Speak E-commerce Fluently

A security protocol in online payment authentication by Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards. 3D Secure, or Three Domain Secure, requires three layers of verification originating from the merchant domain, issuer domain and interoperability domain. The new version of 3D Secure, 3DS 2.0 (or EMV 3DS), is fully compliant with EU's Strong Consumer Authentication component (SCA).

A variation of 3D Secure protocol developed by Visa to prevent unauthorised online transactions.

A comparative test that compares two variants (A and B) to analyse which one performs better. Also known as split testing.

Revenue generated during the current pay-out period (from the last pay-out date).

A service provided by credit card issuers to update changes in card numbers and expirations due to replacements, reissuers, account closures, upgrades, etc.

Payment due to merchant from issuing banks after customers complete a purchase. The term varies between banks, though it usually ranges from one day to several weeks.

A form of identity fraud. Malicious actors take control of genuine accounts.

Electronic payment made via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network between two bank accounts.

The financial entity which processes transactions on behalf of merchants. Sometimes referred to as acquirer.

The system used to verify the billing address of cardholders.

Agents who promote and sell the products of other merchants in return for compensation. This is often done online via tracking codes or cookies, to ensure the right attribution of where traffic or sales come from.

Incentives to agents who achieve sales or CTR targets.

A form of marketing where businesses reward agents who drive sales or leads on their behalf. Affiliate marketing provides companies with the option of expanding their marketing reach with no upfront cost.

Platforms that act as intermediaries between merchants and agents.

Software development practises based on flexible and independent cross-functional teams.

The methodology of collating and analysing data to find information to support decision-making processes. The word analytics is also often just shorthand for "Google Analytics", one of the most used analytics tools for e-commerce websites.

A SaaS metric which indicates the average annual revenue of individual customer contracts.

This metric is derived by multiplying recurring monthly revenue by 12 months. Typically used by subscription-based e-commerce entities.

A code that establishes a set of rules and commands which allow two software applications to communicate with each other. Often used to get multiple different services to work together without any manual steps. At Contentor we have an API solution for our AI tools, enabling anyone with an online store to get translations or product descriptions created automatically.

Protocols designed to prevent the hijacking of code and data from an application.

A non-binding mechanism designed to resolve disputes between end-users and merchants.

Often based on Machine Learning or Large Language Models, AI refers to a wide range of different tools. Most users associate AI with ChatGPT, the model popularised by OpenAI, but there are many other alternatives and tools.

A field of computer science which aims to improve user experience by enhancing real-world experience using digital sensory stimuli.

Ratio of successful transactions.

A billing model where charges are periodically made on customers' accounts via existing payment data.

A highly secure payment transfer platform which connects banks and financial institutions.

A process that identifies and automates repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks using technological solutions.

The process of mechanising routine processes using technology. This enhances efficiency since computer programs can perform repetitive tasks faster and with higher accuracy, helping to increase productivity, reduce operating costs and improve quality.

The aggregate real cost of products or services, including manufacturing, labour, delivery, storage, handling, etc.

Average amount of individual purchase per individual customer.

Average revenue per customer over a specified period of time. Typically, merchants track monthly ARPUs.

Business to business – companies that sell to other companies.

Business to consumer – companies that sell to end-users.

Software which supports back-office applications like sales, inventory, ordering and payroll.

The first four to six digits of a credit or debit card, used to identify the card's issuing bank.

A cybersecurity technology that identifies people using browsing habits, signature analysis, mouse use, gait analysis, etc.

The currency which a transaction uses and payment is made in, spanning the customer, merchant and issuing bank.

Physical aspects — such as fingerprints, facial recognition or voice authorisation — used to digitally identify a person.

The distinct personality, style, and tone that a brand uses in its communications. A consistent brand voice helps create a recognisable and relatable identity that resonates with the target audience.

Traditional physical stores — as opposed to online stores.

A secondary browser window which opens independent of user request. Typically displays advertisements, but can also contain malicious content.

Ordering a large volume of product.

A strategy of selling multiple products or services together.

A strategy or framework that an organisation uses to operate, encompassing its entire chain of operation including hiring, products, services, target market, capital and revenue targets. Many SMEs do not have their business model written down, which can lead to short-term and erratic decision-making.

