A practical ecommerce glossary
A practical ecommerce glossary
Plain-language definitions for the conversations behind your business.
MOQ — Minimum order quantity
The smallest quantity a supplier agrees to sell under a particular quotation. Confirm whether the minimum applies per product, colour, size or total order.
RTO — Return to origin
A shipment sent back to the dispatch origin after an unsuccessful delivery. Reasons and charges vary by carrier and agreement.
Contribution margin
Sales revenue remaining after the variable costs included in the calculation. It still needs to cover fixed operating costs and profit.
OMS / WMS / ERP / CRM
Order Management System; Warehouse Management System; Enterprise Resource Planning; Customer Relationship Management. These describe different responsibilities that may be connected through integrations.
FBA / FBM / FBN
Fulfilled by Amazon, Fulfilled by Merchant and Fulfilled by noon describe fulfilment models. Seller and product eligibility depends on the platform and market.
SKU — Stock keeping unit
An internal identifier for a sellable item. Keep it consistent across stock, orders and systems; a different colour or size may need its own SKU.
Inventory position
A planning view that combines usable stock and relevant incoming stock while accounting for commitments. State what your calculation includes before using it for a reorder decision.
ROAS — Return on ad spend
Attributed sales revenue divided by advertising spend. It does not account for every cost and does not prove that advertising caused all the attributed sales.
Source of truth
The agreed authoritative record for a field or business event. Defining it helps prevent connected systems from repeatedly overwriting each other.