'you cannot email Amazon customers.'
Read the definitionManage Your Experiments (A/B testing)
Amazon's native split-testing for titles, main images, bullets, and A+ Content — real buyer traffic randomized for weeks, replacing opinion fights with purchase data.
Read the definitionMAP pricing (and why Amazon ignores it)
Minimum Advertised Price — the floor you set for resellers — which Amazon neither knows nor enforces: MAP violations on Amazon are a distribution-control problem wearing a pricing costume.
Read the definitionMarket Basket Analysis (ABA)
The Brand Analytics report showing what shoppers buy in the same purchase as your product — the data behind bundles, virtual bundles, and Sponsored Display targeting that actually converts.
Read the definitionMatch types (exact, phrase, broad)
The three ways a Sponsored Products keyword can meet a query — exact for control, phrase for order-preserving reach, broad for discovery — and the budget discipline each one demands.
Read the definitionMeltable inventory window
FBA's summer embargo on heat-sensitive products — meltables are only accepted October 16 through April 14; stock still in FCs after the cutoff gets marked unfulfillable.
Read the definitionMerch on Demand
Amazon's print-on-demand program — upload designs, Amazon prints and ships shirts and merch per order, you collect royalties with zero inventory ever existing.
Read the definitionMonthly storage fee
FBA's per-cubic-foot rent, charged on daily average volume — with Q4 rates that jump to roughly triple the rest of the year, which is why December stock strategy is a storage decision too.
Read the definitionMulti-Channel Fulfillment (MCF)
Using your FBA inventory to fulfill orders from anywhere else — Shopify, TikTok Shop, wholesale — one stock pool, Amazon's logistics, a separate fee schedule.
Read the definitionMultipacks (and pack-size strategy)
Selling the 2-pack, 6-pack, and case as their own ASINs — one fulfillment fee spread across more units, higher AOV, and the pack architecture decision that quietly rules consumable margins.
Read the definitionNegative keywords
The exclusion list that stops your ads from buying irrelevant or already-owned queries — the least glamorous, highest-compounding work in Amazon PPC.
Read the definitionNew-to-brand (NTB)
Amazon's incrementality proxy: purchases from shoppers with no purchase from your brand in the trailing 12 months — the metric that stops upper-funnel ads from being judged like retargeting.
Read the definitionNon-partnered (own) carrier inbound
Shipping into FBA with your own forwarder or carrier — full control over rates and routing, in exchange for owning tracking entry, appointment booking, and every failure between port and dock.
Read the definitionOrder Defect Rate (ODR)
The share of orders over the trailing 60 days with a negative-feedback, A-to-z claim, or chargeback defect — Amazon's hardest performance line: stay under 1% or face deactivation review.
Read the definitionOrganic rank tracking
Watching where you place in search results for your keywords — organic separated from sponsored — the daily EKG of your listing's health and the read-out on every optimization bet.
Read the definitionOTDR (On-Time Delivery Rate)
The seller-fulfilled metric with teeth since 2024 — deliveries arriving by promise date must stay at 90%+ or Amazon restricts your seller-fulfilled listings; late shipment and cancellation rates ride alongside.
Read the definitionOverseas warehouse (US 3PL)
Your own (or 3PL) US warehouse — the buffer between the container and FBA, the FBM fallback when FBA breaks, and the one-piece-dropship engine of the China-seller playbook.
Read the definitionPan-European FBA
Amazon's EU inventory distribution — stock placed across European fulfillment centers sells with local fees in each marketplace — the logistics upgrade that VAT registrations gatekeep.
Read the definitionPartnered Carrier Program (PCP)
Amazon's discounted inbound shipping — UPS small parcel and partnered LTL at rates negotiated on Amazon's volume, charged to your seller account straight from the shipment workflow.
Read the definitionPlacement modifiers (top-of-search)
Percentage bid boosts by placement — top of search, rest of search, product pages — letting one campaign bid differently where conversion actually differs.
Read the definitionPlan of Action (POA)
The appeal document Amazon actually reads — root cause, corrective actions, preventive measures, evidence — the difference between reinstatement and the template rejection loop.
Read the definitionPortfolios (and budget caps)
The folder layer above campaigns — group by product line or purpose, set date-ranged budget caps across the group — the tool that stops one launch from silently eating the whole account's month.
Read the definitionPrime Exclusive Discount (PED)
A discount only Prime members see — strikethrough pricing in search for the audience most likely to buy, free to run, with price-history rules keeping it honest.
