Having trouble trying to understand the lingo or terms the people in the industry throw around during the discussion? No worries, this eCommerce Terms Cheat Sheet by 13Owl is all you need to have to understand and express the lingo like a PRO!
Whether you are a seller, buyer, or consultant, you will be well-versed in eCommerce jargon after getting through this list!
We have compiled the most popular keywords, buzzwords, and phrases that are used daily in the eCommerce industry and sorted them out into 5 main categories:
- General Terms
- Technical Terms
- Business Terms
- Marketing Terms
- Data Science Terms
301 Redirect
When a website’s original URL has been transferred or tweaked, the 301-redirect search engine identifies and indexes the revised URL. Even after upgrading your original connect, this helps preserve search engine rankings.
404 Error
This is a “Not Found Error”. This occurs when you try to locate a website that is not visible on the server. In other words, this means that the server can be accessed, but that particular page is not available.
A/B Testing
Also known as Split Testing.
A/B Testing is a Growth Hacking practice used by entrepreneurs to compare two variants (it can be website, ads, social media post or basically anything) to determine which one is doing better. As a result, this mechanism aims to determine the right internet marketing and promotion methods for eCommerce business.
This technic can be used on basically any marketing practices.
Abandonment
In eCommerce, this phrase means that a visitor has visited the website and left the website without taking any action. It is a scenario where the customer has placed products in their shopping cart but leaves without buying them for whatever reason. There are various method or ways to decrease cart abandonment, thus increasing your overall sales.
Also see: Cart Abandonment Rate.
Address Verification Services (AVS)
An address verification service is a service offered by major credit card processors to allow merchants to verify the ownership of the credit or debit card used by the customer. AVS is carried out as part of a merchant’s request for authorisation in a non-face-to-face credit card transaction.
Affiliate
A person or a corporation that sells the goods or services of another (your product for example) for a small fee. eCommerce platforms run affiliate programs to encourage other website owners to forward traffic, paying a fee on each transaction through the affiliate connect.
There are many forms of affiliate nowadays, some appears in the form of company, groups, influencers and/or KOLs.
Affiliate Marketing
This is a marketing agreement in which a company pays fee to one or more affiliates for each conversion made as a result of the marketing activities of the affiliate. Simply put, whenever an external website takes a customer to your web portal and makes a transaction, an external website collects a fee to guide traffic to your sales site.
They use any kind of banners, advertisements or links and creatively market the product or service to the customer or, in this case, to the buyer.
Affiliate Tracking
Systems that monitor clicks, purchases, or other performance objectives to determine revenue share or commissioning.
See Affliate/Affliate Marketing.
Application Programming Interface (API)
An API is a series of protocols, specifications or instructions that allow two software applications to communicate and share data. It is used to create software applications where it serves as an interface for different software programs and enables interaction.
It allows developers to use these basic commands to execute operations, so they do not have to write the code from scratch. In addition, APIs are used to program the graphical user interface (GUI) modules.
Auto Responder
Auto emails delivered to the consumer anytime they perform certain action. (e.g. place an order, abandon a shopping cart). This can usually be configured by the eCommerce store owner. This is a common function nowadays that helps store owner easily manage their selling process.
Basket
Part of the shopping cart app that helps online shoppers select the things they want to purchase. During the check-out process, the app determines the overall cost of distribution and taxes and sends the customer to the payment procedure.
B2B
Business to Business. The process of selling products or services to other businesses.
Online sales in which an company offers goods or services to other firms.
See: SAAS.
B2C
Business to Customer. The process of selling products or services to end consumers.
Online sales in which an online company offers goods or services to end user.
Average order value
This is the average amount your customer pays when they visit your store. The higher the better.
Here is how to calculate average order value:
[Sales Revenue] / [Number of Orders] = Average Order Value
This can be used to gauge many of your customer data.
Average Resolution Time
Average time taken to solve a customer enquiry or problem.
Average Time on Site
Typical amount of time that your user spends on your store during a defined period.
The more time they spend on your store means they show high interest in your product or services.
Blog
An integral part of any e-commerce sector, a blog is simply an online log of content specific to your industry or the things that you are trying to sell. This can be wired into your e-commerce site, and most of the sites you use to run your site will have an in-built blogging feature, so you can draw both traffic and links to your shop.
Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate is usually expressed in percentage that applies to the percentage of users who visits the website and leave without accessing other pages of the website. This concept is especially used in web traffic research as it tests the efficiency of the website in motivating people to move forward on the website. High bounce rate means people do not stay on your site and you’ll need to do something about it.
See A/B Testing.
Brick and Mortar
A business that has a physical store at which consumers can go rather than only have an eCommerce presence.
Bundling
Bundling is a marketing strategy in which a range of related goods or services are bundled and marketed as one bundled solution. One of the common practices by businesses is to also market these packaged goods at a discounted price to draw more buyers.
This is the ideal solution to mix the slow-moving goods with new ones. Thus, increasing your sales.
Business Blogging
A marketing strategy to help your business get more exposure online by sharing content that fits the needs of your business. This may be cross-posting to other companies or industries that may share the same target market as your business.
Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)
The Web Services Business Process Execution Language, commonly known as BPEL, is an OASIS standard executable language for specifying actions within business processes with web services.
BPEL itself consists of two specifications, an abstract version for defining business processes from a simulation point of view, and an executable version that can execute business processes in accordance with the BPEL processor.
Cache/Caching
An action of storing web files on a device or server to make it easy for the end user to gain access to them. The data stored is termed as Cache.
Choreography
The process of “talking” or “discussing” between various elements of the e-commerce system as well as between different firms and vendors.
Choreography not only explains what the business process is, it also determines how the process communicates with each other. In brief, it displays all the processes and their necessary connections in a business process diagram.
Buyers Persona
Buyers Persona is a semi-fictional portrayal of your prospective buyer focused on market analysis and the actual evidence of your current customers. It is necessary to understand your customer data such as their buying journey, behavioural history, demographics, priorities, etc. when planning the buyer’s persona.
Buyers Persona reveals insights into the decisions of your end user, their unique behaviours, interests, and requirements; most important of all, what they really like about the product/services you are able to offer them.
Buy-to-Detail Rate
A Google Analytics metric that looks at how many of your customer have seen the goods vs how many have purchased from you.
Typically, here is how you calculate buy-to-detail rate:
[Total Purchase] / [Total Product Page Views]x100 = Buy-to-Detail Rate (%)
This metric can be used to optimize your eCommerce store. Reworking product page with low Buy-to-detail rate can improve your store’s conversion rate.
See: A/B Testing
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Customer Acquisition Cost is the cost to acquire a new customer or maintaining a relationship with a current customer. This can usually be determined easily by splitting all costs expended on the acquisition of customers (marketing expenses) by the number of customers gained over the time in which the money was spent.
Call-to-Action (CTA)
This typically comes in the form of a slogan or expression, in which you convince the customer/visitors to take some kind of action. It can be as easy as “buy now, email us for more, subscribe, follow us, etc.”
It is often the suggestion on what to do next, such as placing an order or inquiring further. CTAs have greatly proved their impact on eCommerce conversion rates.
Cart Abandonment Rate
Similar to abandonment, this refers to the ratio of the overall number of shopping carts to the number of completed purchases. It is essentially the rate at which visitors initiate the purchase by attaching an object to their cart and leaving the site without completing the transaction.
These data can help you keep track of abandoned carts to see if the product or services you are selling is profitable or not. Interestingly, there are many ways to decrease cart abandonment rate thus helping you increasing your revenue.
Cart-to-Detail rate
A Google Analytics metric that shows the percentage of how many of the visitors have viewed the Product page vs how many visitors have added that particular product to the basket.
Typically, this is how to calculate cart-to-detail rate:
[Number of times the Product Is Added to Cart] /[Product Page Views] = Cart-to-Detail Rate
Channel Conflict
Conflict that emerges from inconsistencies between merchants on various networks.
This can also be any disagreement, discrepancy or inconsistency that occurs between two or more channel partners where the actions or operations of one partner influence the company, revenue, profitability, or related achievement of the other channel partner.
For example, price differences in store versus online. If not handled well, this can harm the company in various ways.
Chargeback
This term means transaction debited against a merchant account, such as a return. Typically combined with a fee which is often refunded by the retailer.
The reversal of a completed card transaction because the buyer disputes a payment and the merchant’s bank refunds the value of the transaction.
Commonly happen when customer return a product.
Churn Rate
Also known as Attrition Rate. Churn rate, in its broadest sense, is a calculation of the number of customers that stop using/paying over a given period of time. This is one of the important data that eCommerce store owner needs to understand. Knowing how churn occurs and preventing it is the key of maintaining a long-term business.
