Like every business and industry. Ecommerce and digital retail have their language. But, as far as start-ups are concerned, you might be performing various roles – the role of an owner, IT chief, and marketer for your business.
To ensure proper promotion and marketing of your business, you have to know the words that are essential to translate for those inside your business as well as for suppliers and other contractors you work with.
These terms also give an understanding of how business is thriving and what needs to be done or stopped to target, convert, and keep customers. You might never or rarely use these words in external communications or direct marketing efforts, but they are crucial for the success of your marketing campaigns and ongoing customer engagement strategies.
Go through the quick guide below to the 63 terms that will help you succeed in ecommerce:
0-9
301 redirect
It allows you to let search engines and users know that a webpage is shifted to a new address. Those who have bookmarked your old webpage will be sent to your new webpage.
A
A/B testing (or split testing)
An easy method that allows you to compare two versions of a webpage so that the most effective strategy can be determined. It also helps to know which approach nets the higher conversion rate.
Address verification service (AVS)
It is a facility that is used by credit card processors to ensure that the billing addresses of your customers are the same as is on their credit card statements.
Affiliate marketing
A marketing strategy in which your ecommerce business works with online publishers so that they will support and recommend your products and send customers to your website.
B
Billing address
This is the address that is used on a customer’s credit card statement.
Bounce rate
It is the percentage of visits to a website where users leave after seeing a single page.
Bundling (or product bundling)
It means the gathering of related goods or services as a set or resolution, usually provided at a low price, to boost conversion.
Business to business (B2B)
Online transactions in which an online business makes a commercial transaction to other businesses.
Business to consumer (B2C)
The process of direct transactions between a merchant and a consumer.
C
Call to action (CTA)
An advertising and marketing method that includes offering direction to the target audience to encourage them to take an action, for instance, “visit now,” “learn more now,” “subscribe now,” and “get access now.”
Cart abandonment rate
It is an online shopping metric that presents the rate of potential customers who abandon a site without finishing their buying in comparison to all the shopping carts formed.
Conversion
When you convert a potential customer into regular paying customers.
Conversion funnel
A Google Analytics metric that describes the actions that your customers take towards conversion. It’s called a funnel because a percentage of users abandon your site at each part throughout the journey; at conversion, there are fewer potential customers as compared to the start.
D
Discount code (or coupon, or promo code)
A code, usually a small chain of numbers and/or letters that customers enter at checkout for exclusive offers or discounts.
Discount rate
It is the fee paid by an online merchant to its third-party payment processor for handling credit card payments.
E
Email marketing
It is the use of email to promote your products and services to a targeted audience
Event-triggered email
An email that is sent to subscribers depending on particular events, for example, a special offer on the event of a subscriber’s birthday or wedding anniversary.
F
Fulfillment
The whole procedure of receipt, processing, packaging, and delivery of orders by your ecommerce store.
G
Gateway (or payment gateway)
A technology that is used by a merchant to approve and process credit card payments from customers.
I
Inventory
It is the stock of a retailer’s goods ready to be sold.
K
Keyword stuffing
It is an SEO technique of stuffing a webpage with keywords to get an unfair ranking advantage in a search engine.
L
Landing page
It is the webpage on a site that a user sees just after clicking the link of the website.
M
Margin (or profit margin)
It is the measurement of the profit for the sale of the product.
Merchant account provider
An online account service provider that allows ecommerce businesses to receive debit and credit payments and holds the money temporarily until it’s goes to the business’s bank account.
O
Open rate
The percentage rate of the total emails opened by the subscribers.
P
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing
An advertising model of internet marketing in which the advertisers have to only pay when their advertisement is clicked.
R
Recurring payment
A transaction wherein an online store is allowed by a customer to deduct payments from the customer’s bank account for the regular delivery of goods or services.
S
Search engine optimization (SEO)
A process of increasing the traffic of a site by increasing its visibility to the users.
T
Transaction
Communication of the actions taken for each order between a buyer and a seller.
U
Upselling
It is a sales technique in which customers are offered upgrades or other add-ons or more expensive products to purchase to make a more profitable sale.
V
Void
A transaction that annuls a purchase that was not complete.
W
Web analytics
To collect, measure, analyze, and report web data to know the behavior of users to optimize web usage and improve conversion.
Knowledge of these terms will make you ready to gain complete control of your ecommerce email marketing.
Zahoor Bhat has over 10+ years of experience as an online editor and media manager. He has worked with major online news and content sites as a media manager. He is well versed with major content management systems and web platforms such as WordPress and social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google Business, Yelp, Instagram & Linkedin. He is an expert in content creation, proofreading and finally making it live. Being a social media expert, he is able to make relations with social media influencers and make sure to generate leads and grow business via different social media platforms.
