| AI | Artifical Intelligence: computer systems that can perform tasks normally done by human reasoning, decision making, creativity, etc. |
| API | Application Programming Interface: a software interface that lets other programs access CloudSuite functionality and features. |
| B2B | Business-to-Business: a business that sells products or services to other businesses. |
| B2C | Business-to-Consumer: a business that sells products or services to of consumers. |
| Basket | Also known as shopping cart: the virtual location where a webshop visitor collects products for ordering. |
| Bundling | The sale of multiple products as a package deal, usually at a lower price than if the items were sold individually. |
| Abandoned basket | Shoppers adding items to their basket but leaving the webshop without checking out. |
| Checkout process | The fixed steps a customer takes when completing a purchase online, starting from when the customer clicks 'checkout' or 'buy now' all the way through to the order confirmation page. The checkout process usually includes registration, shipment details, payment details, and order review. |
| CMS | Content Management System: a software component that allows you to edit, manage, and publish the contents of your online store. |
| Core pages | Those pages that ensure a webshop’s proper functioning. In general, the various cre pages are found in any webshop and there is only one of each (or one per section of the shop). Examples of core pages are the Home page, the 404 error page, and the checkout page. |
| Coupon | A code that can be presented by the customer to obtain a promotional offer (discount or give-away). |
| Cross-selling | Recommending related or additional items to the customer (based on the initial item they are buying). The aim is to increase the overall value of the order placed. For example, if the customer is buying a wireless speaker, you could also suggest a carry case and a charger. |
| CTA | Call To Action: a marketing message or line of copy that aims to persuade the customer to immediately take a specific action. In the context of an eCommerce product page, for example, a CTA might be: “buy now” or “add to basket”. The most effective CTAs are often those that create a sense of urgency in the consumer. |
| Customer journey | The path and sequence of interactions customers go through when visiting an eCommerce website, from the moment they first become aware of its products through to the moment they complete a purchase. |
| Customer reviews | A customer's expressed satisfaction with a purchased product or the shop as a whole, often carried out through a third party such as TrustPilot. Requesting a review can be automated in CloudSuite. |
| Custom pages | Pages in a webshop that have no pre-suggested content and contain no products. You define and edit custom pages completely as you see fit. |
| DAM | Digital Assets Management system: a software component for managing digital assets for use in site content. |
| Drop-shipment | A retail fulfillment method where the eCommerce store does not own the stock or inventory it sells but instead partners with a manufacturer. It is this third-party manufacturer who ships the items once they have been purchased by a customer. |
| DTC | Direct-To-Consumer: selling produced products directly to consumers, eliminating third-party retailers, wholesalers, and other middlemen. |
| ERP | Enterprise Resource Planning: the automated management of main business processes. |
| eCommerce user | The individual end user of a webshop. |
| Faceted navigation | A filtering tool that allows users to select various combinations of attributes to narrow down their search for a product and home in on the product that best meets their needs. |
| Guest user | An unregistered user of a webshop. |
| Headless eCommerce | The separation of the front-end interface of your shop from the backend eCommerce platform. This allows for all the required functionality, as well as customized design, content, and capability for your brand. |
| Internal user | A user of the CloudSuite platform with access to all customer data. |
| Inventory | Also known as stock: the physical goods that a retailer sells (or part of the goods that it plans to sell in the future). |
| Landing page | A standalone webpage that potential customers can 'land' on when they click through from an email, search engine, or other marketing campaign. Landing pages are typically designed to encourage visitors to take a particular action when they arrive. This might simply be clicking through to another page such as a product page or special offer, or the page could be designed to persuade a user to sign up or download a piece of content. |
| Modified Ranking | Pushing certain products to the top of the Product Listing Page (PLP), in order to promote or demote certain products or groups of products. |
| Offline orders | Orders that are not created in the webshop but originate from another source (e.g. directly in the ERP system). |
| On-site navigation | All the steps a customer must take to find what they are looking for on an eCommerce website. |
| Order templates | Standardized forms used to simplify and expedite the process of placing orders. These templates contain predefined fields for essential information such as customer details, product specifications, payment methods, and order summaries. By providing a structured format, order templates ensure consistency and accuracy in the ordering process. They streamline operations for both customers and businesses, leading to increased efficiency and improved customer satisfaction. |
| PDP | Product Detail Page: a page that lists all the crucial information a user must know before purchasing a product. This typically includes a product overview (title, brand, price, features), product photos, similar product suggestions, social proof, and a clear call-to-action. |
| Personalization | The act of giving customers an individualized online experience based on their unique characteristics, demographics, and data (including previous purchases, persona, interests, search, and buying behavior). Good examples of personalization include marketing emails targeting specific user behavior (such as abandoning a basket) or recommendations based on real-time data (such as location or time). |
| PIM | Product Information Management system: a central repository for product details for an eCommerce store. Storing product details in one place ensures that consistent product information is available to customers, commercial teams and suppliers. |
| PLP | Product Listing Page: a page that lists multiple products within the same category. On fashion eCommerce sites, for example, this could be 'women's tops' or 'jeans.' These pages typically include filters to allow users to narrow down the category into specific product features, such as 'size 10' or 'black.' |
| Product attributes | Characteristics that help define and differentiate a product, impacting the customer's purchase decision. Attributes can be classified as 'universal,' such as product title, description, and reviews. They can also be 'category-specific,' applying to individual product categories and commonly used to compare products within the same category. |
| Product listing pages | Webshop pages that show an overview of products. Such pages can show the products belonging to a particular tree, brand, or tag. |
| RMA | Return Merchandise Authorization: part of the process of returning a product to receive a refund, replacement, or repair. |
| SEO | Search Engine Optimization: Implementing strategies to make a website more "friendly" for search engines. The SEO-friendlier a website is, the higher it will organically rank (which leads to more visibility). Using high-ranking keywords in the content and metadata is a common SEO practice. |
| Segmentation | Dividing potential customers into different groups based on various characteristics and traits. Different segments can be presented with tailored content. |
| Sitemap | A special page on a website that shows the site's content as a collection of categorized links. A sitemap helps the customer navigate a shop, and it is used by search engines to index a site and understand its architecture. |
| Superuser | User of a webshop who is able to create and maintain new users. |
| Supervisor | User of a webshop who can approve orders from other users. |
| Theme | A unique design that is adapted for a particular webshop or customer (UX front-end). |
| Tree | Displays a Product Category or list of products based on conditions. |
| Up-selling | Convincing customers to buy a pricier version of their chosen product, by highlighting the upgraded features and thus justifying the higher cost. |
| Wish list | The option (usually offered to B2B customers only) to save their favorite products with the aim of (re-)ordering at a later time. |