Click-through Rate
Also known as CTR. CTR simply means the total impressions delivered to the mass versus the people who clicked. This is a key metrics to measure the effectiveness of calls-to-action, product listing, and any other form of link on the site.
In short, the higher the click-through rate the better.
Conversions
Conversion rates means a percentage of users who perform an intended action divided by users who are given the chance to complete it (but did not). This is usually followed up on all forms of inbound marketing. Conversion rate may be monitored over a fixed period of time or on average across time, depending on the marketing goals.
This is definitely one of the most crucial part of eCommerce. Overall, it is all about converting a stranger to your customer. This process is not always financially driven, though it can be but not necessarily. The definition of conversion rates depends on your company marketing goals.
Click-through
The act of clicking on an online advertisement, product listing or any other form of link to the advertiser’s website.
Click-to-open rate (CTOR)
This is commonly seen in Email Marketing. This metric represents the efficiency of your email message and content in having recipients to click through and find out more about your company or offer.
Here is how to calculate click-to-open rate:
[Unique Clicks] / [Unique Opens] x 100 = Click-to-Open Rate
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
The customer’s lifetime value (CLV) is a metrics to calculate or forecast the total amount of money that the customer is expected to spend on your product or services over their lifetime.
Customer’s lifetime value is important since the higher the number, the greater the profits. As a business unit, you will be constantly spending budget on acquiring new customers, but to it’s even more important to retain existing ones as statistically it cost five times as much to acquire new customer in compare to retain loyal customers.
Furthermore, if you understand your customer well with data centric business practices, it makes it easier to keep your customer loyal.
Cohort analysis
A form of behavioural analysis that splits your customer data into linked categories in a data set prior to analysis. This classes, or cohorts, typically share similar characteristics or interactions over a given time period.
This data is useful to improve customer engagement with your business.
Commerce Service Provider (CSP)
Commerce Services Providers (CSPs) provide companies with application tools designed to help them market their services and goods online. A CSP may also be known as an e-commerce service provider.
Banners
A web banner or banner ad is a type of advertisement on the World Wide Web supported by an ad server. This form of online advertising involves embedding an advertisement in a web page. It is meant to draw visitors to the website by linking to the advertiser’s website.
Content Management System (CMS)
An easy-to-use back-end interface that enables website owners to edit their e-commerce shop content with little or no technical expertise. WordPress is one of the popular CMS available in the market.
Conversion Funnel
The conversion funnel, also referred to as the “sales funnel,” is the journey the visitor follows before the completion of the conversion (depending on the marketing goals, but this usually mean sales).
It is called a funnel because a number of people leave the website at any event or point of the journey. At conversion, there would be fewer potential customers than there were at the beginning.
Conversion Rate
The rate of which number of visitors that transformed into paying customers. Conversion rate looks that the percentage of paying customers divides by the total number of visitors to the page.
Commonly here is how you can calculate conversion rates:
[Paying Customers] / [Unique Visitors to Your Store] = Conversion Rate
The higher the conversion rate means your page is working great and its great for sales.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
CRO is a marketing strategy that can be anything from improving ecommerce store layout, content, design, CTA, ads for the purpose of increasing conversion rate.
See: A/B Testing, Conversion Rate, Conversion, CTA.
Cookies
HTTP, or server, cookers are tiny pieces of information that the website delivers and stored on the browser of the user. This information is sent back to the server any time the user uses the website again, to alert the server to the previous behaviour of the user.
They are commonly used in e-commerce for ads targeting, dynamic website content depending on the user past behaviour, and shopping carts.
Cost-per-click (CPC)
CPC is an online advertising payment process where payment is based on qualifying actions such as clicking on a banner or search engine listing. This is commonly seen in your pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaign offered by Google Adwords or Bing Ads.
Your ROI is calculated by how much you pay for clicks and the quality of the traffic you get from those clicks. You do not want traffic at any price; you want quality traffic that is affordable that can drive real value to your business.
See: Google Adswords, PPC, CTR, CPM.
Cost-per-thousand (CPM)
Cost per thousand (CPM), also referred to as cost per thousand (Latin for 1000), is a marketing term used to denote the price of 1,000 commercial views on a single web page.
To put it simply, if a publisher costs $3 CPM, it means that an advertiser must pay $3 for every 1,000 impressions of the publisher’s ad.
See: See: Google Adswords, PPC, CTR, CPC.
