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3D Secure
3D Secure is an extra confirmation step in card payment where the customer clears the payment with their bank. Liability shifts as a result.
Glossary
157 terms in the lexicon
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1 entryA
15 entriesA/B testing
In A/B testing two versions of a page run at the same time against separate groups. Measured effect decides which performs better, not opinion.
ABC analysis
ABC analysis sorts items into three groups by their share of revenue. It shows that a small part of the assortment carries the largest part of the result.
Advance payment
With advance payment the customer pays before delivery. For the retailer it is the risk free payment method, for the customer the least convenient one.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is advertising paid only on success. A partner recommends the shop and receives a commission when a purchase results from it.
AI agent
An AI agent works through a multi step task on its own. It plans steps, calls tools and checks results instead of answering only once.
AI Commerce
AI Commerce means running artificial intelligence and automation as a permanent part of shop operations. The term describes the system behind the tools,...
AI governance
AI governance covers the rules by which a company decides which AI systems may be used and who is accountable for them.
AI labelling
AI labelling makes it recognisable that content was generated artificially. It covers images, video and audio in every case, and text under conditions.
Amazon Marketplace
The Amazon Marketplace is the open seller area of the platform. Sellers list their own offers and pay a fee per sale.
Anonymisation
Anonymisation removes any reference to a person so that it cannot be restored even with additional knowledge. It is stricter than pseudonymisation.
API
An API is a defined interface through which two systems talk to each other. It is the basis for shop, ERP and tools exchanging data.
Asset deal
An asset deal transfers individual assets of a business rather than the company itself. The buyer chooses what to take over.
Assortment
The assortment is the total of items a retailer offers. How it is composed decides margin, capital tied up in stock and positioning.
Attribution
Attribution assigns a sale to the touchpoints that came before it. It decides which channel a sale is credited to, and therefore where the budget goes.
Automation
Automation means a task runs by fixed rules without human intervention. It starts with clear processes, not with technology.
B
9 entriesBias
Bias is a systematic distortion in data or models. It produces results that are not randomly wrong but consistently skewed in one direction.
Bootstrapping
Bootstrapping means financing a business from your own funds and current revenue, without bringing in outside investors.
Bounce rate
The bounce rate shows the share of visitors who leave a page without viewing a second page or triggering an action.
Brand building
Brand building is constructing a recognisable identity that makes purchase decisions easier and reduces price pressure over time.
Break even point
The break even point is the quantity or revenue at which a project covers its costs. From there on, every further sale contributes to profit.
Bulky goods
Bulky goods cannot travel in normal parcel shipping because of size, weight or fragility and need their own logistics route.
Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas shows a business model on a single page. Nine blocks describe how a business creates value, delivers it and earns from it.
Business registration
Business registration is the step that registers an online shop with the responsible authority. Without it the selling happens without permission.
Business valuation
Business valuation determines a price range for a company. For online shops it hangs strongly on recurring profit and on dependence on individual people.
C
26 entriesCapital tie-up
Capital tie-up is money locked inside a business, above all in stock and open receivables, and therefore not available for anything else.
Cart abandonment
Cart abandonment describes a visitor who puts goods in the basket but does not complete the order. In retail the rate usually sits between 60 and 80 percent.
Cash flow
Cash flow is the actual movement of money in and out over a period. It shows whether a business can pay its bills, regardless of whether it makes a profit.
CE marking
CE marking shows that a product meets the requirements of the applicable EU directives. The party placing it on the market carries the responsibility.
Change management
Change management accompanies changes in a business. It looks after the people who have to work with the new situation, not after the plan.
Chatbot
A chatbot answers customer enquiries automatically. Whether it helps or harms depends on the knowledge base and on how quickly a person takes over.
Checkout
The checkout is the final part of an order, where address, shipping, payment and confirmation are handled. Most abandoned purchases happen here.
Churn prediction
Churn prediction estimates which customers will leave before they do. It shows where contact can still work, instead of counting losses after the fact.
Click and collect
Click and collect means ordering online and picking the goods up in person. The customer saves shipping, the shop saves the final delivery step.
Cohort analysis
Cohort analysis groups customers by the timing of their first purchase and tracks how many of them return later.
Compliance
Compliance means following laws and rules in your own operation. It is not a legal department but the question of whether your own work meets the rules.
Content marketing
Content marketing is building visibility through your own content. Instead of buying reach, questions matching the audience are answered and published.
Context window
The context window is the amount of text a language model can consider at once for a single request, measured in tokens.