Read the definitionProduct GL (General Ledger product group)
The hidden internal category Amazon files every ASIN under — not the browse node, not seller-editable — and the silent decider of your fee schedule, A+ eligibility, and even whether you may advertise.
Read the definitionProduct Opportunity Explorer (POE)
Amazon's own niche-research tool inside Seller Central — real aggregated search demand, clicked products, and trend data per customer-need niche, from the only party that sees everything.
Read the definitionProject Zero
Amazon's self-service counterfeit kill switch — vetted brands remove counterfeit listings directly, no report-and-wait, backed by automated protections scanning billions of listings.
Read the definitionProsper Show
The big independent Amazon-seller conference — Las Vegas every March — where the seller-tool industry, agencies, and aggregators gather; the trade show to Accelerate's official keynote.
Read the definitionReferral fee
Amazon's commission per sale — 15% of the item price for most categories, lower for a few (consumer electronics at ~8%), with a $0.30 minimum — the fee every margin model starts from.
Read the definitionRefund administration fee
What Amazon keeps when you refund — the lesser of $5.00 or 20% of the referral fee — the small print that makes every return slightly more expensive than the product's round trip.
Read the definitionRefund at First Scan (RFS)
The refund firing when the carrier first scans the return — days before anyone inspects the item — which is why returns fraud works mechanically and inspection happens after your money left.
Read the definitionRelated account policy
Amazon's linkage doctrine — accounts connected by device, network, banking, or people inherit each other's enforcement fate, and a link to a suspended account is itself a suspension trigger.
Read the definitionRemote Fulfillment with FBA (NARF)
Selling Canada and Mexico from your US FBA stock — Amazon ships cross-border per order, the buyer absorbs import fees, and you test two countries without placing a single unit abroad.
Read the definitionRemoval orders (return, disposal, liquidation)
The exits from FBA: ship stock back to you, destroy it, or wholesale it through liquidation for cents on the dollar — each with per-unit fees, and each cheaper than storing dead inventory forever.
Read the definitionRepeat Purchase Behavior (ABA)
The Brand Analytics report that counts your repeat customers per ASIN — the ground truth for whether Subscribe & Save, LTV-based bidding, and retention plays are worth building.
Read the definitionRequest a Review button
The one-click compliant review ask — Amazon's own template, sent 5–30 days after delivery, in the buyer's language, with zero policy risk — the default solicitation most sellers should simply automate.
Read the definitionReserved inventory
Units temporarily uncountable as available — pending customer orders, FC transfers, or processing — the status that explains why sellable stock looks lower than what you shipped.
Read the definitionReturnless refunds
Refunding without asking for the item back — Amazon's default on low-value FBA cases and a seller-configurable rule for FBM — because round-trip shipping on a $9 item is charity to no one.
Read the definitionReturns processing fee
The per-return FBA charge — always on apparel and shoes, and since 2024 on any product whose return rate exceeds its category threshold — Amazon pricing the returns culture back to sellers.
Read the definitionReview highlights ('Customers say')
The AI-written summary box at the top of your reviews — Amazon's model compresses hundreds of reviews into themes with sentiment tags — now the first review content most shoppers actually read.
Read the definitionROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Ad-attributed revenue divided by ad spend — the inverse of ACoS (25% ACoS = 4.0 ROAS). Same number, different rhetoric: agencies quote ROAS because bigger numbers sell.
Read the definitionRufus
Amazon's AI shopping assistant that answers product questions conversationally inside the store — a new ranking surface where being quotable matters as much as being indexed.
Read the definitionSAFE-T claims
The seller's appeal lane for unfair refunds — when Amazon customer service refunds outside policy on a seller-fulfilled order, SAFE-T is where you claim the money back.
Read the definitionSearch autocomplete (suggestions)
The dropdown Amazon offers as shoppers type — real high-frequency query completions, and the oldest free keyword-research trick that still works because the data source is the shoppers themselves.
Read the definitionSearch Catalog Performance
The ASIN-level twin of Search Query Performance: the same impressions → clicks → cart adds → purchases funnel, organized by product instead of by query — where you find which listing leaks.
Read the definitionSearch Query Performance (SQP)
Brand Analytics' query-level funnel report — impressions, clicks, cart adds, and purchases for every search term your brand appears in, including your share of each stage.
Read the definitionSearch Term Report (ads)
The report of what shoppers actually typed before your ad converted — the raw feed for keyword harvesting and negative discipline, and the fastest listing-language research nobody does.