Cross-selling
Cross-selling is a strategy to makes the customers spend more by making them buy a product that is complementary to one they have already ordered.
When a vendor sells other items that are complimentary, improved or linked to the product being offered, it is cross-selling. Take the telecommunication industry for example, it is common for mobile phone services plan, cross sell with a mobile phone.
CSV
Also known as Comma Separate File is a file type that holds data in a tabular form usually looks like a spreadsheet (Excel Sheet) but has a.csv extension.
Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management is an approach in which a company or other 3rd party organization handles the relationship and interact with potential and existing customers.
Directory
In programming, the directory is a file system cataloguing framework that includes references to other data folders, and possibly other folders. These files are commonly known as files or drawers on most computers; it is equivalent to a workbench or a typical office filing cabinet.
Discount code
Also known as promo code or coupon. Usually in a form of a code, usually a short sequence of numbers and/or letters, that online shoppers enter while checking out for promotional deals or discounts.
This is the most common tactic for conversion and improving sales.
Discount rate
Also known as bank rate, is the rate of interest which a central bank charges on its loans and advances to a commercial bank – typically a small percentage of each payment processed.
Disintermediation
The process or strategy of eliminating mediatory channels and selling product directly to the end user. Having your eCommerce store that sells your product is a process of disintermediation because you can sell your product directly to your end user. The opposite is selling your product on eCommerce platform such as Shoppee, Lazada, Zalora, etc.
Domain
This usually means the domain address of the online shop, e.g. www.MYSTORE.com.
The front page or URL for a website. This is also the “homepage” or the root portion of the web address.
Doorway Page
Web pages that are generated for the purpose of intentional manipulation of search engine indexes. The doorway page can impact the search engine index by adding results for certain phrases while sending visitors to a different page. They offer visitors little value and serve the sole purpose of improving SEO value.
See: SEO
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a form of e-commerce arrangement where the manufacturer or distributor deliver directly to the customers, often in standardized packaging.
Simply put, it is only a means of selling goods without managing the stock, packaging or even shipment of goods. The seller/merchant (you) simply displays the merchandise on their storefront and orders are fulfilled & delivered by the drop shipping service. However, expect to pay a higher cost per item sold when you venture into dropshipping as your role is only a mediator or marketing arm for the manufacturer.
eCommerce
Term for online retailing, a process of selling products online or via mobile through apps, eCommerce store, 3rd party marketplaces (LAZADA/SHOPEE) or other channels.
eCommerce Platform
The eCommerce platform is an end-to-end software solution that enables online retailers to operate their business. This type of platform usually encompasses eCommerce platform developers, accounting, and inventory management systems, as well as customer service infrastructure.
Check out our view on which eCommerce platform is the best in 2021 here.
eCommerce SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) services but with strategies focused exclusively on eCommerce businesses. Generally, a strong strategic targeting product pages, product pages, and other content in the eCommerce shop.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Electronic data interchange is the idea of electronic transmission of information that has historically been transmitted on paper, such as purchase orders and invoices. Technical requirements for EDI exist to make it simpler for parties to implement such instruments without having to make special arrangements.
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a connection to the data that the user may access by clicking. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a particular element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks. The text from which it is related is called the anchor text.
Electronic Wallet
Also known as eWallet. This is an electronic device, online service or software program that enables one party to make electronic transactions with another party to exchange digital currency units for goods and services.
Commonly known eWallet in Malaysia is Touch ‘n Go, Grab and Boost.
Email Marketing
This is a strategy consist of engaging your audience with products and services promoted through email. These email lists typically consist of users who have signed up or shown interest in the site or organization.
Commonly, email marketing has one of the highest ROIs compared to other marketing platforms.
Forum
Internet Forum or Message Board is an online discussion platform where people can have conversations in the form of posted messages. They vary from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text and are archived at least temporarily.
This is usually the best place to scout people that might have interest in your product or services depending on what you sell.
See: Buyer’s Persona.
E-tailing
Electronic Retailing. Selling of products and services on the Internet. E-tailing may include business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales of goods and services. This words commonly appeared with eCommerce, email marketing, and e-business.
Event-triggered email
Also commonly known as automated emails.
These are emails sent to subscribers based on specific events, such as a special offer tied to a subscriber’s birthday or wedding anniversary.
This can also be action oriented, for example when a customer has put an item into their cart without checking out, you can send them a reminder email with discount coupon so you can successfully close the sales.