Contribution margin
The contribution margin is what remains of revenue after variable cost. It covers fixed cost and turns into profit beyond that point.
Conversion rate
The conversion rate is the share of visitors who take a desired action. In a shop that is usually the order, though it can also be a sign up or a download.
Cookie consent
Cookie consent is the visitor's permission for cookies and scripts that are not strictly necessary. It has to be free, informed and provable.
Credit card
The credit card is a payment method settled through a card network. In online retail it is the most widely accepted payment method internationally.
Credit check
A credit check estimates before an order how likely a customer is to pay an invoice, so the shop can manage default risk.
CRM
A CRM is a system for managing customer relationships. It brings contacts, orders, enquiries and conversations together in one place.
Cross selling
Cross selling is selling matching additional items alongside the product already chosen. It lifts basket value without paying for new visitors.
CTR
CTR is the click through rate and states which share of impressions leads to a click. It measures the pull of an ad, not its success.
Customer journey
The customer journey describes a customer's path from first contact to purchase and beyond, across all channels and devices.
Customer lifetime value
Customer lifetime value is the profit a customer brings over the whole duration of the relationship. It lets you put a figure on what a new customer is...
Customer retention
Customer retention means a customer buys again. It is cheaper than acquisition, because the most expensive step, the first attention, is already paid...
Customer segmentation
Customer segmentation divides customers into groups with similar behaviour. It replaces addressing everyone with an approach that fits the group.
Customs tariff number
The customs tariff number is a sequence of digits assigning every item to a class. It determines the duty rate, import rules and possible bans.
D
10 entriesData classification
Data classification sorts data into levels by protection need and thereby defines which rules apply to handling it.
Data governance
Data governance defines who owns, maintains and may use which data, so that reports and systems rest on material that can be trusted.
Data quality
Data quality describes how complete, correct and consistent data is. It decides whether analyses are right and whether AI systems deliver usable results.
Data visualization
Data visualization puts numbers into a form that can be grasped quickly. It decides whether a report is read and actually used.
Delivery time
Delivery time describes how long a customer waits for an order. It is a buying criterion and has to be stated reliably before the order is placed.
Digital products
Digital products are not shipped but provisioned: licences, templates, courses and downloads available right after the purchase.
Direct debit
Direct debit is a payment method where the retailer collects the amount from the customer's account. The customer has to give a mandate beforehand.
Dropshipping
With dropshipping the manufacturer or wholesaler ships straight to the customer. The retailer holds no stock but carries the responsibility towards the...
Due diligence
Due diligence is the careful examination of a business before a purchase or an investment. It covers figures, contracts, technology and dependencies.
Dynamic pricing
Dynamic pricing means adjusting prices automatically to demand, competition or customer group instead of holding them fixed in the catalogue.
E
7 entriesEBITDA
EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. It shows what a business earns from operations, independent of financing and...
Editorial calendar
An editorial calendar defines which content appears when, for whom and on which channel. It replaces chance with a repeating workflow.
Email automation
Email automation sends messages automatically in response to a customer event instead of on fixed sending dates.
Email marketing
Email marketing is addressing customers and prospects directly by email. It is the only channel where the shop owns the list itself.
Embeddings
Embeddings are sequences of numbers that represent the meaning of a text. They make content comparable without the words having to match.
ERP
An ERP is the system a business keeps orders, stock, invoices and accounting in. It is the commercial centre of the operation.
EU AI Act
The EU AI Act is the regulation governing the use of artificial intelligence. It sorts systems by risk and requires transparency, documentation and control...
F
4 entriesFaceted navigation
Faceted navigation is the filter panel in a listing. It lets customers turn a large assortment into a short selection within a few clicks.
Fine tuning
In fine tuning a pretrained model is trained further with your own examples. It learns style and patterns, not new facts.
First-party data
First-party data is information a shop collects itself about its customers, such as orders, account details and on-site interactions.
Franchising
Franchising is a distribution model in which independent partners sell under one brand and follow a uniform system.
G
6 entriesGDPR
The GDPR is the data protection regulation of the European Union. It sets out which personal data a shop may collect, for what purpose and for how long.
Generative AI
Generative AI produces new content such as text, images, audio or code. It works on probabilities and therefore delivers drafts, not verified facts.
Gift voucher
A gift voucher is a paid claim the customer holds against the retailer. It must be treated as a liability, not as revenue.
Google Ads
Google Ads is Google's advertising system and places ads in search, in the display network and on video platforms. It is usually billed per click.
