Your comprehensive guide to e-commerce terminology. Browse our collection of definitions covering everything from basic concepts to advanced strategies.
Abandoned cart refers to the situation where online shoppers add items to their shopping cart but leave the website without completing the purchase.
An abandoned cart email is a targeted message sent to customers who left items in their cart without completing the purchase.
Abandoned Cart Recovery involves strategies and tools to encourage customers who left items in their cart to return and complete their purchase.
This term refers to the practice of ensuring no important elements, features, or settings are overlooked in the setup or configuration process of a Shopify store.
"Add to Cart" refers to when a customer selects an item from an online store and places it in their virtual cart, showing intent to purchase.
Address Validation verifies the accuracy of a customer's shipping or billing address during checkout to ensure correct delivery.
Affiliate Marketing is a strategy where businesses reward affiliates for driving traffic or sales to their website through their marketing efforts
An Affiliate Program is a marketing strategy where businesses recruit affiliates to promote products or services in exchange for a commission on sales or referrals.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) uses advanced algorithms and machine learning to simulate human decision-making, automate processes, and improve business operations.
AJAX Cart is a feature that lets users add or update products in their cart without a full page reload, offering a seamless shopping experience.
Analytics involves collecting and analyzing data on a Shopify store’s performance, offering insights into sales, customer behavior, and operational efficiency.
An API (Application Programming Interface) enables software applications to communicate and exchange data, allowing custom functionality and integrations for Shopify stores.
An app is a software extension that integrates with Shopify to add new features, enhance functionality, or automate tasks for an online store.
An article is content published on a Shopify blog to educate, inform, or engage customers, often as part of a store’s content marketing strategy.
Auto-Renewal for subscriptions automatically extends a customer's subscription by charging their payment method at regular intervals, ensuring continuous access.
An autoresponder is an automated email system that sends predefined messages to customers after actions like submitting a form or making a purchase.
Average Order Value (AOV) measures the average amount spent by customers per transaction, helping businesses assess and optimize sales performance.
B2B refers to transactions between businesses, where wholesalers, manufacturers, or service providers sell products or services to other businesses.
B2C (Business-to-Consumer) is when businesses sell products or services directly to individual consumers for personal use, common in online retail.
The back end of a Shopify store handles server-side operations, managing functionality, data, and integrations, unseen by the store's visitors.
A backorder is an order for an out-of-stock item expected to restock soon. Customers can buy now, and the business ships once it's available.
BFCM refers to the annual retail event after Thanksgiving, featuring major sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, making it one of the busiest shopping periods.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S., features big sales online and in-store, marking the start of the holiday shopping season.
A blended storefront combines physical retail and online shopping, offering inventory sync, live chat, and personalized experiences for seamless eCommerce.
A blog is vital for Shopify merchants, offering SEO-optimized content to boost traffic, improve rankings, and build brand authority in their industry.
BOGO (Buy One Get One) is a promo where customers get a free product with a full-price purchase, boosting sales, clearing inventory, and encouraging larger buys.
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors leaving a site after one page. A high rate may signal issues with content, user experience, or marketing.
A brick-and-mortar business is a physical store where customers shop in person, unlike online-only businesses operating in the digital space.
Bundles are a sales strategy where multiple products are sold together at a discounted price, encouraging more purchases and increasing average order value.
A Buy Button lets merchants embed product purchase options on their website or third-party platforms, offering a streamlined checkout experience for customers.
BOPIS allows customers to buy products online and pick them up at a physical store, combining e-commerce convenience with in-store immediacy.
A buyer persona is a detailed, semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer, based on data, helping businesses understand customer needs and preferences.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business incurs to acquire a new customer, including all marketing, sales, and other related expenses.
A Call to Action (CTA) is a prompt in marketing materials that encourages users to take a specific action, like making a purchase or signing up.
Campaign Tracking involves monitoring marketing campaign performance using tools and analytics to assess their impact and effectiveness.
A carrier is a logistics company responsible for transporting goods from the seller to the buyer in e-commerce.