Evolutionary Algorithms
The type of algorithm used to create artificially intelligent e-commerce systems, evolutionary algorithms evaluate variables, find a winner and reset the loop, commonly used to optimize the sales funnel to drive incremental, consistent improvement in conversion efficiency.
Favicon
Also known as Favourite Icon. A tiny icon used to represent a website that is shown in the address bar, the page title on the browser tab, and the bookmark list. You can actually see one right now on top of the browser of our website.
Fulfilment
Fulfilment is a process of warehousing, packaging, and shipping orders to the customer. This is normally achieved by a third-party service after an order has been processed by the eCommerce retailer. Fulfilment is charged at a fee, depending on the distance or number of items.
Outsourcing fulfilment will dramatically reduce your costs of the processing stock.
Gateway
Also commonly referred to as the “payment gateway”. An ecommerce service provider that process payments for online purchases. The gateway processes the transfer of data from the buyer’s bank to the website for the transaction to occur.
Some of the popular payment gateway in Malaysia is iPay88, Stripe, and eGHL.
Google, the leading provider of search engines, uses an algorithm that collects search results for keywords that users type into the search field and organizes them based on the best possible matches. Google also offers organizations with products and services, such as Google Analytics and Google AdWords, which are digital marketing tools used to show the visibility of a product or service.
Google AdWords
Google Ads is an online advertising network created by Google, where advertisers can show short advertisements, service offers, product listings or videos to web users. Ads can be placed in search engine results such as Google Search and on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos. Ads are typically composed of SEO keywords.
Google Analytics
One of the most commonly used analytical resources on the Internet. Google Analytics monitors, analyse and records traffic on the website in graphs and charts for easy access to traffic patterns over defined periods of time.
It operates on the overall behaviour of your website so you can get performance insights of your website whether it is performing up to expectation or not. You just need to have an account on Google to use it.
Google Keywords
Trending words or phrases based on what users are searching for on Google. Keywords are also tracked and used through advertising and other marketing strategies. Matching keywords from a search is seen on the Search Engine Results page (SERP).
See: SERP.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a web service provided by Google that enables webmasters to check their indexing status and improve the visibility of their websites.
Search Console tools and reports can help you measure your site’s traffic and efficiency search, fix problems, and make your site stand out through Google Search results.
Group Buying Model
This is a when a store offers goods and services at substantially discounted prices on the condition that a minimum number of buyers make purchases. To put it simply, it is a wholesale purchasing where the greater number of buyers purchase certain product together, the cheaper it is.
Growth Hacking
Growth hacking is a marketing approach that incorporates analytics, conventional marketing, and product engineering to sell products, advertise services, and quickly gain exposure in the shortest time. Growth hacking is huge topic with a wide topic of discussion.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
Widely referred to as the “the code” of a website, HTML is a structured language framework that structures a web page or application. HTML can adjust the syntax, font, layout, images, or links throughout the page. HTML can also be manipulated by the user to manipulate the page functionality to act in a particular way or to alter the overall look.
JavaScript
A type of scripting language commonly used in the development of web pages.
Impression
An impression is the time a particular item, ad, or image is displayed to a user. Whether or not the user clicked the said item, each time it is showed to the user, it is counted as a single impression.
Inbound Link
Also commonly known as Backlinks. A backlink for a given web resource is a link from another web site to that web resource. A web resource can be a web page, a web page, or a web directory. It can help improve SEO and SERP ranking of your website. A backlink can also act as a citation.
Interstitial Pages
Interstitial webpage is a web page that is shown before or after the intended content page, often to show ads or validate the age of the consumer.
Inventory
The number of items and the types of brands that retailers have in their stock waiting to be sold. As the business progresses, you will need to review inventory levels on a regular basis, to ensure that you keep an eye on shrinkage and minimum order levels, so that you do not promote items that you do not have in stock.
JavaScript
A script language that makes the web pages interactive. Often abbreviated as JS, it is a programming language that conforms to the ECMAScript specification. JavaScript is high-level, mostly just-in-time compiled, and multi-paradigm compiled. It has curly-bracket syntax, dynamic typing, prototype-based object orientation, and first-class functions.
Keyword
An index term, subject term, subject heading, or descriptor for information retrieval is a term that contains the meaning of the subject matter of a text. Keyword often represent the search intent of the user.