GTIN
The GTIN is the globally unique item number of a product. It appears as a barcode on the packaging and connects product, marketplace and supplier across...
Guardrails
Guardrails are fixed rules around an AI system that constrain its output. They stop a language model from acting or answering unchecked.
H
3 entriesHallucination
A hallucination is an invented statement by a language model, phrased fluently and convincingly but not resting on any source.
Heatmap
A heatmap shows how a page is used as a field of colour. It reveals where visitors look, click and scroll and makes visible what gets overlooked.
Human in the loop
Human in the loop names the point where a person checks an AI result before it takes effect. It is the practical answer to the risk of hallucination.
I
4 entriesInfluencer marketing
Influencer marketing uses a person's reach and trust to make a product known. It is paid for attention, not for sales.
Internationalisation
Internationalisation means preparing a business for further countries. It is about the ability to work in several markets, not about entering one single...
Inventory turnover
Inventory turnover states how often the stock of an item is sold and replaced within a year. It shows how much capital sits in stock and how fast it works.
Invoice
The invoice is the document that settles a delivery. It has to contain certain details and is the basis for accounting, VAT and warranty claims.
J
1 entryK
3 entriesKanban
Kanban is a method for steering ongoing work through a visible board. Tasks move through columns, and the number of simultaneous items is limited.
Keyword research
Keyword research collects the terms customers search with and orders them by demand and competition. It is the basis of every content plan.
KPIs
Key performance indicators are condensed figures that make a situation measurable. They replace gut feeling with a value that can be compared over time.
L
10 entriesLanding page
A landing page is the page a visitor arrives on after a click. It has one task and one goal instead of explaining the whole shop.
Lead magnet
A lead magnet is a free offer given in exchange for permission to make contact, for example a checklist against an email address.
Legal notice requirement
The legal notice requirement demands that a shop names the party responsible for the offer in a clearly visible and directly reachable way.
Letter of intent
A letter of intent is a statement of intent before a transaction. It records the key points without obliging the parties to complete the deal.
Licensing business
In a licensing business a rights holder grants another party the right of use for a fee without selling the asset itself.
LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads is the advertising system for a professional audience. It reaches decision makers by role, industry and company and is the most precise tool...
Liquidity
Liquidity means the ability to meet payments when due. It is independent of profit and decides whether a business stays able to act.
LLM
An LLM is a large language model that continues text on the basis of probabilities. It does not reason, it predicts the most fitting next word.
Localisation
Localisation adapts an offer to a market. It goes beyond translation and covers prices, payment methods, formats and local customs.
Logistics
Logistics covers every movement of goods, from delivery through storage to dispatch and the return. It decides both delivery time and cost.
M
8 entriesMachine learning
Machine learning is an approach where a system learns patterns from data instead of being given rules. It describes, it does not explain.
Machine translation
Machine translation converts texts automatically into another language. The result is grammatically good and not always correct in substance.
Marketing funnel
A funnel maps the steps a visitor takes up to the purchase. It shows where most are lost and therefore where work pays off first.
Marketplace
A marketplace is a platform where several retailers offer their goods. The operator supplies the reach, the retailer loses part of the customer relationship.
Meta Ads
Meta Ads is the advertising system for Facebook and Instagram. Ads appear in the feed, in stories and in reels and are usually billed per impression.
Minimum order value
A minimum order value is the amount a basket must reach before an order is accepted.
MLOps
MLOps covers the practices that keep a model running in production: versioning, monitoring, retraining and orderly rollback.
Model drift
Model drift means a model's accuracy declines over time because the data or the underlying relationships have changed.
N
1 entryO
1 entryP
20 entriesPackaging Act
The German Packaging Act sets out who must license packaging. For online shops it also covers shipping packaging that never reaches a shelf.
Parcel locker
A parcel locker is an automated pickup cabinet. Customers collect with a code and the shop avoids failed delivery attempts.
Payment behaviour
Payment behaviour describes how reliably customers settle their invoices on time, measured by terms, delays and write-offs.
Payment methods
Payment methods are the routes a customer can pay by. The selection decides part of the likelihood of purchase and the retailer's default risk.
Payment service provider
A payment service provider handles payments in a shop technically. It takes the money, passes it on and, depending on the contract, carries part of the...
Personalisation
Personalisation adapts content or offers to individual visitors. It ranges from simple rules to recommendations calculated from behaviour.
PIM
A PIM is a product information management system. It collects product data in one place and distributes it to every channel, from the shop through marketplaces...
