This ecommerce glossary defines the language used to operate an online commerce business and measure its growth. It is written for Indian D2C brands and retailers, along with marketplace operators and search teams that need one consistent meaning for a term before they make a decision with it.
Ecommerce terminology changes by business model and reporting policy. A marketplace and an inventory-led retailer can use the same metric differently. A courier status may not mean the same thing as a customer return. A category page and a product listing page may describe similar screens but carry different roles in the website architecture. Each definition below states the boundary that prevents those terms from being mixed.
Use the category links to find a term. Entries with a distinct search intent and enough operational depth have their own page. Shorter entries remain on this ecommerce glossary of terms until they need a standalone explanation.
Browse ecommerce terms by category
- Business models and sales channels
- Orders and commerce metrics
- Catalogue and merchandising
- Commerce systems and data
- Payments and checkout
- Fulfilment and post-order operations
- Marketplaces and commerce networks
- Ecommerce search and discovery
Business models and sales channels
B2B ecommerce
B2B ecommerce means business-to-business ecommerce. A company sells products or services online to another business rather than to an individual consumer. The buying process may include account-specific prices, bulk quantities, purchase approvals, negotiated terms, tax documentation, and repeat ordering. It contrasts with B2C ecommerce, although one company can operate both models through separate customer journeys.
B2C ecommerce
B2C ecommerce means business-to-consumer ecommerce. A business sells online to the person who will use or consume the product. A B2C store normally exposes public prices and a consumer checkout, but the model does not determine whether the seller owns inventory, uses a marketplace, or fulfils orders itself. B2C identifies the trading relationship; D2C identifies how a brand reaches that buyer.
D2C ecommerce
D2C ecommerce means direct-to-consumer ecommerce. A brand sells to consumers through a channel it operates, usually its own website or app, without a retailer owning the customer transaction. D2C does not mean digital-only: the same brand can also sell through stores and marketplaces. The direct channel gives the brand greater control over product presentation, customer experience, first-party data, and commercial measurement. Read the D2C ecommerce SEO guide for the owned-search layer.
Omnichannel commerce
Omnichannel commerce coordinates the customer experience across online and offline sales channels. Inventory, identity, product information, orders, and service need to remain coherent when a customer moves between a website, app, marketplace, social surface, or store. Listing products in several places is multichannel distribution; omnichannel operation also connects the journey and the underlying data.
Social commerce
Social commerce is product discovery and purchasing that occurs through a social platform or a journey initiated there. The completed transaction may happen inside the platform or on the seller's website. Teams should separate social reach, assisted sessions, and completed orders instead of assigning every later purchase to the first post a customer viewed.
Mobile commerce
Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, is online buying and selling through a mobile device. It includes responsive websites and native apps, plus commerce journeys that begin in messaging or another mobile surface. Mobile commerce is a device and experience context rather than a separate trading relationship. A D2C, B2C, or marketplace transaction can all be mobile commerce.
Subscription commerce
Subscription commerce charges a customer on a recurring schedule or replenishes an eligible product under an agreed plan. The model can offer access, convenience, or a recurring product shipment. Teams need to measure renewal, pause, cancellation, failed payment, fulfilment, and contribution by cohort. Subscription revenue should not be assumed from an initial signup alone.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a fulfilment arrangement in which the seller accepts an order without holding the product in its own inventory location. A supplier or fulfilment partner ships the product to the customer. The storefront still owns the customer promise under its terms, so catalogue accuracy and supplier stock must align with delivery performance and support responsibilities.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing rewards a partner for an eligible referral or commercial outcome under a tracking agreement. Payment may be based on a sale, lead, or another approved event. Attribution windows, coupon use, returns, duplicate credit, and brand-bidding rules affect the reported result. An affiliate link is a paid relationship and should not be treated as an organic editorial citation.
Orders and commerce metrics
Average Order Value (AOV)
Average Order Value is the included sales value divided by the included number of orders for a stated period. AOV helps teams understand basket value, but it is comparable only when cancelled orders, returns, discounts, tax, shipping, and order-status rules remain consistent. See the AOV definition and calculation.
Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)
Gross Merchandise Value is the total merchandise value transacted during a defined period under a disclosed reporting policy. GMV is not automatically revenue, profit, or cash collected. The business must state whether the figure includes tax, shipping, discounts, cancellations, and returns. See the GMV meaning and formula.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Customer Acquisition Cost is the included acquisition spend divided by the number of newly acquired customers attributed to that spend. A useful CAC calculation states the channels, cost categories, attribution rule, and time window. Blending paid media cost with organic customers can understate the cost of one channel, while excluding creative, agency, or sales costs can understate the total acquisition investment.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV)
Customer Lifetime Value estimates the value or contribution a customer produces during the measured relationship with a business. Revenue-based, gross-margin, and contribution-based versions answer different questions. A forecast also depends on retention, purchase frequency, margin, and the observation period. See the Customer Lifetime Value meaning, formula, and ecommerce example.
