Similiar to other specializations, eCommerce uses some terminology and professional terms that might make you confuse. We are here to make it clear. Gearment ecommerce dictionary is a list of eCommerce glossaries with definitions commonly used in eCommerce industry.

A

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which the company pays commission for the third party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company’s products and services. The third-party publishers are affiliates and they can earn a piece of the profit from each sale they make.

Amazon

Amazon.com is an international e-commerce company offering online retail, computing services, consumer electronics, digital content as well as other local services such as daily deals and groceries

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is a  subscription membership to Amazon that offers customers premium services such as two days shipping, music, tv shows, movies for a yearly or monthly fee. Sellers who use FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) and achieve Amazon Prime Seller may get higher chances of converting Prime customers into sales. 

As an Amazon Prime Seller, getting a Prime Badge helps the customers in finding your products faster and easier. This way, it may help you in getting more product visibility and sales.

API – Application Programming Interface

An API is a set of definitions and protocols that enables data transmission between one software product and another.

ASIN – Amazon Standard Identification Number

ASIN is a 10-digit alphanumeric product identifier code issued by Amazon to every unique item offered in its catalog and housed in its warehouses, which is used for managing the Amazon product catalog.

B

Buy box

The Buy Box is the box on a product detail page where customers can begin the purchasing process by adding items to their shopping carts. A key feature of the Amazon website is that the same product can be sold by several sellers, so that they need to compete for the Buy Box for that product. 

B2B – Business to Business

The process of selling products or services directly between business and another business

B2C – Business to Customer

The process of selling products and services directly between a business and consumers who are the end-users of its products or services

Brick-and-Mortar Store

The term “brick-and-mortar” refers to a traditional street-side business that offers products and services to its customers face-to-face in an office or store that the business owns or rents.

Base cost

The total production and service cost of the product excluding any shipping fees.

Blog

A regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style to give readers information about e-commerce. For example, Gearment Blog.

C

Carrier

A carrier is a party that transports goods for another person or company and is responsible for any possible loss of or damage to the goods during transport. A common carrier provides transportation services to the public in return for compensation.

CTA – Call to action

CTA  is a marketing reference to a piece of content, such as an image, button or text intended to prompt users to perform a specific action

CAR – Cart Abandonment Rate

The percentage of online shoppers who add items to a virtual shopping cart but then abandon it before completing the purchase.

Cookies

Cookies are text files with small pieces of data — like a username and password — that are used to identify your computer as you use a computer network.

Conversion rate

The average number of conversions per ad interaction, shown as a percentage. For example, if you had 60 conversions from 1,000 interactions, your conversion rate would be 6%, because 60 ÷ 1,000 = 6%

CPC – Cost-per-click

 Cost-per-click (CPC) is a paid advertising term where an advertiser pays a cost to a publisher for every click on an ad.

Christmas

Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25. What is important in Christmas for ecommerce stores is that the sales are at its peak during this holiday. Specifically, total holiday retail sales in 2020 reached $789.4 billion despite the pandemic.

CTR – Click-through rate

Clickthrough rate (CTR) is a ratio showing how often people who see your ad or free product listing end up clicking it. It can be used to gauge how well your keywords and ads, and free listings, are performing. For example, if you had 5 clicks and 100 impressions, then your CTR would be 5%

CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the practice of increasing the percentage of users who perform a desired action on a website. Desired actions can include purchasing a product, clicking ‘add to cart’, signing up for a service, filling out a form, or clicking on a link.

CMS – Content Management System

CMS is a back-end solution developed to control the content of the website which is the front-end. This  software application  helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge.

CMYK

CMYK stands for  Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key: those are the colours used in the printing process. The CMYK color profile is the preferred profile printing since most printers use those colored inks to print with. It allows for a more true color since your computer and the printer are using the same combination of colors to create your desired colors.

Cross-selling

Cross-selling is a sales technique used to get a customer to spend more by purchasing a product that’s related to what’s being bought already. The cashier at a fast-food restaurant asks a customer, “Would you like fries with that?”, for example.

Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is a marketing term for e-commerce transactions on the Monday after  Thanksgiving in the United States. It was created by retailers to encourage people to shop online. 

CRM – Customer Relationship Management

CRM refers to as a technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. When it comes to CRM, CRM is considered a system or a tool that helps with contact management, sales management, agent productivity, and more.

