As you build your first Shopify store, understanding the critical Shopify glossary and its usage is vital. As a Shopify merchant, you need to be comfortable and keep up with all the latest terms and their definitions.
To help make things simpler for you and avoid confusion, here I’ve compiled 65+ of the most common and confusing Shopify terms and their meanings.
At any stage of your Shopify journey, you should have a list of the Shopify glossary ready for reference. Go through this list carefully, memorize it, or print it out, as it will help you navigate your Shopify journey smoothly.
List of 65+ Shopify Glossary Terms For Everyone
Below, we curated a list of 66 terms to help you operate your Shopify store efficiently and understand the definitions of all key terms. Getting started with a $1 Shopify trial for 90 days, and not knowing what a few terms mean can be troublesome.
This Shopify Glossary includes the most important and commonly used terms and their simplified explanation of what these terms stand for:
1. Abandoned Cart
An abandoned cart occurs when a customer selects an item to purchase from a store but does not complete the transaction. The reasons can be a change of mind, the customer was just browsing, or anything.
Understanding what customers think and what they like and dislike is an essential parameter for Shopify business owners. This helps boost sales and improve the product.
2. Abandoned Cart Recovery
Abandoned cart recovery involves recovering customers who added items to their online shopping cart but left the website before completing their purchase.
It’s a highly efficient marketing strategy that involves sending reminders to customers via email or display ads.
Shopify provides this service through automatic emails to keep users interested in incomplete purchases.
3. Add to cart
‘Add to cart’ is where a customer chooses an item to buy. Similar to a physical shopping experience, the user can choose to buy or skip the items in the cart at checkout.
4. API
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate and engage with each other.
The Shopify API facilitates fetching product information, processing orders, tracking inventory, and coordinating data with Shopify and other systems.
5. Average Order Value (AOV)
‘Average Order Value’ (AOV) is an important business metric. It states the average order placed with a merchant over a period.
6. Back end
The ‘back end’ of a Shopify store stands for the technical and behind-the-scenes activities of a store. These can include SEO optimization, inventory management, shipping, and analytics.
7. Blog
A blog is a platform where individuals share their thoughts on a certain topic via articles on the internet.
On Shopify, users use the built-in feature to create high-quality online content related to the products they sell and eventually gain traction on their websites.
8. Bounce rate
‘Bounce rate’ is an analytical term that shows the percentage of visitors who visit a site and then leave almost immediately. A high bounce rate means visitors are not satisfied with the content.
9. Buy Button
Shopify’s ‘Buy Button’ lets you sell your product across sales channels like Instagram, blogs, newsletters, and websites.
10. Checkout
The checkout is the final phase of the customer’s buying cycle. A platform to verify their selections, shipping address, and payment methods. Here, customers review their cart, enter shipping information, choose payment methods, apply discount codes, and complete the purchase.
11. Collection
In Shopify, ‘Collection’ is a selection of products of a particular type displayed together for more straightforward user navigation. These can be based on a project, type, size, color, or weather, too!
12. Conversion rate
‘Conversion rate’ represents the number of people who complete a certain process. This includes buying a product, saving it in a list, joining a newsletter, etc.
13. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
This economic term refers to the costs borne by the business throughout the product’s entire manufacturing cycle.
In business terms, this figure is highly valuable because it helps calculate the company’s gross profit.
14. CSV file
A CSV (comma-separated values) file is a simple text file that organizes data in a table-like structure, with values separated by commas. Transferring large volumes of data (product or customer) for reporting is helpful.
15. Dashboard
The ‘dashboard’ is a representation of the Shopify platform, which gives users an overview of their performance. It shows updates on sales, order volume, and online store visitor analytics.
16. Discounts
Discounts allow store owners to offer their products at discounted prices. This creates an impression of value among the buyers.
Different discounts include a set percentage off a product or a specific type of collection.
17. Domain name
It is the identity of your website on the internet and mainly includes the store/website name and the domain name. Some common domains on the internet are .com, .org, .gov, .edu, .net, and more.
Depending on the domain and the availability, Shopify offers custom domains at different rates(for example, choicehoodies.com)
18. Dropshipping
“Dropshipping” is a hot term associated with Shopify. One side hustle involves buying and selling a product without actually manufacturing, storing, or shipping it.
Learn how to dropship on Shopify effectively and start your dropshipping venture today here.
19. Ecommerce
It is short for ‘Electronic commerce,’ meaning having a business online over the Internet. It involves buying and selling goods and services in exchange for money.
Shopify is one of the largest e-commerce platforms, helping entrepreneurs launch their products to the world.
20. Email marketing
This involves reaching your potential or past customers via email. This is a great way to foster relationships via newsletters and other activities.
Shopify offers apps for the same purpose and provides its own ‘Shopify Email’ for users to integrate into their store.
21. Facebook pixel
‘Facebook pixel‘ is a code Facebook provides to business owners for valuable information for campaigns, to identify target audiences, and to understand user behavior.