Read the definitionSection 3 (of the Business Solutions Agreement)
The clause Amazon cites when deactivating accounts and withholding funds — the phrase in the email that means this is a policy-enforcement event, not a metrics dip.
Read the definitionSell-through rate
Units sold divided by average units on hand over the trailing 90 days — the FBA efficiency ratio Amazon scores you on, and the honest measure of whether stock levels match demand.
Read the definitionSeller Café (at Accelerate)
The in-person support desk at Amazon Accelerate — pre-booked one-on-one appointments with Amazon's own teams, where chronic account problems meet a human with internal access.
Read the definitionSeller feedback (vs. product reviews)
The 1–5 star rating of you as a seller — not the product — feeding ODR and Featured Offer standing; the rating sellers forget exists until it costs them the Buy Box.
Read the definitionSeller Forums & Ask Amazon events
The official seller community — where Amazon staff answer in threads, 'Ask Amazon' Q&A events put teams on the record, and enforcement-pattern intelligence surfaces before news covers it.
Read the definitionSeller Fulfilled Prime (SFP)
The program that lets you ship Prime orders from your own warehouse — Prime badge without FBA fees, in exchange for hitting Amazon's delivery-speed bar yourself.
Read the definitionSeller University
Amazon's free training library — structured courses and videos straight from the source — the canonical answer to 'where do I send the new hire.'
Read the definitionSelling plans (Professional vs. Individual)
The $39.99/month versus $0.99/item fork — and the feature wall behind it: Featured Offer eligibility, advertising, feeds, and every serious program live on the Professional side.
Read the definitionSend to Amazon (STA workflow)
The inbound shipment builder in Seller Central — pack groups, box content information, placement choices, carrier booking — where inbound cost and speed are actually decided.
Read the definitionSessions vs. page views
Business Reports' traffic pair: sessions are unique visits within 24 hours, page views are total loads — the difference is repeat interest, and their ratio is worth watching.
Read the definitionSettlement reports
The every-two-weeks statement of everything — each order, fee, refund, adjustment, and reserve behind the number Amazon deposited — the only document your bookkeeping should trust.
Read the definitionSFR (Search Frequency Rank)
Amazon Brand Analytics' rank of every search term by how often it was searched — 1 is the most-searched query on Amazon that period. It is a rank, not a volume: the gap between #500 and #5,000 is enormous.
Read the definitionShare of voice (SOV)
Your percentage of page one — organic slots, sponsored slots, or both — for a keyword set; the market-share metric for search real estate that single rank positions cannot express.
Read the definitionShips in Product Packaging (SIPP)
The certification that lets your product ship in its own box — no Amazon overbox — earning a per-unit fulfillment discount for packaging that survives the gauntlet.
Read the definitionSingle-keyword campaigns (keyword isolation)
The PPC structure that gives one hero keyword its own campaign — its own budget, bid, placement modifiers, and clean data — reserved for the terms that decide your P&L.
Read the definitionSocial media promo codes
The shareable discount links for off-Amazon promotion — a percentage off with its own landing page — and the code-leak mechanics that have vaporized whole inventories overnight.
Read the definitionSponsored Brands
The brand-level ad formats — headline banners, video in search, Store spotlights — that defend your brand terms and put a face on demand that Sponsored Products can only harvest.
Read the definitionSponsored Display
The self-service display format that retargets product-page viewers and reaches in-market audiences on and off Amazon — DSP's little sibling, billed CPC or vCPM.
Read the definitionSponsored Products
Amazon's keyword- and product-targeted ads that render as native listings in search and on detail pages — the workhorse format that takes most of a typical ad budget.
Read the definitionSponsored TV
Amazon's self-service streaming TV ads — brand video on Prime Video, Twitch, and Fire TV inventory with no minimum spend, bringing TV branding into the sponsored-ads console.
Read the definitionStorage utilization surcharge
The extra storage fee for hoarders — kicks in when your stored volume towers over your shipped volume — Amazon pricing the ratio, not just the cubic feet.
Read the definitionStranded inventory
FBA stock with no active listing attached — physically in the warehouse, invisible to shoppers, paying storage while earning nothing.
Read the definitionStrategic Account Services (SAS Core)
Amazon's paid account-manager program — a named Amazon insider reviewing your account monthly, for a four-figure monthly fee tied to sales — the official answer to 'can I just talk to someone.'