A customer's pathway to purchase, broken down into three stages: awareness, consideration and decision.

Providing content on a subscription-based model, instead of charging per word or product article.

A marketing message that triggers conversion. It may include text, image, video and/or voice.

A pricing strategy that offers a low price for a core product, while marking up the prices of related essential products. Classic example: printers and printer cartridges.

A credit or debit card transaction between end-user and merchant that is recorded and sent to the issuing bank.

A transaction over the internet, mail or phone where credit or debit card information is exchanged without the presence of a physical card.

A central payment network for payment cards between acquiring banks and issuing banks, managed by card brands like Visa, Mastercard and American Express.

When criminals use various techniques to determine whether information from a stolen card can be used for fraud.

The name of the owner of the debit or credit card, typically printed on the front of the card.

A process used by the card issuer to authenticate the legitimacy of the cardholder at point-of-sale. Methods include signature, enciphered PIN and OTP (one-time password).

When customers exit a merchant website after adding products to their cart. Common reasons include expensive shipping, unsupported card types, or invalid discount vouchers.

The ratio or percentage of cart abandonment incidents against the number of completed orders.

Conversion techniques to reduce cart abandonment rate, such as dynamic cart icons, guest checkouts and form auto-fills.

A schema created by suppliers and shared with buyers, allowing retailers and resellers to automatically generate product data in formats suited for inventory, webstores, SEO and customer-facing descriptions.

Texts that provide a brief summary on the nature of a category, helping both users and search engines quickly identify what a category contains.

Optimisation and administration of multiple sales channels — such as print, social media and affiliates — to reach specific target demographics.

An automated tool which facilitates sales of products or services across all sales channels. Critical for industries such as hospitality, tourism and services.

When an issuing bank revokes payment made to a merchant due to a customer dispute.

Administrative costs levied by issuing banks during chargebacks, billed to merchants.

Visa's internal monitoring system to identify chargeback volume of merchants and flag those with an excessive number.

A ratio or percentage of chargebacks against the total number of transactions. Merchants with a high chargeback rate are flagged by issuing banks.

The maximum number of chargebacks (rarely above 1%) allowed by issuing banks under a merchant account.

Predictive or AI-powered programmes which respond to customers' common queries on websites via a chat widget. The most well-known example is ChatGPT.

The process every customer goes through when finalising a purchase, typically involving filling out shipping and payment information.

A short-term liquid account in a bank which allows frequent withdrawals and deposits.

The second-to-last stage of a typical e-commerce flow, where customers finalise their purchase before submitting payment and shipping details.

A strategy of retaining customers. Extremely important for subscription-based business models.

The ratio or percentage of churn (voluntary or involuntary) against successful retention.

The consolidation of multiple services from a single vendor into a single account, typically to align subscription or service contract cycles.

Also referred to as cohort analysis. An analysis of customers who share identical behavioural, purchase or conversion characteristics.

Internal payment processing applications configured to reattempt approvals periodically after soft declines.

Delivery of products without physical contact with the buyer. The popularity of contactless payment skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A collaborative software that allows users to create, optimise and publish content digitally. Typically used to create, design and manage a website.

The ratio or percentage of actions taken (such as purchases, opt-ins or funnel clicks) against the total number of visitors to a web property.

The process of optimising and increasing responses to calls-to-action (CTAs) on webpages.

A revolving credit facility issued by banks to approved customers, used to make payments to merchants or draw funds from ATMs, subject to a preapproved credit limit.

A unique 16-digit identification number containing details about the issuing bank (first six digits) and customer (next nine or ten digits).

An electronic request sent through a card system to authenticate whether a credit card account is permitted to perform a transaction and has sufficient credit.

When a credit card authorisation is approved, the issuing bank issues a five- or six-digit code for reference.

A payment process where acquiring banks submit a settlement sheet to issuing banks to process payments to merchants.

A strategic process to convert prospects into paying customers.

The cost of every new customer acquired during a specified period or campaign. Calculated by dividing total expenditure by the total number of new customers acquired.

The ratio or percentage of customers who stopped purchasing or using a company's product or service over a specified period. Also known as customer attrition.

A set of experiences defining how customers discover, react and interact with your website or brand.

A metric which estimates the total amount of money a customer will spend with your organisation throughout the duration of their relationship with you.

