Common terms, acronyms and metrics used across different parts of the Autopilot platform and the ecommerce industry in general
Amazon Buy Box
The Amazon Buy Box refers to a box that appears on the right-hand side of product listings, displaying the option that Amazon has chosen to show first for that product. It features the product’s price, shipping, and seller information, as well as the, “Add to Cart,” button.
Amazon Region: North America
Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil
Amazon Region: Europe
Spain, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India
Amazon Region: Far East
Singapore, Australia, Japan
Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)
A unique product code generated by Amazon and used for identifying items on the Amazon site. Can be associated with the same products in different Amazon markets.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
Amazon's service for handling the fulfillment process for sellers, shipping from Amazon warehouses (fulfillment centers).
Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)
When sellers use non-Amazon warehouses to ship their products sold on Amazon.
Fulfilment Network Stock Keeping Unit (FNSKU)
An Amazon generated code used within the Amazon fulfillment system, e.g. for shipments to Amazon FBA warehouses and for identifying products within said warehouses. Is generated for each SKU.
Stock Keeping Unit (SKU, Seller SKU)
A product code created by Amazon sellers unique to their product listing. Sellers can create the code themselves or let Amazon generate it automatically. Each SKU has its own FNSKU code. An ASIN can be mapped to multiple SKUs.
Term
Description
Best Seller Rank (BSR)
The current rank given to a product by Amazon within a specific category, based on factors such as current sales trends and historical sales volumes.
Buy-Box Rate
On a given time period of page views, the rate of how often your product listing won the Amazon Buy Box vs how often it did not
Category Conversion Rate Benchmark
The conversion rate benchmark for a specific product category (e.g. Kitchen) on Amazon
Conversion Rate
On Amazon:
Unit Session Percentage = Units Sold / Sessions
In classic ecommerce stores:
Conversion Rate = Orders / Sessions
Page Views
The amount of times a user loaded your product listing page
Sessions
The amount of times a user visited your product listing page during one browser session (there can be multiple page views per session)
Unit Session Percentage vs Conversion Rate
The difference between these 2 is important, as the Unit Session Percentage is commonly used as the classic ecommerce Conversion Rate equivalent on Amazon.
Unit Session Percentage = Units Sold / Sessions
Conversion Rate = Orders / Sessions
Net Sales
The value of total shipped sales, minus product returns.
Contribution Margin 1 (CM1)
Net Sales minus product costs (Costs of Goods Sold and Inventory Adjustments).
Contribution Margin 2 (CM2)
Contribution Margin 1, minus the Fulfilled by Amazon and Selling Fees.
Contribution Margin 3 (CM3)
Contribution Margin 2, minus Amazon Ad Expenses.
EBITDA
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. In the Amazon P&L, it represents Contribution Margin 3, minus Other Platform fees.
Profit Margin
Contribution Margin 3 as a % of Net Sales
Trailing 12 Months (TTM)
A common time-frame used in financial reporting, representing the last 12 completed months.
Cost of Goods Sold (CoGS)
The direct costs of producing the goods sold by a company.
Ad Attributed Sales
The value of sales which occurred within the chosen attribution window after a click on a campaign ad.
There are many different attribution windows and methods in the advertising industry (including post-view vs post-click methods). We report by default on the post-click, 14 day attribution window as its the most consistently used across all Amazon advertising campaign types.
Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS)
The inverse of RoAS. For every 1 dollar earnt through Ad Attributed Sales, how much am I spending on ads.
Conversion Rate (CVR)
The number of orders as a % of clicks on the ads.
Cost per Order (CPO, sometimes called Cost per Acquisition, CPA)
How much advertising spend is required to generate 1 Ad Attributed order.
Paid-to-Organic Ratio (PtO)
Ad Attributed Sales as a % of Overall Revenue (Amazon Net Sales in the Xapix reporting).
Return on Advertising Spend (RoAS)
Return on investment: for every dollar spent, how much am I getting back in Ad Attributed Sales.
Total Advertising Cost of Sales (TACoS)
The cost of advertising as a % of overall Amazon revenue (Net Sales). The key difference here vs RoAS/ACoS is that it takes into account actual shop sales and not Ad Attributed Sales.
FNSKU
Amazon's fulfillment network stock-keeping unit (SKU) identifier.
MSKU
Merchant stock keeping units (MSKUs) are unique blocks of letters or numbers that identify your products. MSKUs are assigned by you as the seller.
ASIN
Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs) are unique blocks of 10 letters or numbers that identify items. ASINs are assigned by Amazon. You can find the ASIN on the product detail page.
Condition
The condition of the unit (new, used, etc.)
Total Inventory
Total inventory equals all inventory that is available, shipped, and reserved fulfillment center transfer.
Inbound Inventory
The number of units that you have for a SKU in a shipment that you have notified Amazon about, provided a tracking number for, or that has arrived at an Amazon fulfillment center for processing.
Available Inventory
The number of units you have for a SKU in Amazon fulfillment centers that can be picked, packed, and shipped.
FC Transfer
The number of units being transferred from one fulfillment center to another.
FC Processing
The number of units that have been sidelined at a fulfillment center for additional processing.
Customer Order
The number of units reserved for customer orders.
Unfulfillable
The number of units that are in fulfillment centers, but not in a condition that can be sold.
Days of Supply
The estimated number of days that your current inventory supply will last based on the projected demand for your product.
Instock Alert
Indicated if your product is low or out of stock. Low stock identifies items where the days of supply is less than lead time, which indicates that orders from your supplier may need to be expedited in order to avoid going out of stock.
Recommended Replenishment Quantity
The recommendation for the number of units to be restocked for FBA.
Recommended Ship Date
The suggested date to ship the product to avoid a low- or out-of-stock scenario, based on your estimated days of supply and lead time.
