Have you ever found yourself in an awkward conversation where the other person is talking to you in jargon that you have no clue about?
It might have felt like bullets coming your way one after the other.
But it’s okay. Any trade or profession has an insider lingo or terminologies that sound alien to someone who doesn’t belong to that industry.
So whether you’re thinking of diving into the eCommerce industry, adopting it for your existing business, or likely to work with online businesses in any capacity, you need to understand the basic terminologies to communicate efficiently.
Hence, we’ve hand-picked — rather click-picked :) — 150+ frequently used terms in the world of eCommerce, logistics, warehousing, and technology so that you are not perplexed while dealing with the industry professionals.
But before we jump into the terminology, let’s take an overview of the current eCommerce landscape.
Overview of eCommerce Industry
The eCommerce industry has grown almost 38% year-on-year between 2014 and 2021 and it’s likely to carry a similar momentum until 2024, according to Statista.
And it’ll cross a humongous $5 trillion mark in 2022.
With such a promising future ahead, any business would want to rub shoulders with growing eCommerce businesses or start one.
However, as discussed, understanding the basic industry terminology can make your life easy.
So here they are.
eCommerce Terminologies
Let’s start with the eCommerce industry-related terms first.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the methods of performance-based marketing where a business collaborates with affiliate marketers or publishers to promote their products and services. The business pays commission to the affiliates for every conversion that comes from their efforts.
Amazon
Amazon is the largest online marketplace. You can increase your sales volume significantly by listing your products on the Amazon marketplace.
Authorisation
Authorisation is giving someone — individual or system — authority to take a specific action or make a decision. In the context of eCommerce, authorisation is primarily defined as the card issuer’s approval that the customer has adequate balance to cover the product purchase.
Authorised Seller
An authorised seller is a retailer approved by a manufacturer to exclusively sell that brand’s products online or in-store.
Average Order Value
Average Order Value (AOV) is the average monetary value of each order placed on an online store. It is one of the important eCommerce metrics that online business owners track.
This is how you can calculate AOV:
Total Revenue
Average Order Value (AOV) = ------------------------------------------
Total Number of Orders
B2B
Business-to-Business or B2B is referred to as a business engaging commercially — exchanging products or services for profits — with another business.
Examples of B2B:
- Manufacturers working with other manufacturers
- Manufacturers working with wholesalers
- Wholesalers working with retailers, etc.
B2C
B2C is an abbreviation for Business-to-Consumer. In the context of eCommerce, B2C websites are online retailers that sell products directly to the end-users. Examples of B2C eCommerce sites include Amazon, Woolworths, Walmart, eBay, etc.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is SaaS (Software as a service) company that provides an eCommerce platform to B2B and B2C companies. The platform allows businesses to build their online store and customise it as per their business requirements.
Black Friday
Black Friday is the day that follows Thanksgiving day. Retailers and eCommerce stores offer big discounts and attractive deals on this day. It’s usually the busiest day of the year for retailers in the countries that observe Black Friday.
Brick and Mortar Shop
A physical retail store is referred to as a brick and mortar shop.
Buyer Persona
A buyer persona is a representation of an ideal customer profile. Though it’s a fictional character, it is derived after conducting thorough research of audience factors like:
- Age
- Background
- Income and spending profile
- Interests
- Language
- Location
- Goals
- Challenges, etc.
C2C
C2C or Customer-to-Customer is a model where customers can conduct business transactions with each other using online platforms. C2C has consistently evolved with the growth of eCommerce technology. Etsy, eBay, Craigslist are some of the popular C2C platforms.
Cart Abandonment Rate
The cart abandonment rate — also known as abandoned cart rate — is the percentage of customers that add products to an online shopping cart but abandon them without completing the checkout process.
Cart abandonment rate formula:
Cart abandonment rate = 1 - [Completed Transactions / Total Shopping Carts Created] * 100
Catalogue
An eCommerce catalogue is a digital version of a physical product catalogue to showcase products or services that customers can browse through.
Category Page
A category page is where you group all the similar products or products with the same benefits together and showcase them as one of the product categories on your website homepage. Basically, it connects your homepage and individual product pages.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is an approach to market business by creating informational & valuable digital content — such as blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, newsletters, emails, videos, infographics, etc. — and promoting them on different platforms to drive website traffic and subsequent sales.
Content Management System
Content Management System (CMS) is a software application that allows users to create and manage website content without worrying about coding know-how.
