Amazon FBA EU Glossary

Definitions for Amazon FBA, advertising, VAT, and fulfillment terms used by EU sellers across DE, FR, IT, ES, and UK marketplaces.

1P / 3P: First-party (1P) sellers sell wholesale to Amazon; Amazon then retails the products. Third-party (3P) sellers sell directly to consumers via Seller Central. Most EU marketplace sellers operate 3P.
A+ Content: Enhanced product description content available to brand-registered Amazon sellers. Replaces the plain-text product description with formatted modules, comparison charts, and lifestyle imagery.
ACOS: Advertising Cost of Sales. ACOS = ad spend ÷ ad-attributed revenue, expressed as a percentage. A 25% ACOS means €0.25 of ad spend produced €1 of attributed sales.
ASIN: Amazon Standard Identification Number. A 10-character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies a product in Amazon's catalog. Each marketplace (DE, FR, IT, ES, UK) issues its own ASIN, though identical products often share one.
Backend Keywords: Hidden search terms entered in Seller Central that help Amazon's algorithm match a listing to customer queries without appearing on the product page. Capped at 250 bytes per listing.
Brand Registry: Amazon's program for registered trademark holders. Unlocks A+ Content, Sponsored Brands, Stores, automated brand protection, and Project Zero counterfeit removal.
BSR: Best Seller Rank. Amazon's per-category sales rank, updated hourly. Lower BSR means more sales — a BSR of 1 in a category is the top seller in that category. BSR is marketplace-specific (DE BSR ≠ FR BSR).
Bullet Points: The five key feature bullets shown beneath the product title on a detail page. Indexed by Amazon's search algorithm; capped at 500 characters per bullet on most EU marketplaces.
Buy Box: The featured offer on an Amazon product detail page that wins the 'Add to Cart' button click. Approximately 82% of Amazon sales go through the Buy Box.
Buy Box Win Rate: The percentage of impressions on a product detail page during which a given seller held the Buy Box. Measured per ASIN per marketplace in Seller Central.
Conversion Rate: Unit Session Percentage in Seller Central. The number of units ordered divided by the number of unique sessions on a product page. EU FBA listings typically convert between 8% and 18%.
CTR: Click-Through Rate. Clicks divided by impressions. For Sponsored Products in EU marketplaces, average CTR ranges from 0.3% to 0.6%.
Dropshipping: A retail model where the seller does not hold stock; orders are forwarded to a third-party supplier who ships directly to the customer. Permitted on Amazon only when the seller of record is identifiable on packaging and invoices.
EAN: European Article Number. A 13-digit barcode standard required to list new products on Amazon's EU marketplaces (DE, FR, IT, ES). Must come from a GS1-issued company prefix.
EORI Number: Economic Operators Registration and Identification number. Required to import goods into the EU customs area. Sellers shipping inventory from outside the EU to Amazon FBA warehouses need an EORI in at least one EU member state.
FBA: Fulfillment by Amazon. Amazon stores the seller's inventory in its fulfillment centres, and picks, packs, ships, and handles customer service for each order. FBA listings are eligible for Prime.
FNSKU: Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit. The barcode Amazon assigns to each FBA unit so it can be tracked through fulfillment centres. FNSKU labels can replace the manufacturer barcode via Amazon's stickering service or seller-applied labels.
GTIN: Global Trade Item Number. The umbrella term for product identifiers including EAN, UPC, and ISBN. Amazon requires a GTIN to list new products unless the brand has GTIN exemption approval.
Inventory Performance Index: IPI score from 0 to 1000 measuring how well a seller manages FBA inventory. Inputs: excess inventory, sell-through rate, stranded inventory, in-stock rate. Falling below the EU threshold (typically 400) caps storage allowance.
Keepa: A third-party Amazon price and BSR tracking service. Keepa maintains historical price, BSR, and review-count graphs for nearly every ASIN across all 5 EU marketplaces. AgentXray uses Keepa as its primary EU sales-velocity data source.
Listing Quality: Amazon's internal score (0-100 in Seller Central) measuring how complete a listing is across title, bullets, description, images, A+ Content, and backend keywords. Higher scores correlate with better organic ranking.
Long-Term Storage Fee: An aged-inventory surcharge applied to FBA units stored more than 271 days. Calculated per cubic foot per month and added on top of the standard monthly storage fee.
MFN: Merchant Fulfilled Network. Orders fulfilled by the seller rather than by Amazon FBA. MFN listings are not Prime-eligible by default but avoid FBA fulfillment and storage fees.
Negative Keywords: Search terms excluded from a Sponsored Products campaign so ads do not show for those queries. Used to cut wasted ad spend on irrelevant or non-converting search terms.
OSS: One-Stop Shop. An EU VAT scheme letting sellers report distance-selling VAT from one member state instead of registering in every destination country. Available since July 2021 for cross-border B2C sales below the €10,000 threshold and above through the OSS return.
Pan-EU: Amazon's Pan-European FBA programme. Inventory is distributed automatically across Amazon's EU fulfillment centres, lowering local fulfillment fees but creating VAT registration obligations in every country where stock is held.
Private Label: Selling products manufactured by a third party but branded and listed under the seller's own brand. The dominant business model for Amazon Brand Registry sellers in the EU.
Referral Fee: Amazon's commission on each sale, typically 8% to 15% of the item price plus shipping (category-dependent). Charged in addition to FBA fulfillment fees.
Reimbursement: A refund Amazon issues to FBA sellers for inventory lost, damaged, or incorrectly returned at a fulfillment centre. Sellers can claim reimbursements through Seller Central or via specialised audit tools.
Search Term Report: A Sponsored Products report showing the actual customer search queries that triggered ads. Used to find new keyword targets and identify negatives.
Seller Central: The web portal where third-party (3P) Amazon sellers manage listings, inventory, advertising, orders, and customer messages. Each EU marketplace has its own Seller Central instance.
SKU: Stock Keeping Unit. The seller's internal identifier for an inventory item. Amazon allows the seller to assign any SKU; FNSKU is generated automatically by Amazon for FBA tracking.
Sponsored Brands: Headline-style ads available to Brand-Registered sellers, shown above search results with a custom logo, headline, and curated product set.
Sponsored Products: Pay-per-click ads that appear within and adjacent to Amazon search results and on competitor product pages. The default and lowest-barrier ad type for new Amazon sellers.
Storage Fee: The monthly per-cubic-metre charge Amazon levies for FBA inventory held in fulfillment centres. EU rates rise sharply in October-December for the holiday peak.
Stranded Inventory: FBA stock that cannot be sold because its listing is suppressed, deleted, or has a pricing error. Stranded units accrue storage fees but generate no sales and lower Inventory Performance Index.
TACOS: Total Advertising Cost of Sales. TACOS = ad spend ÷ total revenue (organic + ad). Healthier metric than ACOS for measuring brand-level advertising efficiency.
VAT: Value Added Tax. Charged on most goods sold in the EU. Standard rates in 2026: DE 19%, FR 20%, IT 22%, ES 21%, UK 20%. EU sellers must register for VAT in any country where they hold inventory or exceed distance-selling thresholds.
Vendor Central: Amazon's invitation-only portal for first-party (1P) suppliers who sell to Amazon at wholesale. Distinct from Seller Central, which serves third-party (3P) sellers.
Wholesale: Buying branded products in bulk from an authorised distributor or directly from the brand and reselling them on Amazon. Lower margins than private label but lower upfront brand-building cost.