D

Dropshipping

Dropping is an order fulfillment method in which a business doesn’t have to keep products in stock. Instead, the store sells the product, and passes on the sales order to a third-party supplier, who then ships the order to the customer.

Digital commerce

Digital ecommerce or D-commerce is the transactions of goods and services using digital channels such as Internet, mobile networks and commerce infrastructure.

– Active Digital Commerce Businesses that are actively selling products and/or services as well as accepting payments online can be termed as a part of active digital commerce.

– Passive Digital Commerce – Businesses that are marketing their products and/or services online but are accepting the payments offline can be a part of passive digital commerce.

Digital marketing

Digital marketing encompasses all the promotion of brands that use an electronic device or the internet. This includes not only email, social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and multimedia messages as a marketing channel.

E

E-commerce: 

A business model that lets firms and individuals buy and sell things on the Internet. E-commerce can be a substitute for brick-and-mortar stores, though some businesses choose to maintain both.

eBay:

eBay is a well-known B2B and C2C marketplace that is an excellent choice for those who already have a store and are looking for an additional selling channel.

Embroidery

Embroidery is a decorative technique used to create designs on fabric involving the weaving of thread to create shapes and words. Embroidery looks elegant and is distinguishably different from digital and screen printing. 

Engagement Rate:

The level of interaction with followers that is generated from content created by a user. Engagement rate is also a metric used to gauge the level of engagement generated from created content or a brand campaign.

Evergreen Content:

Evergreen content is SEO content that is continually relevant and stays “fresh” for readers.

Evergreen Niche: 

Evergreen niche doesn’t rely on seasonal trends or gimmicks to attract customers, because it sells products or services that people inherently need or desire. This niche is in continual demand, year after year. 

F

Fulfillment: 

A process where the merchant takes steps to deliver an order to the buyer. Order fulfillment is all the steps a company takes between receiving a new order and placing that order into the customer’s hands. The practice involves warehousing, picking and packing the product, shipping it and sending an automated email to the customer to let them know the order is in transit.

FBA – Fulfillment by Amazon:

A storage and shipping service that Amazon offers to help business owners sell their products. Businesses ship their products into Amazon’s fulfillment centres, which are specifically designed for FBA services. Then, Amazon handles receiving, picking, and packing the products in the center before shipping them to the customer. Post-sales processes like returns, refunds, and customer service are also taken care of.

Freshchat

Freshchat is a modern messaging app for sales, support, and customer engagement. A leap from legacy live-chat systems, it brings the continuity and experience of consumer messaging apps to businesses to help them convert visitors and delight customers.

G

Gearment:

A fulfillment company that produces printed products including T-shirts, mugs, posters, pet bowls and many others. We fulfill customers’ orders through an application that has been built for many years. A great understanding of the Print-on-Demand business allows our development team to simplify the fulfillment process for sellers from all levels of experience.

Google AdWords:

An advertising service that allows business to set a budget and then runs the promotions that you have written. Ads are typically composed of SEO keywords.

Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand

Google Trends:

Google Trends is a search trends feature that shows how frequently a given search term is entered into Google’s search engine relative to the site’s total search volume over a given period of time.

Growth Hacking:

It is a marketing concept that involves rapid experimentation including analytical thinking and use of social metrics to identify the most effective way to grow business and gain exposure. It is a process where hackers find the right trick that allows them to grow the number of users for a specific product by specifically focussing on building and engaging the user base of a business.

H

Hashtag

It is a label or a phrase preceded by a hash character (#) used in social networks and microblogging services to identify the messages of specific topics. When you use hashtags, you help people who are interested in your topic find your posts and Tweets.

HTML – Hypertext Markup Language

The HyperText Markup Language, or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. ‘Hypertext’ refers to the hyperlinks that an HTML page may contain and ‘Markup language’ refers to the way tags are used to define the page layout and elements within the page.

I

Inbound link

An inbound link is a link coming from another site to your own website. In SEO terminology, it is also known as a Backlink.  

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is an approach that attracts customers by creating valuable marketing content, social media marketing and SEO tailored to them via company sponsored newsletters, blogs and entries on social media platforms.

Infographic

A collection of imagery, charts, and minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic.

Inventory

The term for the goods available for sale and raw materials used to produce goods available for sale. There are four main types of inventory: raw materials/components, WIP, finished goods and MRO. Inventory is one of the most essential assets of a business because the turnover of inventory is one of the primary sources of revenue generation and subsequent earnings for the company’s shareholders.