Some of the popular CMSs include WordPress, HubSpot CMS, Wix, Drupal, etc.
Conversion Funnel
A conversion funnel is a way to describe different stages of a customer’s buying journey as a visual representation. It’s termed a funnel because at each stage the numbers keep declining and form a funnel shape.
Cost of Goods
Cost of Goods or Cost of Goods Sold is the cost at which the products are manufactured or acquired. It also includes the cost of raw materials and direct labour charges paid to produce or procure the goods.
COVID-Safe Practices
COVID-Safe Practices is a term used to describe all the safety measures that eCommerce companies take while handling, shipping, and delivering products to ensure the safety of their customers, employees, and vendors.
Cross-Selling
Cross-selling refers to promoting complementary products or accessories that enhance the experience of the main product.
For example, if a customer is buying a gaming computer, you can cross-sell a gaming headphone and a gaming chair to improve their gaming experience.
Customer Feedback
When a customer shares their experience regarding a product or service it’s called customer feedback. The experience can be positive or negative.
The purpose of taking customer feedback is to know whether they are satisfied with the product. While positive feedback is an assurance that you’re on the right track, negative feedback highlights the areas where you can improve.
Customer Lifetime Value
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is how much total monetary value a customer contributes to a business over the period of their relationship.
To put it simply, CLV is the total amount of purchases a customer makes on your eCommerce store over a lifetime. It is also referred to as LTV (Lifetime Value).
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is a 24-hour online shopping event observed in many countries. It’s the first Monday after Thanksgiving Day.
Cyber Monday started back in 2005 in the U.S. and it was created to encourage people to shop online.
Dashboard
A dashboard is a visual representation of numerical data related to business. It’s a tool that helps in tracking and analyzing the various performance metrics of an eCommerce store in form of graphs, charts, etc.
Digital Commerce
Digital commerce is about trading products and services over multiple platforms such as the internet, mobile network, and other digital platforms.
It also includes marketing, sales, and analytics functions that facilitate and grow the digital business.
Digital Wallet
Digital wallets or e-wallets are software applications that store users’ financial information like cards, passwords, etc. and enable quick payment processing across multiple platforms.
Some of the popular digital wallets are:
Directory
Online directories are the sites that hold information about other businesses and websites with links that direct users to the relevant websites.
As a business owner, you may want to consider adding your eCommerce site to the relevant listing category on the directory. Examples of such sites include Yellow Pages, Yelp, BOTW, About Us and many more.
Discount Code
The eCommerce sites generate discount codes to offer incentives to their customers. It’s a way of attracting more shoppers to your site and empowering them to buy from you.
Common discount code practices are:
- Shipping charges waiver
- Fixed amount discount e.g. Flat A$10 off
- Percentage discount
Duplicate Content
When exact same or significantly-same content appears on more than one web page, it’s called duplicate content. It can happen within the same website or across multiple sites.
Duplicate content is a frequent issue for eCommerce sites. However, you should follow the right practices to avoid and fix the duplicate content issue on your website because it hurts your SEO.
D2C
As the name suggests, Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) eCommerce model focuses on selling goods directly to consumers via various digital channels.
Since you don’t have any middlemen involved in D2C, you can enjoy higher profit margins and brand loyalty.
eBay
eBay is a global online marketplace that allows users to trade products. They facilitate C2C and B2C eCommerce in an auction-style listing where sellers choose either initiate bidding and choose to sell to the highest bidder or sell to a customer straight away without bidding.
eCommerce
eCommerce or electronic commerce refers to buying and selling products or services on the internet. However, it’s not limited to trading products or services only. It includes engaging in any type of commercial transactions over the internet such as online banking and much more.
eCommerce SEO
eCommerce SEO is about optimising your eCommerce website for search engines so that it ranks higher in search engine results and gains better search visibility.
The higher your site ranks in search engine result pages, the more visitors come to your website and you’d get more sales.
Email Marketing
Using email to promote a business’s products or services as a part of the marketing strategy, is called email marketing.
Besides promoting your products and services, you can also use email marketing to:
- Educate your customers
- Engage your audience
- Drive traffic to your blog and social media
- Build relationships with customers, etc.
Etailing
Etailing refers to retailing the products and services over the internet. It’s a subset of eCommerce that mainly focuses on B2C (retail) transactions.
