Operator glossary
CRaP (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.
When Amazon's unit economics on a vendor item go negative — heavy/cheap ratios, freight-eating products, price wars it matched into — the item gets flagged unprofitable. Symptoms vendors see: purchase orders stop, the item shows as unavailable, marketing support evaporates. Amazon rarely announces it; POs just stop arriving.
Escape routes: pack-size engineering (sell the 3-pack, not the single), cost or price renegotiation, shifting the item to Direct Fulfillment, or moving it to a 3P seller relationship where your own economics govern. The strategic lesson: Amazon's retail math, not your wholesale margin, decides a 1P item's lifespan.
The numbers
- Symptoms: POs stop, item flips to unavailable, no announcement — Amazon simply stops buying.
- Standard exits: pack-size changes, cost/price renegotiation, Direct Fulfillment, or moving the item to 3P.
Related terms