K

KPIs – Key performance indicators:

KPI is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. Organizations use KPIs at multiple levels to evaluate their success at reaching targets.

Keywords:

A keyword is a term used in digital marketing to describe a word or a group of words an Internet user uses to perform a search in a search engine or search bar. In an SEO strategy, keywords are the core of any copy written for the web (present in the content, titles and SEO elements).

Keyword Stuffing:

Keyword stuffing is a SEO technique wherein a large number of keywords are loaded onto a web page to artificially increase ranking of the page in search results and drive more traffic to the site.

L

Landing page

Landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” after they click on a link in an email, or ads from Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or similar places on the web. There are 3 popular types of landing pages based on conversion goals: lead generation page, sales page and click-through page

 LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional networking and employment-oriented social networking site, allowing you to share work-related information with registered members and get connected to other professionals. LinkedIn also allows you to create a custom profile which is business-oriented rather than personal in nature.

Listing fee

Listing fee is charged every time you create or relist a listing on e-commerce platforms, regardless of whether that listing generates a sale. It is to cover some direct costs (e.g. opening a supplier code, checking quality standards, list in the IT system, etc.)

Logistic

Logistic refers to the process of coordinating and moving resources – people, materials, inventory, and equipment – from one location to storage at the desired destination. The management of logistics can involve some or all of the following business functions, including:

• Inbound transportation 
• Outbound transportation
• Fleet management
• Warehousing
• Materials handling
• Order fulfillment
• Inventory management
• Demand planning

Long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are unpopular keyword phrases with low search volume and high variation. These keywords consist of either three or sometimes five words in the phrase and are mostly used to target niche demographics rather than mass audiences.

M

Mock-up

In manufacturing and design, a mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. 

Multichannel-selling (Multi-selling)

It is the process of selling your products on more than one sales channel such as a mix of websites, e-commerce platforms, and/or bricks and mortar stores.

Margin

In a general business context, the margin is the difference between a product or service’s selling price and the cost of production, or the ratio of profit to revenue. Margin percentage is an essential metric in establishing the level of profitability in a given sale or product line.

Marketing

Marketing is referred to as activities of a company that includes advertising, selling and delivering products to customers. It is actually a way to create, retain and satisfy the customer by communicating with them, delivering their requirements and exchanging offerings that have value for them. 

mCommerce (Mobile commerce)

Mobile commerce refers to the use of wireless devices such as mobile phones, smart phones, tablets or personal digital assistants for buying and selling of goods and services online. This is the delivery of eCommerce capabilities in the consumer’s hand via wireless technology.

Merchants

A business or individual that sells a good or provides a service. And more recently an eCommerce merchant is someone that sells a product or service over the internet. It can be B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Consumer).

Specifically, an eCommerce merchant is someone that sells a product or service exclusively online on multichannels. They are small business retailers that focus on everything from brand building to setting up the technical side of payment processing.

Mobile optimization

Mobile optimization is the process of adjusting your website content to ensure that visitors that access the site from mobile devices have an experience customized to their device.

N

Niche

Ecommerce niches are segments in an industry that sell a specific type of product with a unique differentiator.

O

On-Page Optimization

On-Page Optimization refers to all the measures taken within the website in order to improve the web page listing or position in search rankings. It is one of the very first steps of SEO that can help you increase your overall CTR (Click-Through-Rate) ratio.

Off-Page Optimization

Off-Page Optimization refers to all the measures taken external to the actual website in order to improve its position in search rankings. This usually does the background work for better search results and builds your online reputation. 

P

POD – Print-on-demand

This is an ecommerce model that allows you to sell customized products that are printed only after an order has been placed. It is a type of fulfillment practice, in which the merchant doesn’t have to deal with inventory management and shipping

2D – Printed apparels

2D Printed apparels (2 Dimensional) is understood as an image consisting of monochromatic colors, which are combined together in different color blocks to create objects. A 2D image representing space horizontally and vertically. This method is low-cost and taking less time in processing.

PPP – Pay per click

Pay-per-click is an online advertising model in which an advertiser pays a publisher every time an advertisement link is “clicked” on.

Paypal

PayPal is an electronic commerce company that facilitates payments between parties through online transfers. Owned by Ebay, Paypal is an essential component of your ecommerce payment setup.