Flash Sale
A flash sale is when an eCommerce store announces huge discounts or offers for a brief period. The purpose of keeping big discounts for a short time is to ignite the sense of urgency in buyers and encourage impulsive shopping.
Hyperlocalization
Hyperlocalization is the well-targeted personalisation of products or offers based on location. Here, the customisation can be limited to a region, city, or even an area within the city.
For example, Brisbane Lions wins an AFL match. So a famous multinational burger company announces 50% off for the rest of the evening in their stores across Brisbane to celebrate the win.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a marketing method where businesses engage social media influencers to promote their brand, products, and services.
The influencers usually have a highly engaged audience. So they can create greater influence on their followers. As a business, you would pay them a commission for each sale generated with their promo code.
Magento
Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform that allows you to build an eCommerce store with a flexible shopping cart system. Moreover, they also offer advanced tools for marketing, promotions, website and catalogue management, SEO, etc.
Mobile Commerce
Mobile commerce — also known as m-commerce — refers to conducting online transactions or purchases using wireless handheld devices like smartphones or tablets.
Native Advertising
Native advertising or native ads are sponsored content that adapts the look and feel of the platform on which they are run. They are mostly used on social media platforms.
Newsletter
A newsletter or email newsletter is a digital report that contains news or information regarding business activities. It’s sent to the email subscribers that include customers, employees, etc.
Niche
An eCommerce niche can be defined as a very specific product or service with a unique differentiator within a segment of the industry.
For example:
Shoes>Women Shoes>Women’s Golf Shoes
Here, women's golf shoes is a very specific niche that caters to women golfers.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel commerce is about providing the same consistent user experience to consumers on any touchpoint.
Simply put, whether customers buy on your eCommerce site, mobile app, or retail store, they get a unified and seamless experience.
Outsource
eCommerce outsourcing is when you use third-party services to conduct some of your business operations.
Let’s say, your online business is growing rapidly and you’re not able to handle your logistics in-house. So you hire a third-party logistics provider to take care of your logistical requirements. That’s outsourcing.
Overhead Cost
Overhead costs are the ongoing expenses to run the business. These costs do not include the costs directly related to manufacturing the products.
For example, stationery expenses in a manufacturing facility can be categorised as an overhead cost.
PayPal
PayPal is an online payment system that allows users to pay or receive money through a PayPal account that is linked to the customer’s bank account.
Payment Methods
Payment methods are the types of payment systems that an eCommerce store integrates on their website checkout page to accept customer payments.
Some of the popular payment methods include credit cards, debit cards, online transfer, digital wallets, buy now pay later, cryptocurrencies etc.
Payment Reconciliation
Payment reconciliation is a process of verifying the bank statement with your records of
payment receipts to ensure that all the payments are duly credited to your account as per your sales data.
Payment Processor
A payment processor is a system that debits money from a customer's account and credits it into the merchant’s bank account.
Personalisation
eCommerce personalisation is providing a dynamic and personal experience to the user with content, product recommendations, deals & discounts, etc.
The personalisation is done based on the user’s browsing history, actions, personal information, past purchases, and more.
Product Information Management
Product Information Management (PIM) is a software application to manage and streamline all the product information such as product data, images, videos, etc. in one single place.
Then, you can distribute the information to your multiple digital channels as required.
Product Page
A product page is a web page on your site that contains information about a specific product that you’re selling.
It includes product descriptions, images, price, customer reviews, discounts or offers, warranty and much more.
Product Ranking
Product rank is the rank at which a product appears on an eCommerce marketplace platform when buyers search for that product or related term.
For instance, if you’re selling on the Amazon marketplace, there would be thousands of other merchants selling the same products. So when a customer searches for a specific product, Amazon lists all the available options to buy that product in chronological order. That’s called product ranking.
Remarketing
Remarketing is reaching out to your old customers to promote your products or services. The purpose of remarketing is to re-engage the previous buyers and encourage them to keep buying your products.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on Investment (ROI) is the profit you earn on your investment.
Here’s how you can calculate ROI.
Gain from investment - Investment amount
ROI = ----------------------------------------------------------- * 100
Investment amount
Return Policies
eCommerce return policy is the terms and conditions under which an e-store accepts the sold products back from customers. It includes the product return time window, returns pick-up facility, accepted product condition, etc.
Online stores usually mention the basic return requirements on the product page and they also publish a detailed return policy document on their website.