The cart is a virtual space in an online store where customers store selected items before proceeding to checkout.
Cart page is a section of an e-commerce site where customers review items added to their cart before proceeding to checkout.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a styling language used to control the presentation and layout of web pages.
Cashback rewards customers with a percentage of their purchase as store credit, gift cards, or refunds, making it a popular promotional strategy.
A catalog (or catalogue) is a structured collection of products or services available for purchase, typically presented online or in print
A chargeback is a customer-initiated request to reverse a payment via their bank, typically due to fraud, dissatisfaction, or undelivered goods.
ChatGPT, an AI tool, helps Shopify merchants automate tasks like product descriptions, SEO content, and customer interactions with text-based responses.
Checkout is the final step where customers provide payment and shipping details to complete their purchase on an e-commerce site.
Checkout extensions let Shopify merchants customize the checkout process by adding features, fields, or experiences to boost user interaction and satisfaction.
Churn is the rate at which customers leave a business, measured by cancellations or subscription terminations over a given period.
CTR is the percentage of users who click a link or CTA out of total viewers, used to gauge the effectiveness of ads, emails, or website links.
Cold emails are unsolicited messages sent to potential clients to introduce a product, service, or opportunity, aiming to build relationships or generate leads.
A Shopify Collection groups products together based on shared attributes, making it easier for customers to browse and shop related items.
Commerce Manager is a centralized tool for managing and tracking e-commerce activities across channels, often offered by platforms like Meta (Facebook).
A CMS is a platform that allows users to create, manage, and publish digital content without requiring technical expertise.
Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable content to attract, engage, and convert a target audience, driving profitable customer actions.
The contribution margin measures profitability by subtracting variable costs from revenue, showing funds available for fixed costs and profit.
The conversion funnel models the stages potential customers follow to purchase, helping businesses optimize marketing and boost conversions.
Conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action, like purchasing or signing up, measuring marketing or site effectiveness.
Cookies are small data files stored on a user's device to track activity, improve experience, and remember preferences, ensuring privacy law compliance.
COGS includes direct costs like materials, labor, and manufacturing for goods sold, helping Shopify owners price products and calculate profit margins.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) measures the cost to acquire a customer by dividing marketing expenses by new customers, helping Shopify owners optimize spending.
Cost Per Click (CPC) measures the cost of each click on an ad, helping Shopify merchants evaluate and optimize the effectiveness of paid campaigns.
Cost Per Mille (CPM) is the cost for 1,000 ad views, commonly used in display and social media ads to measure reach and visibility for brand awareness.
A coupon offers a discount or deal to encourage purchases. Shopify merchants create coupon codes for discounts on products, shipping, or orders.
CRM manages customer interactions and data, improving relationships and retention. Shopify CRM tools track customer behavior, communications, and data.
Cross-selling suggests related products to enhance shopping and boost order value. Shopify merchants use apps to show recommendations during the customer journey.
CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is a plain-text format for storing data like products or sales. Shopify uses CSVs for bulk import/export to manage data efficiently.
A Customer Account in Shopify stores personal details, order history, and preferences, enhancing the shopping experience and simplifying checkout for customers.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total expense of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales, used to evaluate ROI and marketing effectiveness.
The customer journey is the process from product awareness to purchase and beyond, covering all interactions, helping businesses turn prospects into loyal customers.
Customer Journey Mapping visualizes customer interactions from awareness to post-purchase, helping businesses understand pain points and improve the experience.
Customer Retention uses strategies to keep customers satisfied and loyal, increasing lifetime value and being more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.
Customer Retention Rate (CRR) measures the percentage of customers who remain with a company over time, reflecting its ability to retain customers.
Customer reviews are feedback based on experiences with a product or service, helping businesses build credibility, trust, and attract new buyers.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) organizes and manages digital assets like images, videos, and documents, enabling efficient access, sharing, and optimization.
A Dashboard visualizes key metrics like sales, customer activity, and inventory, providing real-time insights into a business's performance on Shopify.