Read the definitionSubscribe & Save
Amazon's subscription program for replenishable products — the discount costs margin, but the locked-in reorder stream stabilizes rank, forecasting, and LTV.
Read the definitionSupply Chain by Amazon (SCA)
Amazon's umbrella logistics offer — AGL ocean freight into AWD bulk storage, auto-replenishing FBA, spilling into MCF for off-Amazon orders — the pitch: hand Amazon the whole chain.
Read the definitionTACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale)
Ad spend divided by total revenue — organic and ad-attributed together — which makes it the only ad ratio that shows whether advertising is building a business or propping one up.
Read the definitionTax interview (W-9 / W-8BEN)
The onboarding tax questionnaire that decides your US withholding fate — W-9 for US persons, W-8BEN for foreign sellers claiming treaty rates — plus the 1099-K that reports US sellers to the IRS.
Read the definitionTest buys
Buying from your own hijacker to document the counterfeit — photos, packaging, serials, order ID — the evidence packet that turns a takedown request from assertion into fact.
Read the definitionTitle density (Helium 10 metric)
Helium 10's count of page-1 results with the exact phrase in their title — low density signals a ranking gap you can occupy; high density signals a knife fight.
Read the definitionTransparency (serialization program)
Amazon's unit-level serialization — a unique 2D code on every unit, scanned at FBA check-in, that makes counterfeiting your product physically impossible to inbound.
Read the definitionUnfulfillable inventory & auto-removals
Stock FBA can no longer sell — customer-damaged, defective, expired — and the settings that automatically ship it back or destroy it before storage fees eat the remains.
Read the definitionUnit Session Percentage
Business Reports' conversion metric: units ordered divided by sessions — the number Amazon's own reporting treats as your listing conversion rate.
Read the definitionUS customs clearance (broker, bond, ISF)
The paperwork trinity of importing — a customs broker to file entry, a continuous bond to guarantee it, and the ISF filed before your container even loads — plus penalties measured in thousands for skipping steps.
Read the definitionVariable closing fee
The flat $1.80 per-unit surcharge on media categories — books, DVDs, music, video games — a relic fee that quietly redefines margin math for low-price media sellers.
Read the definitionVariations (parent-child relationships)
One parent listing holding child ASINs that differ by theme — size, color, count — pooling reviews and traffic on a single page instead of splitting them across fragments.
Read the definitionVeeqo
Amazon's free multichannel shipping software — rate-shop carriers, sync orders across Amazon/Shopify/eBay/Walmart, and earn up to 5% back in Veeqo Credits on labels — free because Amazon wants the data and the lock-in.
Read the definitionVelocity reviews (new-seller limits)
The order-volume tripwires on young accounts — sudden sales spikes trigger disbursement holds and verification reviews — Amazon's fraud immune system mistaking your launch for a scam.
Read the definitionVendor Analytics
The free data suite for 1P vendors — sell-through, inventory health, traffic and conversion diagnostics that used to cost tens of thousands as ARA Premium, now bundled into Vendor Central.
Read the definitionVendor Central (1P vs 3P)
Amazon's wholesale side: you sell inventory TO Amazon at cost and it retails as 'Ships from and sold by Amazon.com' — a different business with different math from third-party selling.
Read the definitionVendor chargebacks
The deductions Amazon takes from vendor invoices for operational infractions — late ASNs, wrong labels, missed delivery windows — the silent percentage that separates gross and net 1P margin.
Read the definitionVerified Purchase (and ratings)
The badge marking reviews from confirmed, full-price-ish purchases — weighted heavier by every system that reads reviews — plus the star-only ratings that quietly outnumber written reviews.
Read the definitionVirtual Product Bundles
Brand Registry's bundle-without-bundling tool — combine 2–5 of your FBA ASINs into one purchasable listing that ships as separate units, no repackaging, no new FNSKU.
Read the definitionVoice of the Customer (NCX rate)
Amazon's per-listing customer-experience dashboard — returns, refunds, and complaint language distilled into an NCX rate and a health status, often your earliest warning of a product problem.
Read the definitionVolumetric (dimensional) weight
Air freight's answer to fluffy cargo — you pay the greater of actual weight or volume-derived weight (length×width×height ÷ divisor) — the formula that makes packaging density a freight decision.
Read the definitionVTR (Valid Tracking Rate)
The share of seller-fulfilled packages with carrier-confirmed tracking — 95% per category is the line, and below it Amazon restricts your ability to sell seller-fulfilled at all.
Read the definitionLeave with a sharper next move.
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