Revenue
Revenue or earnings is the amount of money generated through selling products or services. It’s also referred to as income, gains, returns, etc.
Shopify
Shopify is a subscription-based software that allows users to create, manage, and grow their online store with multiple sales, marketing, and CRM tools to integrate.
Shopping Cart
A shopping cart — also known as a basket — is a page that shows all the products that a customer has selected and is intending to buy.
It’s similar to picking up products from retail store shelves and putting them in your cart or trolley before you pay for them at the checkout.
Soft Add to Cart
Soft Add to Cart apps allow buyers to add the items in the shopping cart while staying on the same product page and continue browsing.
You need to integrate them in your online store so that the customers are not redirected to the cart page immediately as they add a product to the cart.
Social Commerce
When you sell your products directly on your brand’s social media accounts, it’s called social commerce or social selling.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is marketing your brand, products, or services using social media platforms.
It not only helps you build a brand, but with the right social media content, you can also increase your engagement with your audience.
Target Market
Target market or target audience is a specific group of people that have the problems or needs that you can solve with your products and services.
For example, you’re an industrial uniform supplier. In this case, your target market can be manufacturers, construction companies, automotive plants etc.
Trademark
Registering for a trademark is a legal way to retain the intellectual property rights for your products. It means that no one can officially duplicate your products.
Transaction Status
Once a customer processes the payment on your e-store, the payment processing software confirms the status of that transaction. It informs the customer whether the payment was successful, declined, or still pending.
Upselling
Upselling refers to promoting an upgraded or a premium product instead of the one that the customer is intending to buy.
For example, a customer is adding a 42-inch LED TV in their shopping cart, but your e-store prompts them with a beneficial offer on 55-inch LED TV. This is called upselling.
Value Proposition
Value proposition is a statement that conveys to your audience the unique value your product or service offers them and why you’re better at delivering that value than your competitors.
Voice Commerce
Voice commerce is shopping products using your voice instead of using the screen of your phone or computer.
You can do this by using smart speakers that work on voice recognition technologies such as Alexa, Google Home, and Siri.
Voice Search
Voice search technology allows users to search the internet on their phones, tablets, or smart speakers with their voice commands.
Wholesale
Wholesale or wholesaling is a practice of acquiring products in bulk from the manufacturers and selling them to retailers at a marked-up price.
Wishlist
Wishlists work like a bookmark for online shoppers. Most eCommerce sites have a feature called “wishlist” or “save for later” that allows users to mark the products of their interest without adding them to the cart and return to it later.
WordPress
WordPress is one of the most used and straightforward content management systems to create your blog or website.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin that allows WordPress users to build and manage their eCommerce store. It also supports multiple integrations and tools for inventory management, payments, taxation, and shipping.
Logistics Terminologies
Having understood most of the eCommerce terminologies, let’s discuss some logistics terminology that you should know as an eCommerce business owner.
Carbon Footprint
Carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide released into the environment by an individual, community, or business.
In the context of an online business, your carbon emissions may come from:
- Packaging, freight, and delivery operations
- Business travels
- Your/supplier’s product manufacturing process, etc.
Delivery Management
Delivery management refers to managing the product deliveries and delivery processes for your eCommerce business.
Destination
The destination is an address to which the buyer wants their products to be delivered.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is an eCommerce order fulfilment method where the seller doesn’t need to store the inventory.
When a customer places an order on an e-store, the seller buys the product from the supplier and gets it delivered directly to the buyer. This way, the seller is not required to stock the products.
Expedited Shipping
Expedited shipping is a way of delivering products faster than the usual delivery time. Usually, online stores charge higher shipping charges for such deliveries.
Some of the examples of expedited shipping are:
- Same day delivery
- Overnight delivery
- Two-day delivery
Logistics
eCommerce logistics includes all the processes such as storing the inventory, picking, packing, and shipping the products.
Manufacturer
A business that manufactures products is called a manufacturer or manufacturing unit.
Margin
Margin is the difference between the price at which a product is acquired and the selling price. It’s also known as profit or profit margin.
Merchant
A merchant is someone who sells the products or services for profits. An eCommerce merchant primarily sells products on internet platforms or marketplaces.
Order Management
Order management is a process or system to manage and track the customer order from the time they place an order on the website until the product is delivered.
Order Tracking
Order tracking refers to monitoring the status of the shipments and keeping the customers updated about their orders. The advanced order management systems update the current location, status, and expected delivery dates automatically in the e-store.