Product lifecycle stages

A product life cycle is the amount of time a product goes from being introduced into the market until it’s taken off the shelves. The most common steps in the life cycle of a product include product development, market introduction, growth, maturity, and decline/stability.

Prime day

Prime Day is an annual shopping event exclusively for Prime members created by Amazon, and has been compared to Black Friday in July, delivering two days of epic deals on products from small businesses & top brands.

S

SKU

A stock-keeping unit (SKU) is a scannable barcode, most often seen printed on product labels in a retail store. The SKU is composed of an alphanumeric combination of eight-or-so characters. The characters are a code that tracks the price, product details, and the manufacturer. It helps vendors automatically track movement of inventory, also useful for online store owners to determine which products require reordering and provides sales data also.

Seeding

Seeding describes an idea used in viral marketing campaigns to initiate the teaser of the campaign by planting a “seed” into a “breeding place” like blogs and portals of the desired target group. The goal is to attract opinion from the desired audience.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a marketing discipline that focuses on getting traffic from organic search results on search engines, which helps in optimizing search rankings, drive traffic and increase awareness in search engines. This works at improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engine’s unpaid results.

SERP – Search engine results page

SERP is a web page that shows a listing of results when users search for something online by entering the keywords. The results page is returned by the search engine in response to the keyword query. Each listing would have a linked web page title, URL of the linked page, a brief description of the page content and sometimes links to the key components of the website.

Shopify

Shopify is a subscription-based software that allows anyone to set up an online store and sell their products. 

Social media

Social media is the practice of using social media to market an ecommerce store. Ecommerce stores can use social media to build brand awareness, attract online followers, and generate online sales.

Sublimation printing

Sublimation printing refers to making a solid material turn into a gas without going through a liquid stage. That means the artwork is transferred to an object in a gas state by using a high temperature heat press during the dye sublimation printing process. It differs from traditional printing methods because it bypasses the liquid step. There are no inks drying to the printed object.

Shipping label

Shipping labels are a type of identification label that helps describe and specify what’s inside a package. Shipping labels differ depending on the carrier you use, but they all consist of things like addresses, names, weight, and a tracking barcode

T

Tracking number

It is a combination of numbers and/or letters that uniquely identifies your shipment, allowing you to monitor all of your online orders and shipments and communicate the order status to your customers at any point in time. 

Trademark

It is used to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from those of any other manufacturer or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods.

Traffic

The number of visitors that a web page receives. For a website to be successful it needs traffic to be driven to it from various sources.

Transaction

It is an occasion or event when the customer or user buys or sells something which may involve money in exchange. The completed process of buying and selling is called a transaction. 

Third Party Payment Processor

Third Party Payment Processor is a company that handles merchant account payments from various channels such as credit or debit cards for merchant acquiring banks. Best example for this is PayPal that lets you accept online payments without a merchant account of your own. 

U

Up-selling

Upselling is a sales technique used to get a customer to spend more by purchasing an expensive, upgraded or premium version of the chosen item or other add-ons for the purpose of making a larger sale.

Usability

The ease with which a visitor can read, navigate, and interact with a web application or website. Ecommerce websites should always be heavily concerned with usability, and should strive to improve the user experience whenever possible.

UX – User Experience

This refers to the visitor’s overall experience about using a particular product, system or service especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use it. High-quality user experience can be achieved by having seamless merging of services of multiple disciplines including engineering, marketing, graphical and interface design.

UI – User Interface

User Interface is a way in which everything is designed to facilitate users to interact with an application or a website, known as a Graphical User Interface (GUI). A user interface is considered good if it provides a ‘user-friendly’ experience by allowing users to interact with the software or hardware in a natural and intuitive way.

User interface determines how commands are given to the computer and how information is displayed on the screen.

V

Variant:

Product variants refer to the purchasing options that the same product is usually available in various sizes, colors, etc.

W

Web Analytics

Web analytics is a tool for web business owners and market researchers to assess and improve the effectiveness of a website and gauge traffic & popularity trends. It is used to measure details like number of visits, unique visitors’ count, their entry points, specific keywords used, their online session time, what did they search for and when & why did they leave the site.

Wholesale

The distributor or manufacturer, this is the party that sells directly to retailers.

WordPress

WordPress is particularly useful when building an eCommerce website, because it features plugins that add complete eCommerce functionality to a site, from product display to shopping cart and checkout.

White label

White labeling is when a product or service removes their brand and logo from the end product and instead uses the branding requested by the purchaser. 

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