Keyword Density
Keyword density is the percentage of time or number of times the keyword or phrase appears on the web page relative to the total number of terms on the page. In the case of search engine optimization, the keyword density can be used to determine if a web page is important to a particular keyword or keyword expression.
Keyword Ranking
Keyword rankings refer to the position of your web page in search results for a specific keyword search query. When a user searches for the specific keyword that matches your web page then it will be shown on the search engine.
Keyword Research
The research for keywords connected to your website. It is an analysis of which words or phrases visitors use to locate sites close to yours. It is important to study of which keywords or phrases would deliver the best return on investment.
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is an SEO tactic that overloads a website with as many keywords as possible, often without a purpose, to influence the search engine rating of a blog. This is generally much less effective in raising sales than concentrating on writing to the audience.
Landing Page
The landing page, also referred to as the destination page, is the web page on which your visitors arrived when they click on the search engine result link on your website.
Typically, this page is a “call-to-action” response. The type of landing page may vary depending on the businesses. Some may show request for quotation page, some may directly show the product they are selling, or some may just show subscribe to newsletter or membership.
Google Analytics also monitors landing pages for conversion rate purposes.
See: CTA, Google Analytics
Link Popularity
Link popularity refers to the quantity and consistency of backlinks (incoming links) that point to the website.
Link Text
An anchor text, a link label or a link text is the clear, clickable text of the HTML hyperlink. The term “anchor” has been used in older versions of the HTML specification for what is usually referred to as the “element.”
Listing Fee
A type of fee that some eCommerce platform charge sellers to list products or services. This fee might be charged whether the seller made sales or not.
Log File
In computing, a log file is a file that documents either activities that exist in an operating system or other applications, or communications from various users of a communication software. Logging is an act of keeping a log. In the simplest case, messages are written in a single log file.
Logistics
Logistics is the method of getting your stock in and out, converting the product you purchase (or invested) into the stuff you sell to your clients. Logistics is proving to be a challenge as the company grows, thus many eCommerce firms prefer to outsource their logistics functions.
Long Tail
Long tail is a marketing practise that helps companies to make considerable gains by offering low volumes of hard-to-find goods to multiple consumers, rather than selling high volumes of a reduced number of common items.
Longtail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are longer and more descriptive keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they are close to making buying decision. They can be a little counter-intuitive at first, but incredibly useful once you know how to utilize them.
Margin
Margin is the profit percentage of the sale after the cost of goods and expenditures has been considered.
The margin percentage is an integral indicator to assess the degree of profitability of each revenue or product line.
The profit margin is the contrast between what the manufacturer pays for or spends on the production of the goods versus how much he receives on each selling of the product.
Merchant Account Provider
Merchant Account Provider is an online account service provider that allows eCommerce companies to accept debit and credit payments and to keep the money temporarily until it is transferred to the bank account of the company.
Merchant Accounts
An online bank account that accepts payments in multiple ways, typically debit or credit cards.
A merchant account is formed in compliance with an arrangement between an acceptor and a merchant obtaining a bank to settle credit card transactions.
Merchant Identification Number
Unique number or binary code that is used in connection with all purchases on a particular site/merchant.
META tags
Meta elements are tags used in HTML and XHTML documents to provide structured metadata for a web page. They are part of the header section of the web page. You may use several Meta elements with different attributes on the same tab.
Metrics
A metric is a standard of measurement, when dealing with SEO and analytics, metrics is used to evaluates the effectiveness of items such as sales, keyword rankings, website traffic or referrals. In Facebook for example, likes, shares and comment are the top three metrics to evaluate post engagement.
Micropayment
A micropayment is a financial exchange involving a relatively small amount of money and typically an online transaction. A micropayment can be as small as a fraction of a cent.
Mobile Commerce
Also known as mCommerce. This is the process of purchasing and selling goods or services digitally on smartphone or wireless handheld computers.
Multi-Channel eCommerce
Multi-channel eCommerce is a practice where merchants decide to sell on various eCommerce platform rather than just their website. Many merchants participating with this form of eCommerce would use multi-channel listing tools to help coordinate and handle their eCommernce processes easily.
Network Effects
In economics, the network effect is a process which a goods or services benefits the customer depends on the number of consumers of that network.
Network results are usually optimistic, with the result that the customer gains more benefit from the product as other users enter the same network.
In other words, the more user in the same network, the more benefit they will have. Facebook is the prime example of network effects, the more user on Facebook, the more beneficial it is for the users of Facebook.