Picking
When a customer places an order on an eCommerce store, the warehouse management system generates an instruction to pick and pack the ordered product. Then, a warehouse worker (or Picker) picks the product from the shelf and passes it to the packaging department.
This process is called the picking process.
Pickup Points
Online stores allow customers to pick up products from their nearby micro-fulfilment centre or their brick and mortar store. These locations are termed pickup points.
Third-Party Logistics (3PL)
When it’s difficult to manage your eCommerce logistics in-house, you can outsource it to external logistics. Such service providers are called third-party logistics (3PL) companies. They can take care of your partial or entire order-fulfilment process.
3PL services include:
- Warehousing
- Inventory management
- Pick-pack-ship process
- Last-mile delivery
- Returns processing, etc.
Freight Logistics
Freight logistics refers to transporting goods in bulk via air, road, or sea. Shipping companies offer better rates for freight as compared to normal shipping. However, you must ship in large volumes to transport your shipments as freight.
Proof of Delivery
A Proof of Delivery (POD) is a confirmation that the product has been delivered successfully at the destination.
Earlier POD used to be a physical document and delivery agents would take the recipient's signature on that. Nowadays, POD is signed electronically and it’s updated in real-time in the system.
Warehouse Terminologies
Here are some of the warehousing terms that you should know as a business owner or eCommerce professional.
Active Stock
Active stock is the stock that is required to fulfil the regular or frequent consumer demand. It’s also known as cycle stock.
Backorder
When an eCommerce store accepts orders on products that are temporarily out-of-stock, it’s called a backorder. Once the products are back in stock, they deliver them to customers on priority.
Barcode
A barcode or bar code is a visual representation of numbers and characters in the form of a code. This code can be read by a barcode scanner machine.
Most warehouses scan their incoming and outgoing inventory to keep a track of stock in real-time. It’s easier to manage the inventory with such advanced technologies as compared to manual tracking.
Branded Packaging
Branded packaging refers to customising the packaging materials like cartons, boxes, poly-mailers, tapes, etc. with your brand name and logo.
Buffer Stock
Buffer stock — or buffer inventory, contingency stock — is an extra inventory that online businesses store in their warehouses to use in times like supply-chain failures, transportation delays, sudden demand spikes etc.
Bundling
Bundling or product bundling is about curating a kit or bundle of related products and selling it as a single unit instead of multiple products. The online stores create such discounted product bundles as a part of upselling or cross-selling tactics to increase sales and AOV.
Distribution Centre
A distribution centre is a large storage space that is used to store goods temporarily before they are redistributed to other storage facilities or fulfilment centres.
Fulfilment
As soon as a customer places an order on an online store, till they receive their product at their doorstep — this entire process is called eCommerce order fulfilment.
It involves:
- Processing orders
- Picking
- Packing
- Shipping
- Handling returns, etc.
Fulfilment Centre
Third-party logistics (3PL) companies store their clients’ (eCommerce sellers) products in their own storage facilities. 3PL providers process and ship the customer orders directly from their warehouse.
This infrastructure is called a 3PL warehouse or fulfilment centre.
Inventory Management
Inventory management refers to procuring and storing the products effectively in a warehouse to optimise the order fulfilment process.
Out of Stock
Products that are not currently available in your inventory are called out-of-stock products.
Packaging
Packaging or packing is about protecting the product during transportation. Besides product safety, customised packaging also helps you establish brand identity.
Moreover, you can also reduce your shipping costs with the right packaging strategy.
Order Picker
The warehouse worker that picks products from the warehouse shelves to make it ready for the shipment is addressed as Picker or Order Picker.
Nowadays, warehouses and fulfilment centres also use robotic picking systems that eliminate picking errors.
Order Quantity
Order quantity is the number of units that a customer has ordered for a specific product. The online stores usually allow the customers to choose product quantity on the shopping cart page.
Available Stock
Available stock is the inventory that is readily available in the warehouse to be picked, packed, and shipped to the customers.
Restocking
Restocking — or inventory restocking — is an important part of the inventory management strategy. It’s about reordering the required products based on trends and consumer demand.
Restocking strategy is crucial because you don’t want to overstock the low-selling goods as they occupy the storage space and increase your warehousing costs. At the same time, you also don’t want to understock the popular products and disappoint your customers by going out of stock frequently.
