We wanted to put together a dictionary for you of all the must-know terminology for Amazon Ungating!  In this article you will learn the difference between a PO and an Invoice, a BOL and a PRO Number and more! You can cross reference this Amazon Seller Dictionary with our Step by Step Amazon Ungating Guide for Beginners and become a pro in no time. 

Terms are in Alphabetical Order:

ARBITRAGE / “Retail Arbitrage” Retail Arbitrage is when you drive to CVS and buy a basket-full of $13 Revlon lipsticks for $5.99 each from the Clearance Section. This is NOT "wholesale".

AUTHORIZED DEALER  An authorized dealer typically has a contract with the factory to sell the merchandise they carry.  An authorized dealer usually has to follow set-pricing and specific selling guidelines.  ALSO SEE Third Party Dealer and Unauthorized Dealer in this article

BARCODE A bunch of black lines that can be scanned.  The barcode contains data about the type of product, size, manufacturer and the country of origin.

BOL “Bill of Lading”. A contract between a supplier and a carrier company when merchandise ships on a pallet via Freight.  What is a BOL and How to Find Yours

CHARGEBACK When a buyer reverses the charge they paid to the seller. Chargebacks can occur because the buyer claims the acount was hacked / stolen or because the buyer didn't get the merchandise or even because the buyer doesn't like the merchandise. 

DEFECT RATE / AKA “Amazon Seller Defect Rate” Chargebacks, Amazon “A-Z Claims” and Bad Feedback Left. You gotta keep your Defect Rate under 1% on Amazon. But even if you don’t sell on Amazon, you gotta keep your chargeback rate under 1% or you’ll probably lose your merchant account! Also See “Metrics” section of this article.

DISTRIBUTOR A Distributor is a company who works with a Factory to DISTRIBUTE the factories new merchandise.

EAN  An EAN is essentially the European version of a UPC 

EIN An EIN is what we call a "social security number for your company".  It is a tax identification number that allows the USA government to pile more taxes on you via your business.  What is an EIN and How to Get One

FACTORY / Factory Direct  A factory is where inventory is physically produced.  A distributor works with a factory.  A wholesaler usually works with the distributor.  Factory direct means the merchandise comes directly from the factory and bypasses other stops.

GIF means "Graphics Interchange Format." GIF is an image file format commonly used for images on the web.  GIF files are great for computer generated images / graphics.  GIF files support under 300 different colors, so they're great for small, simple things, like a chart or website button.

GTIN  "The Global Trade Item Number" are several numbers that are used to identify each and every product sold on Amazon.  A UPC-12 and GTIN-12 are one in the same.  ALSO SEE UPC in this article 

IMAGE REQUIREMENTS Amazon has very specific requirements for images:

• TIFF (.tif/.tiff), JPEG (.jpeg/.jpg), GIF (.gif) and PNG (.png) format (See TIFF, JPEG, GIF and PNG in this article)
• Image pixel dimensions of at least 1000 or larger in either height or width preferred
• sRGB or CMYK color mode
• File names must consist of the product identifier (Amazon ASIN, 13-digit ISBN, EAN, JAN, or UPC) followed by a period and the appropriate file extension (Example: B000123456.jpg or 0237425673485.tif)
• Spaces, dashes or additional characters in the filename will prevent your image from going online.

IPI / Inventory Performance Index Part of Amazon seller Metrics. Amazon states Inventory Performance Index is based on “how well you drive sales by stocking popular products and efficiently managing on-hand inventory”. Scores range from zero to 1,000. A score above 400 indicates that your business is excelling but a score below 350 indicates that there are issues you gotta improve ASAP. ALSO SEE: Metrics in this article

INVOICE  (Often confused with Receipt or Email Confirmation) A receipt is the 25-foot-long piece of thin, skinny paper you get from CVS when you buy a pack of gum or botteled water. An invoice is what a company, like ours provides. It's typically a full sheet of paper (or even multiple sheets of paper) that can be printed on 8.5 x 11" printer paper. This is what an invoice looks like,

LIQUIDATOR / Liquidations A Liquidator (BigBrandWholesale) works with Retailers and Warehouses (sometimes Distributors) to purchase their leftover / extra stock at a fraction of the original distribution price.