22. Flipping
Another popular Shopify side hustle involves buying a store, undergoing maintenance work, conducting an audit, improving its performance, and then selling it for a higher price than the original purchase price.
This is a great secondary revenue source for seasoned Shopify users seeking additional income.
23. Fulfillment
Fulfillment is fulfilling a user order in E-commerce. It involves all users’ stages, from purchase to delivery.
24. Front end
The front end is the face of a Shopify store. It involves the visual aspects of the store and the aesthetic and usability elements.
25. Gift Card
This is a promotional coupon offered to customers who meet a specific value threshold. They can encash the same at checkout to get a discount on the product price.
These can hold a one-time credit or act as a debit card for multiple uses.
26. Gross profit
Gross profit is a financial term that represents a company’s financial performance over a period of time, excluding operational costs, interest, and taxes.
It’s calculated by subtracting the costs of goods sold from the generated revenue.
27. HTML
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a standard language for creating web pages. It uses small codes guiding web browsers to display content on a webpage called ‘tags.’
28. Inventory management
Inventory management is the process of tracking the stock of commodities whenever they are manufactured or sold. It involves proper data management and stockkeeping, including stock movement.
Shopify provides an in-built inventory management tool within your Shopify store. It helps a user easily track their manufacturer lead and delivery time.
29. Landing page
A landing page is a webpage where a user arrives after clicking an advertisement, with the intention of prompting them to take action.
These include signing up for a free trial, joining a mailing list, or receiving stock update alerts.
30. Merchandising
‘Merchandising’ is the promotional activity of existing products. Some of these activities include showcasing a product, offering samples and giveaways, conducting product demonstrations, and partnering with celebrities.
31. Multichannel selling
This refers to selling the products on multiple platforms and channels. These include your Shopify store, a brick-and-mortar store, and social media stores like Amazon and Facebook.
This provides a broader customer base and lets the user sell their product wherever the customer feels comfortable buying it.
32. Navigation
Navigation is the track that a user follows while visiting a website. It’s the way that a customer chooses to explore the website.
This includes navigating to the homepage, selecting a product, reviewing the variations, entering shipping details, and completing the payment process on the checkout page.
33. Net profit
Net profit is the net income or earnings left after deducting all operating expenses, such as shipping, Shopify fees, workforce costs, and other operating costs.
34. Niche
A niche is a unique segment within a market that caters to market demand. This allows brands to create their own identity within a crowded market and drive popularity by being unique and targeting a specific audience.
An example of a niche product is apparel made from recycled plastics.
35. Order management
Order Management refers to the cycle of a product. This includes stages like payment, shipping, tracking, and delivery.
It is the process to ensure the smooth flow of all the stages and execute the order as per the company standards.
36. Page views
This term refers to tracking website visits from internet users. This helps understand how much time a user likes to spend on a particular page and website.
37. Payment gateway
This process validates purchases, processes credit card payments for the products purchased, and links credit card carriers to the Shopify store.
Shopify supports many payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, WorldPay, and Amazon Pay. You can also use Shopify’s own payment gateway to skip the transaction fees.
38. Plugins
These are extensions that help you add functionality to existing software, such as browser extensions for reading, searching, and entertainment.
With Shopify, plugins are apps available in the Shopify app store that handle additional tasks like email and marketing for a business owner.
39. Point of Sale (POS)
“Point of Sale” (POS) refers to the physical location of your Shopify store where products and payments are exchanged physically.
BONUS: Check our detailed Shopify POS Review here.
This makes selling your product easier at places like pop-ups, exhibitions, and promotional events, and allows users to take payments.
40. Print on demand
Another way to start a Shopify side hustle is through print-on-demand, which refers to all print-on-demand-related businesses a Shopify store owner can run.
These can include custom T-shirts, mugs, posters, or any other customized goods with very low risk and lower cost.
41. Product Description
This refers to the field that contains your product’s details and specifications. In Shopify, this is important because it helps users decide on a product and make a purchase.
Shopify offers an AI-assisted feature that lets users select the mood and product features to generate a description.
42. Product feed
A feed that contains all your product info. It helps users decide on comparison pages on online shopping platforms like Google Shopping and Facebook Marketplace.
43. Product page
This webpage provides all the necessary details for the product, including the product name, materials, images, variants, price availability, and features.
44. Product variant
A variant is an option available for a particular product (e.g., product size, colors, pattern). Shopify lets you create three options for a product and a product variant within that option.
45. Retargeting
This refers to reaching out to potential customers through ads and their cookie history. This is a standard digital marketing approach to re-engage lost customers.
46. Return on Investment (ROI)
A common term is used to gauge the profitability or benefits of a particular investment. This is calculated by taking the difference between the amount spent and the benefit amount, dividing the result by the amount spent, and multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage.
47. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This process showcases a product on a search engine with an organic approach. This is achieved through the effective use of keywords and relevant information for that particular keyword, along with other strategies to gain the search engine’s attention.