RFID
RFID is an abbreviation for Radio Frequency Identification. RFID technology allows you to track the goods within warehouses and keep your inventory data updated in real-time.
Shrinkage
When the actual inventory count is less than the inventory count in systems or records, the difference is known as shrinkage or inventory shrinkage.
Shrinkage may happen due to errors in inventory tracking or theft in warehouses.
SKU
Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is a scannable unique identification code assigned to the inventory of a specific product. It simplifies the incoming and outgoing movement of inventories within warehouses.
Warehouse
A warehouse is a storage space where businesses organise and store their inventory securely.
Warehouse Management System
Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a software application that helps you manage, control, and optimise your daily warehouse operations.
Moreover, it also gives you visibility into your inventory management processes from the time goods are received in the warehouse until they are shipped.
Web & Tech Terminologies
Even if you’re not directly involved in developing the required technology for online business, it makes sense to understand the tech terminology if you’re associated with the eCommerce industry.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is the process of comparing different versions of a variable to find out which yields better results. It helps e-sellers in determining which campaign is suitable for them at a given time and leads to purchase.
Artificial Intelligence
The ability of computers or robots to do certain tasks which are usually processed by humans is called Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI-enabled systems can study human behaviour based on their past interactions and help them in providing a better customer experience. One example would be eCommerce sites offering personalised shopping recommendations for their customers.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) offers an interactive experience by modifying real-world objects with the influence of computer-generated graphics or objects.
Brands use AR technology to merge real-world objects with the virtual environment to increase user engagement. AR try-on is very popular in eCommerce as they allow customers to try the product before they make a purchase decision.
Automation
In simple terms, automation is the process of using technology in getting a task done. Monotonous tasks like —adding customers to an email list, sending a welcome mailer, consolidating all the orders, etc can be automated thereby saving time, effort and costs involved otherwise.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a website performance metric that is used to track the percentage of users that viewed a single webpage and then left the site without any further interaction.
A higher bounce rate indicates:
- Users are not getting what they expected on the page
- The website doesn’t have a good user experience
Call to Action
Call to Action (CTA) is a section of a website, landing page, advertisement, or content that invites users to take a specific action.
For example, “Join Free for a Month” is the CTA in the image below.
Chatbot
Chatbots are computer programs or software that process and provide responses like a human. A chatbot gives a human-like perception in their interactions with users.
Churn Rate
The percentage of users who leave a product, service or website at a given period of time is known as churn rate,
Click to Open Rate
Click to Open Rate (CTOR) is a marketing metric where we compare unique clicks with unique opens.
A typical example would be in measuring the effectiveness of your email campaign. It is the number of users who clicked the email to the percentage of users who found it interesting and relevant.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting enables users to access applications via cloud resources. The application is distributed across multiple servers to distribute the load thereby preventing application downtime.
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is the process of increasing the desired action a user takes on a website. Actions can be a subscription to a newsletter, making a purchase, filling up a contact form, etc.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
DDoS involves the use of multiple connected online machines (botnets) intentionally trying to disrupt the service of a website by sending fake traffic. If an eCommerce website has been targeted by a DDoS attack, your customer will have a hard time accessing the website and taking the desired action.
Domain Name
Domain name is a unique identification associated with an entity on the internet. It is a simple form of an IP address.
Encryption
Encryption is the process of modifying or hiding information to maintain its confidentiality.
For eCommerce customers, encryption is a great way to assure that their personal information will remain secure and tamperproof.
Event-triggered Email
Auto-generated emails are sent to the users when users take a specific action. That is an event-triggered email.
Events can be of varied nature such as payment confirmation, order placement or cancellation, or even shipment updates.
Evergreen Content
The content that stays relevant irrespective of the time period or season is known as evergreen content.
For eCommerce companies, this would mean a piece of content that will always generate some residual traffic for the website.
Some examples of evergreen eCommerce content are:
- Detailed guides on products and product categories
- Customer success stories
- Case studies
- Tips, tactics, and how-to content, etc.
Favicon
Favicon is a small icon that is used for the branding purposes of your website. Some of the brands also use their brand logo as a favicon.
Here’s an example:
Besides the web browser tab, you can also see favicons in the bookmark list, browser history, search bar, etc.
Firewall
Firewall is a network security device that is primarily used to monitor and filter the inbound and outbound network traffic. Its purpose is to block the malicious traffic that can jeopardize the internal network and allow non-threatening traffic into the network.
