Marketplace glossary

The contribution margin is net revenue less variable costs, i.e. all costs a sale directly triggers: cost of goods, fees, shipping, returns and attributable advertising. It shows what is left to cover the fixed costs.

Margin is the umbrella term for the gap between selling price and costs. In retail, gross margin, markup and contribution margin ratio are the most common, and they lead to very different percentages.

The return rate is the share of goods delivered that is sent back, in percent. It can be calculated by units, by value of goods or by orders, and the variants give different values.

eBay final value fee

eBay settles per order line item and distinguishes around 45 fee types in doing so. Alongside the percentage final value fee there is usually a fixed fee per order.

Kaufland commission

Kaufland calculates the commission on the gross price including the shipping costs the customer pays. Rates range from 7% to 16% depending on the category; in some categories a fixed fee is added.

Order unit (Kaufland)

Kaufland does not settle per order but per order unit: each item sold within an order has its own settlement, its own cancellation status and its own payout.

OTTO base fee

The OTTO base fee is the fixed monthly amount of EUR 99.90 net that every OTTO Market partner pays, regardless of revenue and orders. It does not belong in the contribution margin per item but pro rata in the result of the period.

OTTO commission

The OTTO commission is the product-group-specific selling fee (7–22%) that OTTO retains from the gross selling price for each sale it brokers, including the payment fee, with tiers in many categories.

Payment fee (Shopify)

In your own shop there is no marketplace commission: the costs per sale arise as the payment fee of the payment method used. It applies per transaction and is usually retained on a refund.

Referral fee (Amazon)

The referral fee is Amazon's percentage commission on the total sales price of an order line. The rate depends on the product category; in many categories it is around 15%.

Tiered commission (OTTO)

The tiered commission is a stepped OTTO commission model that applies different rates to price tiers of the same selling price, active in many product groups since 1 October 2024.

ASIN

ASIN

The ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) is the ten-character catalogue number Amazon assigns to every product in the Amazon catalogue. All sellers of the same product use the same ASIN, each with their own SKU.

FBA and FBM

FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) means: Amazon stores and ships. FBM (Fulfilment by Merchant) means: the seller ships themselves. The choice decides which fees apply and what comes back on a return.

The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the globally unique product number under the barcode, usually 13 digits in Germany. EAN is the earlier name of this number and is still in common use in retail.

OTTO Market API (interface)

The OTTO Market API is the official interface of OTTO Market. Through it you connect your shop or ERP system with OTTO so that product data, prices, stock, orders and returns are kept in sync automatically.

OTTO Partner Connect (OPC)

OPC

OTTO Partner Connect is the portal for registered partners of OTTO Market, reached at portal.otto.market. In it sellers manage products, orders, returns, payouts, advertising and customer enquiries.

ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sales) is advertising costs divided by the revenue that the advertising platform attributes to the ads, in percent. An ACOS of 15% means: for EUR 100 of attributed revenue, EUR 15 was spent on ads.

OTTO Marketing API

The OTTO Marketing API is the advertising part of the OTTO Market API: the Sponsored Product Ads and Sponsored Product Ads Reporting interfaces. Sellers and tools use them to manage SPA campaigns and retrieve costs, clicks and attributed sales per day, campaign and SKU.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the ratio of revenue to advertising costs: 4 means four euros of revenue per euro of advertising. The value says nothing about whether anything was earned in the process.

Sponsored Display Ads (SDA)

SDA

Sponsored Display Ads are the banner advertising from OTTO Advertising: display ads on a CPM basis in a real-time auction, shown on otto.de and externally in OTTO's publisher network.

Sponsored Product Ads (SPA)

SPA

Sponsored Product Ads are the product ads on OTTO Market: ads for individual items on a cost-per-click basis, shown in search results, product lists and on product detail pages.

TACOS (Total Advertising Cost of Sales) puts advertising costs in relation to TOTAL revenue, not just the revenue that came in through ads. The metric shows how much a product range relies on advertising.