Niche
The niche market is a segment of the market at which a particular product is laser focused for certain target group. The business niche describes the characteristics of the commodity targeted at meeting the specific demands of the market, as well as the variety of costs, the quality of manufacturing and the demographics that it intends to attract. It is also a small business segment.
Omnichannel
A multi-channel approach of selling products, satisfying consumers, and promoting in a manner that gives the customers the best experience. Omnichannel seeks to provide seamless customer experience whether the client is shopping online from a mobile device, a laptop or in a brick-and-mortar store.
Open Rate
A type of email marketing metrics which measures the rate of the email opened by your email subscriber.
Opt-in Email
Opt-in email is a definition used where someone is not originally subscribed to an email list and now has the option of entering an email list. Usually, this is from mailing list, newsletter, or commercial.
Opt-out Email
Email Opt-Out is an email marketing strategy that makes it possible for a subscriber to show that they no longer wish to accept emails from a sender. This process is also called unsubscribe.
Order Tracking
The process in which the consumer sees the progress of their order prior to the arrival of the products. Typically, the customer is presented with a tracking code after the purchase is completed.
Organic (Traffic)
It is a way to describe how people locate your website with a search engine query. The results populate based on relevance to the search query. Google or other search engines organise results based on page ranks, meaning higher ranked sites appear closer to the top. Users who have discovered sites this way are said to have found it “organically.”
Organic Search Results
Organic search results in online search engines are non-paid query results that are purely algorithmically determined and not influenced by advertiser fees/payment.
Usually, the featured, pay-per-click, and supported listings are clicked by less than 40% of search engine users. This means that the organic search placement is twice as successful as the paid search results. That is why it is important to optimize your webstore SEO keyword.
Outsource
The use of third-party vendors to support client requirements to minimise operating costs.
Hiring third party vendors to administer the components or activities of your company on your behalf, is common in eCommerce. This can be anything from site design to logistics and fulfilment.
Page Rank (PR)
PageRank is an algorithm used by Google Search to rate web pages in the search engine results. PageRank is a way to calculate the significance of website sites.
According to Google: PageRank operates by counting the number and quality of links to a page to allow a rough estimation of the significance of the website. Higher ranked pages are closer to the number one spot and first page.
Pageviews
A pageview or page view, also known as page impression, is a request to load a single HTML file from an Internet domain. This means the total number of times a page on your site is loaded or “viewed”.
Partial Shipment
Partial shipment is when you deliver only some of the order to the customer and ship the goods in several deliveries. Partial shipments are required when: one item or another in a back-order order or products are postponed from manufacturer side.
Path Length
The path length report in Google Analytics reveals how many times a person has engaged with your site to complete a final conversion. Generally speaking, the duration of the report fits the pattern of the time lag report. You can determine the number of touch point it takes for a visitor to convert on your website.
Pay Per Click (Model)
Pay-per-click is an internet advertisement model used to direct traffic to websites where the advertiser pays the publisher when the ad is clicked rather than paying for impression or any other metric. Pay-per-click is generally correlated with first-tier search engines.
Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance
PCI is a set of requirements to ensure you protect your customers’ credit card information when stored, processed, or transmitted. In Malaysia, PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of compliance standards that all organisations that conduct credit or debit payments must comply with, regardless of the amount or volume of transactions they perform.
Payment Gateway
An eCommerce service that links your eCommerce platform to your Merchant Account. The gateway accepts your order information and links to your Merchant Account to approve and transfer funds.
Payment Gateway helps eCommerce stores to accept and handle various payment method, such as credit cards, direct debits, cash transfers, and online real-time banking, based on the business model and choices.
Payment Threshold
In the affiliate marketing campaign, the payment threshold refers to the minimum accumulated commission that the Affiliate must earn to initiate payment from the Affiliate Network. This is a comment practice for Google Ads too, where Google will only charge you when it hits certain payment threshold.
Paypal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American company running an online payment system in the majority of countries that accept online money transfers which acts as an automated alternative to conventional paper systems such as checks and money orders.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing
Pay-per-click marketing is a form of “buying” web visits to boost traffic. Advertiser pays only when someone clicks on an ad and is redirected to the store page.
The cost of each visitor is decided by either a bid or a flat fee that is paid each time a search engine user clicks on a link to your site from a sponsored link. A popular method of PPC marketing is through search engines or search engine optimisation.