Front End
For an eCommerce store, the Front End refers to the part of the site that customers can see, use, and interact with.
Gated Content
Gated content is any information or digital content that users can view only after they provide their information. Most businesses use gated content to generate leads and build email lists for their website.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that helps you analyse and monitor the performance of your website.
With Google Analytics, you can track your website performance indicators such as:
- Website traffic
- Average user session durations
- Bounce rate
- Top traffic sources, and many more
Google Trends
Google Trends is a Google website that features the most popular search queries on the Google search engine across multiple regions. It also shows the search volumes for the queries.
Hamburger Navigation
Hamburger Navigation (or Hamburger Button) is an icon that you can usually find on the top left or top right corner of websites and apps. Once you press the hamburger icon, it opens up a side menu on the screen.
Headless Commerce
Headless Commerce allows the front end and the back end of the website to operate independently from each other. This allows the brands greater freedom to build their digital stores and improve user experience.
Inbound Links
Inbound Links — also known as Backlinks — are the links that are directed to your web pages or website from external websites.
Indexing
Search engines scan the websites and web pages across the world wide web and index the pages to show them for relevant search queries. This process is called indexing.
Infinite Scroll
Infinite scrolling is a technique that allows the page to keep loading content as you scroll down. It’s also called endless scrolling. Some of the popular examples of infinite scrolling are the social media sites and apps like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.
Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT) is the term used to describe the billions of physical devices that are connected to the internet.
Internet Service Provider
Internet Service Providers (ISP) are the companies that provide internet services to their customers.
IP Address
Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique numerical identifier associated with a network device. It is assigned by the internet service provider.
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is a practice of forcefully inserting search queries or keywords into the written content to manipulate the ranking position in search engine result pages.
Keyword stuffing is not a recommended practice and it can hurt your SEO efforts.
Landing Page
A landing page is a stand-alone web page designed to generate leads and sales for businesses. For an eCommerce store, a landing page is primarily focused on selling tangible products.
Link Building
Link building is an SEO tactic that helps you establish website authority, trust, and improve your website’s position in search engine rankings.
A link building strategy primarily focuses on:
- Internal links: When you link to other web pages within your website.
- External links: When you link to contextually relevant and credible external websites.
- Backlinks or inbound links: When external websites link to your web pages or site.
Meta Description
The meta description is a brief narration of what the website or web page is about. Google shows the description right underneath the page title in search results pages.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is the number of visitors that come to your site through search results. It doesn’t include the traffic generated from paid advertising.
Pay-Per-Click
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a method to advertise your brand, website, or products on the internet. Advertisers need to pay for each time their ad is clicked.
Progressive Web Applications
Progressive Web Application (PWA) offers the experience of native apps — downloadable apps on platforms like iOS, Android, etc. — in the form of a web page. So you can use them without downloading.
Responsive Web Design
Responsive Web Design (RWD) is an advanced website design that allows web pages to adapt automatically according to the screen size whether you use desktop, tablet, or mobile.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to advertising your website on search engines through paid advertisements. It is also known as paid search.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a process of improving your website to:
- Increase its search visibility
- Rank higher in search engine results
- Attract more visitors or organic traffic
- Enhance user experience
- Drive more revenue, etc.
Two Factor Authentication
Two Factor Authentication (2FA) is an internet security measure that requires users to verify their identity with at least two authentication factors. It is also referred to as two-step verification.
Usability Testing
Usability testing involves testing the user-friendliness of the website or application.
User Experience
User Experience (UX) is about understanding the users based on their needs, preferences, challenges, etc. and creating the website or app design around these factors.
The idea is to make the application user friendly and convenient so that customers would like to experience the platform recurrently.
Wrapping up
There you have it!
We have covered the most frequently used eCommerce, logistics, warehousing, and tech terminologies that you may encounter in your day-to-day business operations. This should help you collaborate effectively with your team, vendors, and suppliers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What terminology is used for online shopping?
Online shopping is often referred to as eCommerce, e-shopping, digital shopping, etc.
What are the buzz phrases in eCommerce?
There are various eCommerce buzz phrases such as Shopping Cart, Average Order Value (AOV), Abandoned Cart Rate, Voice Commerce, and many more.
What is eCommerce lingo?
eCommerce lingo is the technical terminologies or jargon that are used in day-to-day online business operations.
What are eCommerce terms?
eCommerce terms are the terminology or phrases that are often used in the world of eCommerce.
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