Skip to content

Glossary

E-Commerce

E-commerce covers the systems used to catalogue products, manage inventory, accept payments, process orders, and coordinate fulfilment across online and in-person sales channels.

Terms

Cart Abandonment Cart abandonment occurs when a customer adds products to a shopping cart but leaves without completing the purchase. Checkout Checkout is the process where a customer's selected products are finalized into an order through delivery, customer, pricing, and payment information. E-commerce E-commerce is the system of selling products or services through digital channels, including the catalogue, inventory, checkout, payments, orders, and fulfilment processes supporting the sale. E-commerce Platform An e-commerce platform is software used to manage the products, payments, orders, inventory, and other systems required to sell online. Fulfilment Fulfilment is the process of preparing and delivering an order after purchase, including activities such as picking, packing, shipping, delivery, or pickup. Inventory Inventory is the quantity of a specific product or product variant available for sale within an e-commerce system. Inventory Sync Inventory sync is the process of keeping stock quantities consistent between multiple commerce systems, locations, or sales channels. Merchant Account A merchant account is an account within the payment-processing system used to receive and settle electronic transactions for a business. Order Management Order management is the process of tracking and controlling an e-commerce order from creation through payment, fulfilment, cancellation, return, or refund. Payment Gateway A payment gateway securely collects and transmits electronic payment information between a customer's checkout and the systems responsible for processing the transaction. Payment Processor A payment processor is a service that handles the authorization and settlement workflow required to move electronic payments between customers and merchants. Point of Sale (POS) A point-of-sale system is the system used to process direct customer sales and may connect in-person transactions with online inventory, products, orders, and customer data. Product Catalogue A product catalogue is the structured collection of product information used to organize, present, sell, and manage products in an e-commerce system. Product Feed A product feed is a structured data source used to send product catalogue information such as price, availability, identifiers, and images to an external platform. Product Variant A product variant is a specific purchasable version of a product created from one or more product-option values such as size or colour. Shipping Zone A shipping zone is a geographic area used by an e-commerce system to determine which shipping or delivery methods and rates apply to a customer's order. Shopping Cart A shopping cart temporarily stores the products, variants, quantities, and other purchasing information a customer intends to take into checkout. SKU A SKU is a business-defined unique identifier used to distinguish and track a specific product or product variant.