A set of practices and technological applications (such as Freshworks, Salesforce and HubSpot) for managing interactions with customers and prospects, spanning from quotes and ordering to delivery and after-sales service.

Strategies and practices aimed at retaining customers and reducing attrition.

The average number of days required by companies to collect payment after a sale or service has been completed.

When delivery is not made immediately after a customer's initial payment. Such payments are usually made as deposits.

A forecast of declining asset value for bookkeeping purposes, charting the projected depreciation of company assets over time.

A digital version of your financial instruments like credit and debit cards. Popular digital wallets include Google Pay, Apple Pay and Electrum. Also referred to as an e-wallet.

Allows redownloads of software or applications if the initial download is corrupted or lost, keeping download links active for up to two years after purchase.

An automated recurring billing solution for hard declines, enabling smart retries of charges at set intervals.

An end-to-end software which allows organisations to create and manage e-commerce stores. Popular platforms include Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify and WooCommerce.

A software which captures or "blocks" a specified amount on a credit card at point-of-sale, preventing cardholders from making multiple fraudulent purchases while approvals are sought.

A website that conducts sales of goods and services. Suitable for small businesses that do not require a physical storefront when selling out-of-state or internationally.

An automated process that identifies expired credit cards and enables payment service providers to update new expiry dates in their database. Particularly useful for subscription-based services.

A portmanteau of "financial" and "technology". An umbrella term used for start-ups in the e-commerce and financial sectors.

Activities designed to deceive online merchants into accepting fraudulent transactions.

A marketing strategy where potential customers are offered premium software for free, with additional or paid features subsequently introduced.

A legislation designed to protect the privacy of EU citizens.

Google's system for online advertising. One of the most widely used ad services for online sales.

A service by Google that allows users to search for, compare and purchase products across a wide range of online retailers. It functions as a comparison shopping engine.

Accelerated testing and trials across various channels and funnels to help businesses grow quickly.

A permanent and irrevocable authorisation failure, usually involving accounts that have been closed or cards that have been stolen.

An architecture where the front-end presentation layer of an e-commerce platform is decoupled from the back-end commerce functionality, allowing for greater flexibility in how content is displayed and managed.

Enhanced security protocol between merchant websites and servers.

Marketing agencies that promote and sign merchants to accept debit and credit cards on behalf of acquiring banks.

Individuals, brands or organisations able to influence the purchasing decisions of others due to their authority, expertise or reach in a particular market. Includes celebrities, athletes, business leaders and social media personalities.

A marketing discipline which uses endorsements and mentions from influencers to drive engagement and sales.

A global network of secure gateways that routes merchant transactions to acquiring banks, and facilitates failover transactions and retries for soft declines.

Banks or financial institutions which issue credit cards to end-users.

A computer language designed specifically for the internet. This scripting language is the backbone of many major e-commerce portals.

Quantifiable metrics used to measure the performance of employees, companies, partners and markets over a period. May include financial, traffic, production, revenue and cost data.

Data that makes up an organisation's business function, including employee, organisational, customer and framework data.

Adapting content — such as text, video and audio — to new markets. Alongside language translation, local culture is also taken into consideration.

The term used to describe online sellers or vendors who accept credit or debit card payments from customers and submit them to acquiring banks.

An account provided to each approved merchant, used to conduct authorisation transactions, settlements and other related functions.

A four-digit code issued by credit card companies to merchants to categorise the type of business.

Fees of between 1% and 3% applied to each transaction submitted by merchants.

The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Information that communicates to search engines what a website or page is about — including the page title (title tag), content summary (meta description) and alt text for images and videos.

An umbrella term describing how organisations generate revenue. May include sales of products or services, ads, subscriptions, sponsorships, etc.

A collaborative platform where you can monetise your products or services, such as Amazon, Google Play and Microsoft Advertising.

The amount of revenue generated by individual customers over a one-month period.

The use of multiple channels to sell products — including physical stores, websites, mobile apps, social media and more — with the goal of providing customers with a seamless experience across all touchpoints.

Paid advertising, frequently described as sponsored content, designed to blend with the hosting platform. Can be in the form of text, audio or video.

A metric used to measure customer experience and satisfaction, and how likely customers are to recommend your business to others.