Conversion rate
Ecommerce conversion rate is the share of an eligible audience that completes a defined action. For a purchase rate, teams often divide transactions or purchasers by sessions or users. Those denominators are not interchangeable. Define the event and audience first. Then record the consent boundary, bot treatment, channel scope, and period before comparing rates.
Repeat purchase rate
Repeat purchase rate measures the share of customers in a defined cohort who place another eligible order during the observation window. The result changes with the cohort entry date, repeat-order definition, cancellation policy, and available follow-up time. It should not be confused with purchase frequency, which counts how often customers order.
Units per transaction (UPT)
Units per transaction is the number of included units sold divided by the included order or transaction count. It describes basket quantity rather than basket value. Multi-packs, free gifts, cancelled items, and partial returns can change the result, so the unit policy must remain consistent. Compare UPT with AOV to separate quantity changes from price and product-mix changes.
Gross margin
Gross margin is the revenue left after subtracting the cost of goods sold under the company's accounting policy. It may be stated as an amount or as a percentage of revenue. Gross margin is not contribution margin because marketing, payment, fulfilment, marketplace, and other variable costs may sit outside cost of goods sold.
Contribution margin
Contribution margin measures the amount left after revenue is reduced by the variable costs included in the business's chosen policy. For ecommerce, those costs can include product cost, discounts, payment fees, fulfilment, delivery, marketplace charges, and returns. Because policies differ, the included cost lines must accompany any channel or order-level comparison.
Refund rate
Refund rate is the share of an eligible value, order count, or payment count that is refunded during a stated period. A value-based rate and an order-based rate answer different questions. Full refunds, partial refunds, cancellations, chargebacks, and store credit also need separate treatment. Report the numerator and denominator rather than publishing an unexplained percentage.
Return rate
Ecommerce return rate measures customer-initiated returns after delivery against a stated order, item, or value denominator. It is not the same as RTO, which begins before successful delivery. The reporting window needs time for delivered orders to become eligible for a return, and category comparisons should use the same status and inclusion rules.
Catalogue and merchandising
Product Detail Page (PDP)
A Product Detail Page represents a specific purchasable product or product family. It normally contains the title, images, attributes, variants, price, availability, delivery information, and purchase action. A PDP should have a stable product identity even when individual variants change. It contrasts with a Product Listing Page, which organises several products for discovery.
Product Listing Page (PLP)
A Product Listing Page displays a collection of products that share a category, brand, use case, attribute, or merchandising rule. A PLP helps shoppers compare and narrow options. In search architecture, a useful listing page owns a distinct demand set and links to eligible products without producing an indexable URL for every arbitrary filter combination.
Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)
A Stock Keeping Unit is an internal identifier for a specific inventory item. Size, colour, pack quantity, or another sellable variation may require a separate SKU because stock and fulfilment are tracked separately. An SKU is controlled by the merchant; it is not automatically the same as a GTIN, barcode, manufacturer part number, or product URL. Read the full SKU meaning, identifier comparison and catalogue workflow.
Product variant
A product variant is a purchasable version of a product distinguished by one or more attributes. Common attributes include size, colour, material, flavour, and pack count. Variant modelling affects inventory, price, URLs, structured data, filters, and customer selection. Variants that represent the same product family should not create uncontrolled duplicate pages.
Faceted navigation
Faceted navigation lets users filter a product set by attributes such as brand, price, size, colour, or rating. It improves catalogue exploration, but each filter combination can generate another URL. Search teams decide which combinations deserve an indexable landing page and which should remain crawl-controlled or canonicalised within the catalogue architecture.
Out of stock
Out of stock means the selected item or variant has no inventory available for the current selling context. Availability can differ by location, fulfilment node, channel, or delivery method. Keep a temporary stockout page when expected replenishment and continuing demand make it useful. A permanently discontinued item needs a separate substitute, archive, or redirect decision.
Category taxonomy
A category taxonomy is the governed hierarchy and vocabulary used to group products. It connects broad departments with narrower categories and product attributes. The taxonomy should reflect customer language while preserving a stable product classification for navigation, feeds, analytics, internal links, and search. A promotional collection can sit outside the permanent taxonomy when its membership changes frequently.
