Amazon terminology, explained.

An ASIN is Amazon's 10-character code for a product, usually starting B0, with a different one for each size, colour or flavour. All sellers of that product share it, often across Amazon's European stores, but each has its own SKU (stock keeping unit).

A SKU is your own code for a product, and Amazon tracks your price, stock and orders against it. Every seller on an ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) has its own, and one seller can run several.

An FNSKU is Amazon's barcode label that tells its warehouses whose unit is whose. Since 31 March 2026 on amazon.co.uk, only brand owners in Brand Registry can use the pack's EAN (European Article Number) instead, so most resellers must label every unit they send in.

An EAN is the 13-digit barcode number used in the UK and Europe, and Amazon needs one to create most listings. GS1, the body that issues them, calls it a GTIN-13 (Global Trade Item Number), and Amazon checks each one against GS1's records.

Seller Central is the website where you run an Amazon seller account, from listings and prices to stock, orders, ads and payouts. One European account reaches all ten of Amazon's European stores, amazon.co.uk included, although each store has its own listings and prices.

Vendor Central is the account a brand uses when Amazon buys its stock wholesale on purchase orders, so shoppers see Amazon as the seller. It's invitation only, and because Amazon owns the stock, the price shoppers pay is Amazon's call rather than yours.

1P means Amazon is the retailer, buying stock wholesale through Vendor Central and selling it itself. 3P means a business other than Amazon sells through Seller Central, owning the stock and setting its own price, whether that's the brand itself or a reseller.

FBA means Amazon stores your stock, picks, packs and delivers orders, and handles returns and customer service. You pay a fee per unit Amazon sends out plus monthly storage. Since Brexit, selling with FBA in both the UK and EU means sending stock to each.

FBM means you hold the stock and dispatch Amazon orders yourself, or through a warehouse you choose, instead of using Amazon's. Amazon measures you on late dispatch, tracking and cancellations, while your offer only gets the Prime badge through Seller Fulfilled Prime.

The Prime badge on an offer tells Prime members they'll get fast, free delivery. Using Fulfilment by Amazon usually earns it, and on amazon.co.uk you can also earn it on orders you dispatch yourself, through Seller Fulfilled Prime after a trial period.

The Buy Box is a product page's Add to Basket panel, and one seller's offer wins it at a time, though most EU stores can show a second offer. Amazon weighs things like price and delivery, so owning the brand doesn't guarantee it.

A listing is a product's Amazon page, with its title, images, bullet points and description, plus each seller's offer of price and delivery. Every seller shares that one page and can submit changes to it, but Brand Registry gives the brand owner the most say.

Variations are the sizes, colours or flavours of a product grouped on one page. A parent holds the family together, and each child is a separate ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) with its own offers, so the shopper buys a child.

A+ content is the section of large images, comparison charts and brand text lower down a product page, free with Brand Registry. It takes the place of the plain description, which you should still fill in, because Amazon's search can match words from it.

A brand store is your own free mini-site inside Amazon, linked from your brand name on each of your product pages. Sellers need Brand Registry for one, and each marketplace needs its own version, although Amazon's tools can copy and translate your first store.

PPC means advertising you pay for only when someone clicks, which on Amazon is mainly Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. Each click is priced by an auction against the other advertisers bidding on the same searches.

Brand Registry is Amazon's free programme for trademark owners, and a pending application in a country with an Amazon store is usually enough to join. It gives you the strongest say over your product pages, but resellers of genuine stock can still sell on them.

Vine is Amazon's programme for giving your product to trusted reviewers, who post honest reviews, good or bad. It needs Brand Registry, and on amazon.co.uk and amazon.de the smallest batch costs you nothing while bigger ones carry a fee per product family.

Transparency is Amazon's anti-counterfeit programme for registered trademark owners, and in Europe it covers the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Amazon checks a unique code on each unit any seller ships, so every unit you make needs one, even stock sold through other shops.

Pan-EU spreads your stock across Amazon's warehouses in the countries you allow, so orders there ship at local fees while the rest pay cross-border fees. You need VAT (value added tax) registration wherever stock is held, and the UK has sat outside since Brexit.

EFN lets you keep stock in one EU country and sell it in Amazon's other EU stores, with each order shipped across the border for a higher fee. Between the UK and EU the equivalent is Remote Fulfilment, for items priced up to €135 (£122).

The seller of record is the business that owns the stock, sets the price, appears under Sold by on the product page, accounts for the value added tax (VAT) on the sale and carries the liability for it. It doesn't have to be the brand. A distributor that buys your stock is the seller of record on its own offers.

A company that buys a brand's stock at wholesale and resells it on Amazon on its own account, as the seller of record. The brand invoices at wholesale and carries no Amazon costs. Confusingly, the same phrase is used for supplier directories aimed at sellers looking for stock to buy, which is the other side of the deal.

The one company a brand authorises to sell it on Amazon, so each product page carries a single offer rather than a crowd of them competing on price. Not to be confused with Amazon Exclusives, which is Amazon's own programme for products sold only on Amazon.

The business that brings the goods through customs in its own name and pays the duty and import value added tax (VAT). It needs an EORI number in that customs territory, and since Brexit the UK and the EU are two separate ones, so importing into both means two arrangements.

A company that buys Amazon businesses outright: the brand, the listings, the reviews and the seller account. It is an exit. A distributor buys the stock and nothing else, so the brand stays where it is. The two get mixed up often.

A firm that works inside your own Seller Central account for a monthly retainer, a share of sales, or both. You keep the stock, the cash tied up in it and the risk, and the account stays yours. It is a service you buy, not a buyer of your goods.

Account Health is the page in Seller Central where Amazon tracks your order problems, delivery performance and policy warnings. Alongside those sits an Account Health Rating out of 1,000, where 200 or above counts as healthy and anything lower puts the account at risk.

A suppressed listing is one Amazon has hidden from search because something is missing or breaks a rule, like a main image not on a white background. Fixing the problem usually brings it back, but you keep paying storage on stock with Amazon until then.

Stranded stock means units sitting in Amazon's warehouses with no live offer to sell them through, often because the listing was closed or suppressed. You still pay storage on them, so either fix the listing or place a removal order to have them sent back.

Gated means Amazon won't let you sell a category, brand or particular product until it has approved you, usually by asking for paperwork about the stock and the product. Approval doesn't automatically carry across, so plan for a separate application in the EU stores.

DD+7 is Amazon's rule that holds each order's money until seven days after delivery, on UK and EU seller accounts alike. The clock starts at delivery rather than the sale, so slow deliveries mean slower money.

EPR means whoever first sells packaged goods, electricals or batteries in a country pays towards recycling them, once past local thresholds. Each country keeps its own register, and Amazon asks for your numbers in places like Germany, where packaging needs LUCID registration before you sell.

GPSR is the EU safety law for most non-food consumer products, applying since 13 December 2024. It covers Northern Ireland, not Great Britain. Each product needs a responsible person, an EU or Northern Ireland business, named with the maker on the pack and listing.

An EORI number is the customs ID for imports and exports, and one issued in Great Britain starts with GB. It doesn't work for EU customs, so importing into the EU yourself takes a second one, from the first EU country you declare goods in.

A deemed supplier is a marketplace treated as the seller for VAT (value added tax), so Amazon collects and pays it. It covers overseas sellers' goods held in the UK or EU, but a brand importing its own stock normally still needs a VAT number.