A comprehensive approach that provides customers with a unified experience across all sales and marketing platforms. Similar to Multichannel, but more deeply integrated.

Software that is accessed from the vendor's server rather than customers' own computers. Examples include Microsoft 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud.

In the context of EU taxes, an electronic portal that businesses use to comply with VAT obligations on e-commerce sales across EU member states. It simplifies VAT registration, reporting and payment.

Established by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, this standard is designed to reduce instances of debit and credit card fraud.

Servers that route sensitive transaction details to acquiring banks and reroute responses from issuing banks.

A service platform which facilitates communications between the merchant, issuing bank and acquiring bank. Sometimes referred to as merchant service.

Partners with acquiring banks to enable merchants to accept payments after settlement.

A marketing and conversion strategy tailored to individual customers using purchasing, behavioural and browsing data.

Software additions used to enhance or customise existing programmes or applications.

Traditionally, the physical location where customers present credit cards at cash registers. In e-commerce, POS can refer to the checkout stage or when data has been received by payment service providers.

A software which centrally manages a company's entire product data inventory, used to populate webstores, e-commerce sites, inventory software and sales content.

Texts that describe a product, such as product descriptions in e-commerce stores or product reviews on funnel sites.

Part of the customer journey, detailing the browsing and decision-making process before a sale is finalised.

A method of improving quality in AI-produced content for product descriptions and landing pages.

A metric used to calculate or estimate the revenue generated by a single customer in one annual quarter.

A scheduled billing that occurs over a period of time. Usually involves subscriptions and instalment plans.

A company's projected revenue based on expected recurring billing.

Payments that are split over a duration of time, typically involving deposit or milestone payments.

Reimbursement of funds from merchants to customers, usually due to product or service defects.

A manual or automated process taken to renew an existing subscription.

A type of advertising where website visitors are tagged using cookies or web beacons, and ads matching their interests are served on third-party websites. Also referred to as remarketing.

Mediums through which products or services reach customers, including field sales, inside sales and website sales. Also known as a distribution channel.

A ratio or percentage of the number of conversions against the total number of pitches or presentations.

A record — either paper or electronic — of completed sales transactions.

A marketing and technical discipline which aims to drive organic traffic to websites by improving their search engine rankings.

A digital marketing strategy focused on placing ads on search engine results pages. Also known as pay-per-click (PPC).

The technique of writing content based on historical search engine data and standard industry practices, enabling content to gain enhanced visibility on search engine ranking pages (SERPs).

The results pages of search engines such as Google or Bing.

The process of delivering physical products to buyers.

The customer who makes a purchase from a merchant.

A software that allows customers to tag items they intend to purchase for easy retrieval during checkout.

A debit or credit card transaction temporarily declined due to insufficient funds or technical issues. Subsequent retries are usually successful.

A licensing model which enables software to be accessed via browsers and customised windows. Examples include Amazon Web Services, Salesforce and Zendesk.

When a purchase is paid using more than one credit card or payment method.

Merchants which connect to selected payment service providers for access to payment services.

A recurring transaction over a defined interval — typically one month — to gain access to a product or service.

The contracted length of access to a product or service.

A legislated tariff levied on every transaction, payable to the government. If you have sales within the EU, you need to track sales tax through the OSS system.

The way in which a message is conveyed through written or spoken language, encompassing the style, attitude and emotional inflection used to communicate with an audience. Tone-of-voice significantly affects how a message is perceived.

When the customer's issuing bank sends payment to the merchant via a payment processor.

A change from a permanent licensing model to a subscription-based model, converting one-off payments into monthly subscriptions. Adobe's shift from Device Based Licensing to Named User licensing is a well-known example.

A marketing strategy which offers customers free access to a product or service for a defined period of time.

A sales strategy that attempts to increase order value by introducing additional products or services during checkout — just like McDonald's asking if you'd like to go large.

A billing model based on a customer's volume of use. Also known as metered billing.

A tax placed on a product at each stage of the supply chain, from production to point of sale. Although collected at each stage, it is ultimately paid by the end consumer. Businesses collect VAT and remit it to the government.

Sales support in the form of a virtual assistant, normally delivered via a chatbot.

Allows customers to access their bank accounts using voice verification and commands.

A linear and sequential approach to management characterised by the cascading effect of triggering new projects based on the completion of previous ones.