Product feed
A product feed is a structured export of product and offer data sent from a commerce system to another platform. It can contain identifiers, titles, descriptions, links, images, attributes, price, availability, and shipping information. A feed is only as reliable as its source data and update process; passing validation does not prove that the product promise is accurate.
Assortment
Assortment is the set of products or variants offered to a defined customer, market, channel, or location. It can differ from the full catalogue because stock, commercial terms, regulations, storage, and channel strategy limit what is sellable. Quick-commerce assortment is often node-specific, while a D2C website may expose a broader national range.
Commerce systems and data
Product Information Management (PIM)
A Product Information Management system governs product content and attributes for use across sales channels. It can centralise titles, descriptions, specifications, media references, category mappings, and localisation. A PIM does not replace inventory or order management. Search quality depends on how its product model, required fields, and publishing rules are configured.
Order Management System (OMS)
An Order Management System records and coordinates orders across their operational lifecycle. It can route orders, expose status, manage cancellations, and connect payment with inventory and fulfilment systems. The OMS definition of an accepted, dispatched, delivered, cancelled, or returned order should control operational reporting rather than a label inferred from analytics alone.
Warehouse Management System (WMS)
A Warehouse Management System controls inventory and work inside a warehouse or fulfilment location. It can support receiving, put-away, stock location, picking, packing, cycle counts, and dispatch. The WMS owns physical execution data; the storefront should not promise availability that the warehouse view cannot support.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Resource Planning software connects core business records for finance and procurement with inventory and operations. In ecommerce, an ERP may receive orders and settlements or provide product cost and stock information. It is not automatically the fastest customer-facing source, so integration rules decide which system owns each field and update frequency.
Inventory Management System (IMS)
An Inventory Management System tracks sellable stock and inventory movements across locations or channels. It can maintain on-hand and reserved quantities, together with available, damaged, and inbound stock. Accurate availability needs a stated source of truth and a reservation policy. A delayed stock update can produce overselling even when the storefront page itself works correctly.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management refers to the system and process used to manage customer records and interactions. In ecommerce, CRM data may connect service history, preferences, consent, and lifecycle communication. It should not become an uncontrolled copy of every event. Identity resolution and lawful data use determine whether the record supports a reliable customer view.
Customer Data Platform (CDP)
A Customer Data Platform collects and resolves eligible first-party customer data for activation and analysis. It can combine identities and events from several systems under defined consent rules. A CDP does not repair poor event definitions or missing permissions. Teams still need data ownership, retention rules, and tests for every audience sent to another platform.
Payments and checkout
Cash on Delivery (COD)
Cash on Delivery is a payment method in which the customer pays when the order is delivered rather than completing full payment online at checkout. COD can expand access for customers who prefer offline payment, but it also changes confirmation, reconciliation, refusal, and failed-delivery processes. COD orders should be analysed as a separate cohort when measuring Return to Origin.
Payment gateway
A payment gateway securely passes transaction information between the checkout and the systems that authorise a digital payment. The gateway is one layer in the payment flow; it is not automatically the payment method, acquiring bank, card network, settlement account, or merchant of record. Approval, capture, refund, and settlement are separate statuses.
Cart abandonment
Cart abandonment occurs when a shopper adds an item to a basket but does not complete the defined purchase within the measurement window. A cart can remain open across sessions or devices, so the rate depends on identity and expiry rules. It differs from checkout abandonment, which begins only after the customer enters the checkout flow.
Prepaid order
A prepaid order is paid through an accepted digital or advance-payment method before delivery. Payment authorisation does not guarantee successful fulfilment, and settlement may occur later. For operational analysis, separate prepaid orders from COD orders and retain the payment, fulfilment, cancellation, and refund statuses independently.
Fulfilment and post-order operations
Return to Origin (RTO)
Return to Origin occurs when a dispatched order is not delivered and the shipment is sent back to the seller's nominated origin. It begins before successful delivery and is different from a customer return raised after receipt. Read RTO in ecommerce for the formula, causes, diagnostic table, and reduction process.
Non-Delivery Report (NDR)
A Non-Delivery Report records a failed delivery attempt or delivery exception that may still be resolved. An NDR can result from customer unavailability, an address issue, refusal, payment difficulty, or an operational exception. It is not automatically an RTO: confirmation, correction, or a successful reattempt can still complete the delivery.
Fulfilment
Ecommerce fulfilment covers the operational work required to turn an accepted order into a completed delivery. It can include inventory allocation and picking, followed by packing and handover. Status updates, delivery work, and exception handling continue the process. The seller, a marketplace, a third-party logistics provider, or a combination of parties may own different steps.