LLC (Limited Liability Company / Corporation) What is an LLC and How to Get One

JPG / JPEG JPEG stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group".  YOU WANT TO ALWAYS USE JPG FORMAT FOR PHOTOS because a JPG file supports over 15 million colors, is easy to work with, doesn't take up a ton of space; all around, this is your #1 choice UNLESS you plan to print your image or you need to do a lot of photo editing.  Also see GIF, PNG and TIFF in this article. 

MANIFEST  An itemized list of contents

METRICS / Amazon Seller Metrics: Essentially a “score” that tells you how successful you have been as a seller. You should always be aiming for a perfect order percentage. This means that everything was accepted, processed, fulfilled correctly, shipped on time, and low Defect Rate. ALSO SEE: IPI / Inventory Performance Index.

ORDER CONFIRMATION An order confirmation is a type of Receipt.  Most websites, in general, will instantly send you an emailed receipt as soon as you order. This is an "Order Confirmation". This email is to let you know that you have successfully placed an order.

PDF “Portable Document Format”. PDF files are awesome because anyone can open them on virtually any device so you never have to wonder if the person you are sending the document to is able to access it.

PDF Invoice A PDF invoice can be printed on 8.5" x 11" standard PC paper, emailed or saved to your computer as a PDF file. Here ishow to print an invoice when you order through Big Brand Wholesale.comhttps://bigbrandwholesale.com/save-or-print-invoice-as-a-pdf/

PHOTO SIZE Amazon requires images to be at least 1000 px.  So what does this mean?  Take a look:

PNG You want to use a PNG when you need to print stuff because they are high quality, large files. However, if your goal is to list a bunch of stuff every day online you should likely be using PNG files. 

PRO Number What is a PRO Number and How to Find Yours

PRO FORMA (INVOICE) - An estimate or quote.  Learn more about Pro Forma vs Invoices. 

PURCHASE ORDER / PO "PO" is a short term for "Purchase Order".  A Purchase order is created by the BUYER.  Learn all about POs in our What is a PO and How to Make One Guide

RECEIPT A Receipt: (Often confused with Receipt or Email Confirmation) A receipt is the 25-foot-long piece of thin, skinny paper you get from CVS when you buy a pack of gum or bottled water. A receipt should never be used as an invoice.  However, if you are buying shipping supplies or computer paper you should save your receipt for a Tax Writeoff.  

RESELLER CERTIFICATE / RESELLER PERMIT How to Get a Resellers Permit / Resale Certificate

SALVAGE Salvage merchandise is typically damaged. May include a high quantity of unsellable as-is merchandise that need repair, refurbishing or outright re-purposing / piece-parts only.

SKU A SKU is a "Stock Keeping Unit"; can be aby number that is made up by the company storing the merchandise for storage and inventory purposes. One item can have 10 different SKUs if it changes hands 10 times. A SKU is only relevant to the company that currently has the merchandise.. There is no reason for you to know what SKU a different company assigned an item.

STORE RETURNS  Store returns are items that have been purchased then returned to the store.  Store returns can be brand new or completely damaged beyond repair. 

TAX ID See EIN in this document

TERMS Contract Terms vs Payment Terms: We have a great article to explain the difference between the two, even though they are both called "Terms". Read our blog post Amazon Ungating: What are Terms and How to Get Them

THIRD PARTY DEALER A third party dealer is what BigBrandWholesale.com is.  For example, we do not have a contract with Calvin Klein but we do have a contract with M*CYS, Bl**mindales and other companies that are Authorized Dealers of Calvin Klein merchandise.  Therefore we have permission to sell Calvin Klein merchandise from M*CYS and Bl**mingdales. 

TIFF FILE Tagged Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is a computer file format for storing raster graphics images.  ".Tiff" is a file type allowed on Amazon however it is not a widely popular format for standard photography unless you plan to do a lot of editing to the photo.

UNAUTHORIZED DEALER: From Costco to Amazon, even big box stores have engaged in unauthorized retailing. Why? Quite simply, to offer lower prices. An unauthorized retailer can often purchase and then re-sell products at a lower price than an authorized retailer.

UPC A UPC is a "Universal Product Code". People get social security numbers assigned to them whereas products get UPCs.

WHOLESALER / Wholesale A Wholesaler typically works with a Distributor to get the merchandise from the Factory.