Ecommerce Glossary: Key Terms Explained
Store owners meet terms like AOV, SKU, RTO and buy box every day, and this ecommerce glossary defines them briefly. Several entries include notes on how the term applies to selling online in India.
About this ecommerce glossary
Entries are grouped into store operations (SKU, variant, inventory sync, fulfilment, RTO, NDR), sales and conversion (AOV, conversion rate, cart abandonment, checkout friction), marketplaces (buy box, A+ content, sponsored products, seller rating) and economics (contribution margin, CAC, LTV, repeat purchase rate). India-specific notes cover cash on delivery, pin code serviceability and return-to-origin costs, which rarely appear in global glossaries.
Use it when reading platform dashboards, marketplace reports or agency updates. Understanding contribution margin and RTO in particular changes how you judge ad performance, because revenue alone hides the cost of returns and discounts. Each entry is a few sentences long, and where a term means something slightly different on Amazon than on your own Shopify store, we point that out so reports from different sources can be compared fairly.
AOV (average order value) #
Total revenue divided by the number of orders.
D2C (direct-to-consumer) #
Brands selling directly to customers through their own channels rather than via retailers.
Related: D2C Marketing Services
Cart abandonment rate #
The share of shopping carts created that do not result in a completed purchase.
Related: Checkout Optimization Services
Conversion funnel #
The steps from product view to add-to-cart, checkout and purchase.
Related: Funnel Optimization Services
Headless commerce #
An architecture where the storefront is separated from the commerce back end.
Marketplace #
A third-party platform such as Amazon or Flipkart where many sellers list products.
Related: Marketplace Management Services
Product feed #
A structured file of product data sent to shopping channels and marketplaces.
Related: Product Feed Management Services
Repeat purchase rate #
The share of customers who buy more than once in a given period.
SKU #
Stock keeping unit: a unique code for each distinct product variant.
Upsell and cross-sell #
Encouraging a customer to buy a higher-value item, or a complementary one.
Case studies & resources
Real-world results and practical reading to help you plan your next step.
Client stories
How similar work has played out for other businesses.
Helpful resources
Guides, tools and articles our team recommends on this topic.
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