Last-mile delivery
Last-mile delivery is the movement of an order from the final distribution point to the customer's delivery location. The “mile” is a process stage, not a fixed distance. Serviceability, route density, address quality, attempt timing, customer communication, and proof of delivery affect the outcome.
Reverse logistics
Reverse logistics moves products or materials from the customer or downstream network back towards a seller, warehouse, service centre, recycler, or origin. It can include customer returns, exchanges, repair, refurbishment, recycling, and disposal. RTO is one pre-delivery return flow; reverse logistics is the broader system.
Dark store
A dark store is a local inventory and fulfilment location designed mainly for online orders rather than walk-in shopping. Staff or automation pick items for dispatch from the nearby node. Dark stores are common in quick commerce, but a rapid-delivery model can also use partner shops or other local facilities.
Third-party logistics (3PL)
A third-party logistics provider performs contracted logistics work for another business. The scope can include warehousing, fulfilment, transport, delivery, reverse logistics, or selected services. A 3PL relationship does not transfer every customer promise or compliance obligation. The contract and system integration determine responsibilities, status ownership, service levels, and commercial charges.
Serviceability
Serviceability indicates whether a seller or logistics arrangement can accept and complete a defined order for a location. It can depend on pincode, product type, payment method, parcel size, inventory node, delivery speed, and operating capacity. A location being generally covered does not prove that every product and promise is serviceable there.
Delivery promise
A delivery promise is the date, time window, or service level shown to a customer for an eligible order. It should be calculated from inventory availability and fulfilment cut-offs, along with transit capacity and destination serviceability. The promised date and actual delivery date must remain separate fields so the business can measure reliability.
Proof of Delivery (POD)
Proof of Delivery is the record used to show that a shipment reached the intended delivery outcome. The record can use a signature, code, photograph, location signal, scan, or another approved method. POD quality depends on consent, carrier process, and dispute rules. It is evidence of a status, not proof that the customer is satisfied with the product.
Marketplaces and commerce networks
Ecommerce marketplace
An ecommerce marketplace connects multiple sellers or offers with buyers through a shared commerce environment. The operator may manage discovery, transactions, fulfilment, or customer policies to different degrees. A marketplace's GMV should not be treated as its revenue unless its reporting definition and accounting relationship support that conclusion.
Quick commerce
Quick commerce, or q-commerce, is an ecommerce model built around on-demand ordering, nearby inventory, fast picking, and rapid local delivery. Its operating boundary comes from local availability and fulfilment design, not from one universal minute promise. Read what quick commerce means in India.
ONDC
ONDC stands for Open Network for Digital Commerce. It is an Indian open digital commerce network that allows connected buyer-side and seller-side applications to participate in interoperable transactions. It is not one shopping app or a conventional central marketplace. See how ONDC works and which participant owns each layer.
Seller application
A seller application connects sellers, catalogue information, offers, inventory, and order operations to a commerce network or buyer surface. In an ONDC context, current role names and obligations follow the controlling Network Policy and participant agreement. The application is not the same entity as every seller it supports.
Merchant of record
The merchant of record is the legal entity identified as selling the goods or services to the customer and responsible for the transaction under the applicable arrangement. Its duties can include payment acceptance and tax treatment, as well as refunds and compliance. Marketplace presence does not by itself reveal the merchant of record; the checkout and receipt provide evidence alongside the terms and contract.
Seller of record
The seller of record is the entity identified as the seller in the commercial transaction and customer documentation. Depending on the model, it may also be the merchant of record, inventory owner, or fulfilment party, but those roles can be separated. Accurate reporting and support require the business to map the role for each channel.
Buy box
A buy box is the interface position through which a marketplace or multi-offer product page selects the offer attached to the primary purchase action. Eligibility and selection can depend on the platform's current rules. Product relevance and offer competitiveness are different layers, so an indexed product page does not guarantee that one seller wins the purchase action.
Ecommerce search and discovery
Ecommerce SEO
Ecommerce SEO is the process of making a store's product and category architecture, supporting guides, and brand entities accessible and relevant for unpaid search discovery. It covers demand mapping and crawl control, index management, product data, internal links, structured data, content, and measurement. The ecommerce SEO strategy guide explains how those layers work together.
Organic search
Organic search is unpaid visibility and traffic earned through search results rather than bought as an advertisement. “Unpaid” does not mean cost-free: content, engineering, product data, analysis, and authority development require investment. Search Console clicks and analytics sessions measure acquisition layers; orders and revenue measure later commercial outcomes.