Dimensional Weight is a pricing method that factors in package size and weight to calculate fair shipping costs for larger, lighter packages.
Discounts are promotional offers that reduce product prices to encourage purchases, helping Shopify stores boost sales, attract customers, and increase order value.
A domain name is a unique website address crucial for branding, customer trust, and SEO. Shopify stores use it to create a recognizable online presence.
Draft Orders in Shopify are manually created by merchants for special cases like custom or bulk purchases, allowing sales orders without immediate payment.
Dropshipping is a retail method where stores sell products without stocking them, relying on third-party suppliers to ship items directly to customers.
Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) is a business model where brands sell their products directly to customers, bypassing traditional retail channels and intermediaries.
Dynamic pricing adjusts product prices in real time based on factors like demand, competition, customer behavior, and market conditions.
Dynamic retargeting shows personalized ads featuring products users viewed but didn’t buy, based on their interactions with your website.
Email marketing uses campaigns to promote products, share updates, and engage customers, driving conversions and building long-term relationships.
Encryption is the process of converting data into a coded format to prevent unauthorized access and ensure privacy during transmission or storage.
Facebook Pixel is code that tracks website actions, integrating data with Facebook to enhance ad targeting, retargeting, and performance measurement.
Flash sales are time-limited promotional events where products are offered at a significant discount for a short period, typically hours or a day.
Flipping involves buying products at low prices and reselling them at higher prices for profit, common in eCommerce and retail through bulk or discount purchases.
Flow is a Shopify automation tool that streamlines workflows, automates tasks, manages customer experiences, and boosts efficiency without coding.
Shopify fraud prevention tools identify and block suspicious activity, ensuring safer transactions, reducing chargebacks, and preventing fraud in real time.
A free gift with purchase is a promotion offering a free item when customers meet criteria like a minimum order value, boosting sales and conversion rates.
Freight forwarding manages transporting goods, often internationally, by coordinating shippers and carriers to ensure efficient, cost-effective delivery.
Frequently Bought Together suggests complementary products based on purchasing patterns, boosting sales and increasing average order value for e-commerce stores.
The "front end" is the user-facing part of a website or store, including design, navigation, product pages, and checkout, shaping the overall user experience.
Fulfillment is the process of receiving, packing, and shipping orders to customers. It can be handled in-house, via 3PL, or through dropshipping.
A gateway is a payment processing system that facilitates transactions between customers and merchants.
Gift cards are prepaid digital or physical cards that customers can purchase and redeem for store credit.
GMV is the total sales value of merchandise sold through a platform over a specified period, representing the overall volume of business conducted on that platform.
A Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy is a plan to launch a product, targeting the right audience with effective messaging, pricing, and distribution channels.
Gross profit represents the revenue remaining after subtracting the cost of goods sold, indicating how efficiently a company produces its goods or services.
A handle is a unique identifier used in website or e-commerce platforms to identify pages, products, or categories for URLs and backend management.
A heatmap visually represents user interactions on a website, showing areas of high and low engagement.
The homepage serves as the digital front door to your website, providing a first impression of your brand.
HTML is the standard markup language used to create and structure content on the web.
IAM is a framework of policies, technologies, and processes used to manage digital identities and control user access to systems and resources.
Impressions represent the number of times an ad, product, or piece of content is displayed to a user on a screen.
Influencer marketing uses trusted individuals with large followings to promote products or services, leveraging their reach and credibility to boost brand awareness.
Instant Buy enables quick purchases with minimal steps, streamlining the checkout process and enhancing the customer experience by reducing friction.
Inventory Alerts notify merchants when stock levels hit a set threshold, helping prevent overselling, stockouts, and ensuring timely restocking.
Inventory Management tracks product flow to maintain optimal stock levels, preventing overstock or stockouts, ensuring products are available for sale.
Inventory Turnover Rate measures how often inventory is sold and restocked over a period, helping businesses gauge the efficiency of their inventory management.
Inventory Turnover Ratio measures how frequently a company sells and restocks inventory over a given period, indicating operational efficiency and stock management.