It is also important to pick keywords that are ranking well in order to achieve a greater search volume and to get more consumers to click on the ad. Google Adwords is the most common example of a PPC network.
Permission Marketing
Permission based marketing is a term coined by Seth Godin. It demonstrates how companies can advertise to a subscriber who gives their approval to be advertised or “opt-in” to accept promotions and updates from a company.
Phishing
Phishing is a type of cyber-attack in the form of a fake website or email, often used to steal user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers. It happens when a hacker, posing as a trustworthy entity, dupes a victim to open an email, instant message, or text message.
This type of activity may pose threat to your businesses as hacker may pose as your company to your customer (especially the loyal ones) and trick them into giving their personal information.
Point-of-sale (POS) system
POS is a software that allows an eCommerce store to accept orders, manage inventory, add items, process payments, and digitally deliver receipts. For physical retailers, this may even be a piece of equipment with a register, till, and a card reader.
Pop-Up-Ad
Pop-up ads or pop-ups are forms of online advertising. Pop-up is a graphical user interface display area, usually a small window, which unexpectedly appears in the foreground of the visual interface. A new tab window can also be opened automatically.
Product Affinity
Product affinity analysis studies consumer patterns and habits to evaluate buying behaviour connections so that retailers can improve their cross-selling potential. In other words, it is a means for a retailer to sell additional goods based on prior buying habits. Stores look through vast volumes of sales history to assess which products buyers often purchased together.
Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal links are links between two sites that have been generated and connected to each other because they cover common subjects or provide complimentary products or services, or they help to connect to each other for the benefit of their visitors.
Recurring Payment
Recurring billing occurs when a merchant automatically charges a buyer for products or services on a prearranged schedule, this is common among subscription service. Examples include mobile phone bills, gym membership fees, utility bills, and so on. Recurring billing can also be referred to as automated billing.
Responsive Web Design
This is a type of web design approach aimed at developing web pages to have an optimised browsing environment (easy reading, navigation, minimization of resizing, panning, and scrolling) through a wide variety of platforms (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers).
ROI
Return on investment or expense return is the ratio of net profits and investment. High ROI means that the investment returns compare favourably to the valuation of the investment. It is a standard business performance metric; ROI is used to assess the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a variety of different investments.
SAAS
SAAS or Software as a Service is a business model that provides software on a subscription basis, usually in terms of software licencing. It’s all cloud-based, so you can access the app from your desktop or mobile web browser.
Search Engine
A search engine is a software system programmed to perform web searches, which means searching the World Wide Web systematically for unique information defined in a textual web search query by the user. Google and Bing are example of famous search engine.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization is the strategy, process, and techniques of website optimization to make it easier for search engine bots to index the content and improve site exposure and rankings. SEO is a form of digital marketing that uses Google and other search engines to get visitors to the website through organic listings. The better your SEO, the better your site ranking will be ranked within the relevant SERPs.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
Search engine results pages are web pages that are used by people when looking for something online using a search engine, such as Google. The user enters their search query (often using unique terms and phrases known as keywords) which the search engine presents them with a SERP.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TSL)
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and its successor, TLS (Transport Layer Security), are protocols for creating authenticated and encrypted connections between networked computers. SSL certificates are used to verify the authenticity of an ecommerce site’s encryption standards.
Shipping
Shipping is the actual transport of goods from one place to another, such as transferring goods from the manufacturer to the seller or seller to the customer. The shipping process can be managed by a shipping firm or a logistics company.
Shopping Cart
An eCommerce shopping cart is a virtual representation of a shopping cart that lists the items that a customer has added to their online order.
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication mechanism that allows a user to log in to any of several linked, but independent, software systems with a single ID and password. Sign in information for a particular site is saved locally or on the network so that the returning user does not need to re-enter the login information.
SLA
Service Level Agreement is a contract between service provider and a client that describe the level of services a client should expect from their service provider. Aspects of the service including consistency, efficiency, obligations, are decided upon and written to SLA.
Social Media
Social media is an engaging digital technology that enables the creation or sharing/exchange of content, thoughts, job preferences and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks.
Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Pinterest and others, social media is a set of platforms where marketers can reach into targeted markets through ads or a comprehensive social media plan.
We hope this list can be helpful for your eCommerce journey. We will update this list from time to time, so feel free save this page for reference purposes.
Alternatively, why not start practicing these term with us today, we can also discuss how we can help to kick start your eCommerce journey.
