Wholesale Terms Glossary: 30 Terms Every Amazon Brand Owner Should Know

When you sell on Amazon, you speak consumer. Reviews, buy box, PPC, conversion rate. The moment you start selling wholesale, buyers speak a different language — and if you don't speak it back, you sound like an amateur in the first email. This wholesale terms glossary is the fast fix: 30 terms every Amazon brand owner should know before pitching a distributor, a store buyer, or a bulk account.

Skim it. Bookmark it. You don't need to memorize every entry — you just need to stop being surprised when a buyer replies "What's your MOQ and are you offering net 30?"

Pricing and margin terms

Wholesale price — The per-unit price you charge a business that resells your product. Typically 40–60% below your retail price. This is the number a buyer cares about most.

MSRP — Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. The price you recommend the retailer sells at. It protects your brand from being undercut and tells the buyer their margin at a glance.

Keystone pricing — The classic rule of doubling cost to set retail (a 50% retail margin). Buyers often expect at least keystone, which means your wholesale price should leave room for them to double it. More on this in keystone pricing explained.

Margin — Profit as a percentage of the selling price. A retailer buying at $10 and selling at $20 has a 50% margin, not a 100% markup. Buyers think in margin; make sure you do too.

Markup — Profit as a percentage of cost. That same $10-to-$20 jump is a 100% markup. Same dollars, different framing — don't confuse the two in a pricing conversation.

Landed cost — What a unit actually costs you delivered to your warehouse: product, freight, duties, everything. Your wholesale price has to clear this with room to spare.

Price break — A lower per-unit price triggered by a larger order. "500 units at $8, 1,000 at $7." A simple way to reward bigger buyers.

Order and quantity terms

MOQ — Minimum Order Quantity. The smallest order you'll accept from a wholesale buyer. Set it high enough to be worth your time, low enough that a first-time buyer will say yes. We cover this fully in MOQ and wholesale terms explained.

Case pack — The fixed number of units in one shipping case. Buyers usually order in case-pack multiples, not loose units. If your case pack is 12, nobody orders 7.

SKU — Stock Keeping Unit. One unique product variant (a size, color, or flavor). Buyers ask "how many SKUs do you have?" to gauge whether your line is worth stocking.

Reorder — A repeat purchase from an existing buyer. Reorders are the whole point of wholesale — the first order is expensive to win, the tenth is nearly free.

Fill rate — The percentage of an order you actually ship complete and on time. Bigger buyers track this. A low fill rate gets you dropped.

Payment and terms

Net 30 / Net 60 — Payment is due 30 (or 60) days after the invoice date. Common in B2B, and a real risk if you're undercapitalized. See net 30 terms for wholesale before you agree to anything.

PO (Purchase Order) — A formal document a buyer sends to commit to an order: what, how many, at what price, shipping where. A PO is a promise to pay. It's what a "yes" looks like on paper.

Proforma invoice — An invoice you send before shipping, usually to collect payment upfront from a new or overseas buyer. Common for first orders when you don't yet trust the account.

Deposit — Partial payment (often 50%) taken before production or shipping. Protects you on large or custom orders.

Terms — Shorthand for the whole payment arrangement: net days, deposits, discounts. "What are your terms?" means "how and when do I pay you?"

Channel and buyer terms

Distributor — A business that buys in large volume, warehouses your product, and resells it to many retailers. One distributor can put you in dozens of stores. See distributor vs wholesaler vs retailer.

Reseller — Any business that buys to resell — a store, a distributor, an online seller. Your customer's customer isn't the end consumer; it's another business.

Buyer — The person at a store or distributor who decides what to stock. Your job in wholesale is to reach the buyer, not the info@ inbox.

Broker / rep — An independent salesperson who pitches your product to buyers for a commission (often 10–15%). Useful when you can't cover a channel yourself.

Big box — National chain retailers (Target, Walmart, Costco). High volume, hard to land, brutal on terms. A late-stage goal, not a first move.

Boutique / independent — Small, owner-run shops. Easier to reach, faster to say yes, and where most brands land their first wholesale accounts.

Compliance and logistics terms

UPC / GTIN — The barcode that identifies your product. Nearly every retail buyer requires a real, GS1-registered UPC. Covered in do you need a UPC for wholesale.

Line sheet — A one-page (or one-PDF) menu of your products with wholesale prices, MOQs, case packs, and images. It's the single asset buyers ask for most. Learn to build one in how to write a wholesale line sheet.

Lead time — How long from order to delivery. Buyers plan around it. "Two weeks" and "twelve weeks" are very different conversations.

Dropship — You ship directly to the buyer's customer on their behalf, instead of them stocking inventory. A model, not a term of payment. See wholesale vs dropshipping.

Consignment — You place product in a store and only get paid when it sells. Lower risk for the buyer, higher risk for you.

EDI — Electronic Data Interchange. The automated order/invoice system big retailers require. If you land a chain, you'll hear this word a lot.

Slotting fee — A payment some large retailers (especially grocery) charge to give your product shelf space. Effectively rent for the shelf.

Put the vocabulary to work

Knowing the words is step one. The harder part is finding the buyers you'll use them with — the distributors, boutiques, and bulk accounts that reorder your category. That's the piece ASINBuyer automates: paste an Amazon ASIN, and five AI agents find matching B2B buyers, write the outreach, and book the calls.

You don't have to sound like a wholesale veteran overnight. But speaking the buyer's language — MOQ, net 30, line sheet — is the cheapest credibility you'll ever buy.

When you're ready to actually reach buyers, start with your ASIN and skip the cold-start.