E-Commerce Glossary and Terms
Starting an E-Commerce store can involve a lot of learning and alien terms you might or might not have heard before. From starting a new store to creating designs, adding products to deciding marketing strategy and promoting, it involves a lot of work and top it off with learning a bunch of phrases you are not familiar with can be crazy sometimes.
So I've put together a list of terms and definitions to make your journey easy.
E-Commerce Glossary and Terms
| Term | Definition |
| E-Commerce | E-Commerce is short for electronic commerce. It's the process of buying and selling products over the electronic network or as we call the internet. The form of doing business online. |
| Brick-and-Mortar Store | It's the opposite of E-Commerce. A physical space or location for the purpose of buying and selling products. |
| Brick & Click Store | A combination of E-Comm store and Brick and Mortar store. Any business or company having at least one retail store and one e-commerce website. |
| Storefront | An online space where you can sell your products. Also known as a website or an online store, the platform is dedicated to selling only your brand or products. |
| E-Commerce Platform | A platform to set up an online store. Also known as shopping carts or selling channels. E.g. Shopify, WooCommerce, Storenvy, BigCommerce and more. These platforms provide a marketplace to host your online store instead of having to design a website to sell online. |
| Online Marketplace | Websites where third parties can sell their products to a wider audience. It's different than a storefront because it has multiple sellers selling their stuff unlike just being dedicated to your brand. Any seller can sell on these platforms and leverage their footfall for the purpose of selling. E.g. Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Redbubble, Inktale and more |
| Multi-channel Selling | The process of selling on multiple channels. You can sell on various e-comm platforms or online marketplaces or you can combine online and offline channels like trade shows and pop up shops to increase your sales and reach a wider audience. |
| Dropshipping | Dropshipping is a unique retail selling model that allows you to ship products directly from the supplier to your customer without having to do anything by yourself. You don’t see or handle the product. Everything is done and handled by the supplier. |
Download 30+ e-commerce definitions here.
PS - Grab the "Online Boutique Launch Checklist" to use the exact steps + actions I took for starting & launching my Online Boutique!