Abandoned cart
When a shopper adds products to their basket but leaves without buying. Many stores send automatic reminder emails or texts to win these sales back.
eCommerce glossary
The terms that come up in eCommerce news, explained in plain English. Each one links to recent stories that mention it.
A
Advantage+
Meta's set of automated advertising tools. They use AI to choose audiences, placements and sometimes creative, such as cropping images or adding text, instead of you setting each one by hand.
Agentic commerce
Shopping where an AI assistant does some of the work for the customer, such as finding products, comparing them or placing an order, using information and tools the store makes available.
API
Short for application programming interface. A set of rules that lets two pieces of software talk to each other, such as an app reading orders from your store.
Attribution
How credit for a sale is shared between the ads, emails and other channels a customer saw before buying. Different tools use different rules, which is why their numbers often don't match.
Average order value (AOV)
Your total sales divided by the number of orders over the same period. Bundles, upsells and free-delivery thresholds are common ways to raise it.
B
Buy Box
The main "Add to basket" area on an Amazon product page. When several sellers offer the same product, Amazon decides which seller's offer appears there.
C
Changelog
A running list a platform publishes of what it has added, changed or removed in its product. The Ecom Wire turns these into plain-English stories.
Checkout extensibility
Shopify's way of customising the checkout using apps and settings instead of editing checkout code directly. It replaced the older checkout.liquid approach.
Conversion rate
The percentage of visitors who complete a goal, usually a purchase. If 1,000 people visit and 20 buy, your conversion rate is 2%.
Conversion tracking
Recording when someone takes an action you care about, such as buying, after seeing an ad or email, so you can see what's working.
Conversions API
A way of sending conversion data from your store's server straight to an ad platform such as Meta, instead of relying only on code running in the shopper's browser.
Custom app
An app built for one store, often by an agency or freelancer, rather than one listed in a public app store.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
The average amount you spend on marketing and sales to win one new customer.
Customer lifetime value (LTV)
The total revenue you expect from a customer over the whole time they buy from you. Comparing it with acquisition cost shows whether winning customers is profitable.
D
Data erasure request
A request from a customer asking a business to delete the personal data it holds about them. UK GDPR gives people this right in many situations.
Deliverability
How reliably your emails reach inboxes rather than spam folders. It depends on things like your sending reputation, authentication and how engaged your list is.
DMARC, DKIM and SPF
Three email authentication settings added to your domain's DNS. Together they prove your emails really come from you, and many inbox providers now require them for bulk senders.
Double opt-in
When someone signs up to emails and then confirms by clicking a link sent to their inbox. It proves the address is real and that they meant to subscribe.
F
Flow
In email platforms such as Klaviyo, an automated series of messages triggered by something a customer does, such as signing up, abandoning a basket or placing an order.
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA)
An Amazon service where you send stock to Amazon's warehouses and Amazon stores, picks, packs and delivers orders for you, for a fee.
H
Headless commerce
A set-up where the shop front customers see is built separately from the eCommerce platform that runs products, orders and checkout behind the scenes.
Hotfix
A small, urgent update released to fix a specific problem, often a security issue, without waiting for the next full release.
I
IP allowlist
A list of approved network addresses. Only connections coming from those addresses are allowed to use a key or access a system.
M
Merchant Center
Google's tool for uploading your product information so your products can appear in Google Shopping, Search, Images and ads.
Metafields
Extra custom fields you can add to products, customers, orders and more in Shopify, for information the standard fields don't cover.
O
Open Source
Software whose code is published for anyone to use and change. Magento Open Source and WooCommerce are examples; you or your developer run and update them yourselves.
P
Performance Max
A Google Ads campaign type that uses automation to show your ads across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps from one campaign.
Pixel
A small piece of tracking code added to your website by an ad platform. It records actions such as page views and purchases so the platform can measure and optimise your ads.
Product feed
A file or live connection listing your products with details such as title, price, image and stock, used by Google, Meta, TikTok and marketplaces to show your products.
R
Return on ad spend (ROAS)
The revenue earned for every pound spent on ads. Spending £100 to make £400 is a ROAS of 4, often written 4x or 400%.
S
Security patch
An update that fixes a security weakness in software. Installing patches promptly is one of the simplest ways to keep a store safe.
Segment
A group of customers or subscribers who share something in common, such as buying in the last 30 days, used to send more relevant messages.
Server-side tracking
Sending tracking data from your own server rather than the shopper's browser. It's less affected by ad blockers and browser privacy settings.
Shopify Functions
A way for developers to customise how Shopify's back end works, such as discounts, delivery options and payment methods, using small pieces of code that Shopify runs.
T
TikTok Shop
TikTok's built-in shopping feature, letting people buy products directly in the TikTok app from videos, live streams and shop pages.
W
Webhook
An automatic message one system sends to another when something happens, such as a new order, so the other system can react straight away.