Check some of the interesting SEO statistics here.
For Shopify, SEO is important as it helps your product to be displayed above your competition. The more visibility for a product, the greater the chances of conversions.
Bonus: Here is our comprehensive checklist to do SEO on Shopify.
48. Shipping
In e-commerce, ‘Shipping’ plays a primary role, facilitating the product’s transit from the manufacturer to the buyer’s doorstep.
Choosing the right shipping partner is important for a Shopify store, and shipping charges vary by location and merchant.
49. Shipping zones
These refer to the geographical areas where your products can be delivered. Depending on the zone, the logistics and the commercials would rely.
50. Shop Pay
This is Shopify’s feature to accelerate a user’s purchase. This helps store a customer’s email, delivery, billing, and card information to facilitate future purchases.
51. Shopify analytics
This is a tool offered by Shopify as part of its features. This helps track brand performance and provides statistical data on users, inventory, budgets, and spending.
This is an excellent asset for identifying a Shopify store’s strengths and weaknesses and is also helpful for report generation and presentations.
52. Shopify Email
An e-mail tool provided by Shopify for you to create your email lists for any promotional content you publish, newsletters, stock updates, and important announcements. For more information on email marketing, check our researched data and statistics here.
This also lets you send automated communications to customers based on their buying stage.
53. Shopify Flow
Shopify offers this application to create smooth workflows and automate repetitive tasks. It is a free tool that integrates with Slack, Gmail, Google Docs, Trello, Asana, and Klaviyo.
Shopify Flow helps streamline the processes of order management, inventory tracking, customer and payment management, and promotional activities for your store.
54. Shopify Plus
It is a premium service Shopify offers for large-scale vendors or businesses. It provides advanced features with greater freedom for automation and customization.
See if buying a Shopify Plus subscription is the right choice for your business with our comparison of Shopify vs Shopify Plus.
55. Side hustle
A side hustle is a way to generate a secondary source of income along with an existing full-time job or business.
This is a trending way to generate income, as it requires little to no extra effort for an individual. These side hustles are often related to their primary income source. This allows greater flexibility to work and earn on your terms.
56. SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit, a distinct code used to tag a product. This helps identify the product with its size, color, and variants.
These are not visible to a buyer and are only relevant to the backend operators and users.
57. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
‘SSL’ stands for Secure Sockets Layer, which is a technology that provides secure, encrypted links that allow secure payment processes.
58. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
An SOP is a guideline for performing a specific task, primarily procedures that are to be followed on a daily basis. An SOP provides a step-by-step guide with all the dos and don’ts related to the procedure.
This ensures higher efficiency, consistency, and a smooth workflow, and acts as a cheat sheet for any issues that may arise.
59. Templates
A template in Shopify refers to a set layout or guideline for a website. This refers to how the website interacts with the buyer, the ratios of website elements, their use, and their reactions to customer interactions.
60. Theme
A theme is also a template with colors and moving parts that appeal to the website’s aesthetic. For example, on a homepage, the theme elements can include colors, fonts, font styles, image layouts, header, welcome banner, and footer placements.
61. Third-party apps
These apps, crafted by developers other than Shopify, give your Shopify Store an extra arm.
These include administration, email, marketing, and analytics tools to elevate your Shopify experience.
Did you know: Shopify has 4.6 million active users daily. Find more insights with our Shopify statistics.
62. Transaction fee
For users not using the Shopify payments gateway, Shopify charges a certain percentage rate for each transaction processed.
The transaction fees for the Shopify plans for Basic, Shopify, and Advanced are 2%, 1%, and 0.5%, respectively.
63. Upselling
Upselling is a sales technique that increases a user’s spending on a particular product. This involves mastered techniques such as showcasing premium products first to customers, suggesting outfit ideas, and showing accessories and product care equipment.
64. User Experience (UX)
User Experience – UX means the feeling a user gets after using a particular product. In e-commerce, UX encompasses all aspects of the website, including its visual design, audio cues, layout, listed products, and their variations.
A smooth UX shapes the user’s mindset and, over time, builds trust and likability toward the product.
65. Wish list
A wish list is a way for a user to bookmark their favorite products to review later. This list provides insight into the customer’s mind and helps understand their behavior.
66. Shopify Handle
A Shopify handle is a unique identifier for a product, blog, collection, or page in a Shopify store’s URL structure.
Bonus reads:
Conclusion: The Shopify Glossary Is a List Of Definitions You Must Know as a Store Owner
These are some of the key terms that you, as a new Shopify store owner, would come across under the e-commerce umbrella. Keep this list of definitions close and available to you until you enjoy the first 90 days of Shopify at $1 per month.
New users often find themselves stuck and overwhelmed with all the technical details when starting their e-commerce venture. This list can help you learn the ropes more quickly and become a knowledgeable member of the e-commerce community.
While knowing the key terms is essential, you need to get familiar with their usage too! We got comfortable with Shopify only when we actually started using it. Read our review of Shopify and how we liked it.