Portfolio analysis
Portfolio analysis ranks business units or assortment areas by market appeal and own strength and derives priorities from that.
Price comparison
A price comparison puts offers for the same product side by side. It makes the price directly comparable and shifts competition onto visibility.
Privacy policy
A privacy policy states which personal data a shop collects, for what purpose, on which basis and for how long. It has to reflect the actual operation.
Private equity
Private equity is investment capital in companies not listed on a stock exchange. The investor takes a share in order to sell at a profit after some years.
Private label
A private label is goods sold under your own name. It improves margin, because purchasing is not negotiated through somebody else's brand.
Product data quality
Product data quality describes how complete, correct and consistent item information is. It decides findability, buying decisions and the return rate.
Product liability
Product liability means liability for damage caused by a defective product. It falls on the manufacturer and, in certain cases, on the retailer as well.
Product master data
Product master data is every attribute of an item that holds permanently: identifier, dimensions, weight, material, tax rate and customs tariff number.
Product variants
Product variants are the versions of an item, such as size, colour or model. They are separate sellable units with their own stock and their own number.
Project management
Project management is the steering of undertakings with a clear beginning, an end and a result. It makes scope, time and effort fit together.
Prompt engineering
Prompt engineering is the craft of phrasing an instruction so a language model returns usable results. It is about context, examples and limits, not magic...
Prompt templates
Prompt templates are fixed instructions with gaps that use the same structure for recurring tasks and therefore produce comparable output.
Purchase on invoice
With purchase on invoice the customer receives the goods before payment and pays within a period. It is the most popular payment method and the riskiest...
R
9 entriesRAG
RAG stands for retrieval augmented generation. Instead of training the model, matching passages from your own sources are retrieved and handed to the...
Recommendation engine
A recommendation engine suggests products that fit a customer or an item. It works on similarity derived from behaviour, not from rules.
Reporting
Reporting is the regular preparation of figures for decisions. It does not answer what happened but what follows from it.
Retargeting
Retargeting shows advertising again to visitors who already know the shop. It reaches a small, warm audience, and it needs consent to do so.
Return rate
The return rate is the share of orders that are sent back. It costs twice, outbound and return, and it ties up staff time and warehouse space.
RFM analysis
RFM analysis scores customers on recency, frequency and monetary value and derives segments for targeting from those three figures.
Right of withdrawal
The right of withdrawal lets consumers cancel a distance contract within 14 days without giving a reason. Sales to businesses are not covered by it.
ROAS
ROAS stands for return on ad spend and states how much revenue one euro of advertising budget produces. It is the central figure for judging a campaign.
RPA
RPA stands for robotic process automation and means software operating a user interface by fixed rules, as if it were a person.
S
9 entriesScrum
Scrum is an approach for projects with an unclear goal. It works in short sections, reviews the result after each one and adapts the plan accordingly.
SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and means every measure that makes a page visible in the organic results of a search engine.
Share deal
A share deal transfers shares in a company. The buyer therefore takes over the business as a whole, including all its obligations.
Shipping costs
Shipping costs are the cost of packaging and transport for an order. They are the most common reason for abandoning a checkout, because they often appear...
Shopping cart
The shopping cart collects a visitor's items before the order. It is the point where the purchase and the abandonment are decided.
SKU
A SKU is a unique identifier for a sellable unit. It separates not just the product but also the variant, size or bundle, and it is the internal key in...
Supply chain
The supply chain is the sequence of suppliers, stock levels and transports up to the customer. It decides availability, capital tied up and speed of reaction.
Sustainability
Sustainability in retail means a business can hold up under stricter rules on supply chain, packaging and returns without losing its margin.
SWOT analysis
A SWOT analysis sets strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats against each other. It separates your own position from the outside world.
T
1 entryU
1 entryV
6 entriesValuation multiple
A valuation multiple is the factor applied to a financial figure to estimate what a business is worth.
VAT
VAT is the tax on the sale of goods and services. It is charged to the customer and passed to the tax office, so the retailer only acts as a conduit.
Vector database
A vector database stores text passages as sequences of numbers and finds the most similar ones for a query. It is the retrieval part of a RAG setup.
Venture capital
Venture capital is equity for young companies with high growth potential. The investor takes a high risk and expects a disproportionate return.
Visual search
Visual search lets customers search with a photo instead of words. The shop has to translate that image into similar products.
Voice search
Voice search means customers speak their query instead of typing it. Queries become longer and are phrased as complete questions.