Search intent
Search intent is the job a user is trying to complete with a query. In ecommerce, that job may be learning, comparing categories, evaluating a product, finding a brand, locating a store, or buying. Two phrases with similar words can require different page types, while several variants can belong to one canonical page when they lead to the same decision.
Structured data
Structured data is machine-readable information that identifies entities and attributes on a page using a supported vocabulary and format. For ecommerce, it can describe products, offers, availability, breadcrumbs, organisations, and other eligible entities. Markup must match visible content and does not guarantee a rich result or AI citation.
Internal link
An internal link connects one page on a website to another page on the same site. It helps users continue a task and gives crawlers a route between related entities. Useful anchor text describes the destination. Repeating the same commercial link mechanically across every definition can blur page ownership rather than strengthen it.
Canonical URL
A canonical URL is the preferred address for a page or a group of duplicate or near-duplicate URLs. A canonical annotation is a signal, not a redirect and not an indexation guarantee. Ecommerce sites combine canonicalisation with crawl controls and internal links. Sitemaps, redirects, and page-content decisions address other parts of catalogue duplication.
Site search
Site search is the retrieval system that helps a visitor find products or content within an ecommerce property. It differs from Google organic search because the merchant controls the index, ranking rules, synonyms, filters, and merchandising. Query logs can reveal catalogue language and zero-result gaps, but internal search volume is not external keyword demand.
Indexation
Indexation is the search engine's inclusion of a page in its searchable index. Discovery and crawling can occur without indexation, while an indexed page still needs relevance and authority to rank. Ecommerce teams manage indexation by aligning page value, canonical signals, internal links, sitemaps, response status, robots controls, and content quality.
Crawl budget
Crawl budget describes the practical amount and pattern of search-engine crawling available to a site. Large ecommerce catalogues can waste crawling on duplicate filters, parameters, internal search results, and unstable URLs. The goal is not to maximise every crawl request; it is to help crawlers reach canonical products and categories efficiently while detecting meaningful changes.
Merchant feed
A merchant feed supplies structured product and offer data to a search or shopping platform. It can support free listings, paid shopping formats, or merchant experiences according to the receiving platform's rules. Feed eligibility and organic webpage ranking are separate systems. Product identifiers, price, availability, and landing-page consistency affect both trust and processing.
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
Answer Engine Optimisation improves how well a source can be understood, retrieved, and cited when an answer system responds to a question. For ecommerce, that begins with accurate entities, explicit relationships, product evidence, accessible pages, and consistent claims. AEO complements traditional search work; it does not replace crawlability, indexation, authority, or customer demand.
Entity
An entity is a distinct person, organisation, brand, product, place, concept, or other identifiable thing. Search systems connect an entity to attributes and relationships rather than treating every phrase as isolated text. Ecommerce entity consistency depends on stable identifiers and names, accurate product data, organisation information, and corroborating pages across the site.
How this glossary is maintained
Every standalone entry has one canonical owner, five or six stored search-query mappings, a private SERP research packet, and a semantic-similarity record. Competing pages may be reviewed during research, but EcommerceSEO.in does not publish or link to those competing explanations. Public links connect related EcommerceSEO.in pages; a primary official document is used only when it controls a legal, policy, protocol, or institutional fact.
The glossary receives an accuracy screen each month. Stable measurement and technical definitions receive a deeper source review every 90 days. Entries about platforms and companies require monthly recertification. Policy and funding facts follow that schedule, as do claims about search behaviour. Those underlying facts can change faster. An entry's review date belongs to that entry; updating this hub does not silently reset it.
The definitions are operational boundaries, not universal benchmarks. Any example number is labelled hypothetical, and any business metric needs its formula, denominator, period, geography, and data source before it supports a decision.
How to use a definition in a report
Write the term's definition beside the reporting rule the first time it appears. A team using AOV, return rate, CAC, or conversion rate should record the included event and denominator, the reporting period, the system of record, and the exclusions. That short policy prevents a dashboard label from hiding a material change in calculation.
When two systems use different status names, map both names to the same controlled lifecycle before comparing them. For example, an analytics purchase event, an OMS accepted order, a dispatched shipment, and a settled payment represent different moments. They should not be treated as four confirmations of the same commercial outcome.
Use glossary links where a reader needs the boundary, then return to the page's own decision. A beauty-industry report can link to GMV without repeating the full formula. An RTO diagnostic can link to NDR while retaining its own delivery analysis. This keeps each page focused and makes the relationship between terms visible to readers and search systems.
Reviewed: 20 August 2026
Next accuracy review: 20 September 2026