Glossary

B2B and quoting glossary

Name: ShopQuotes
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Plain-language definitions of the B2B, wholesale, and quoting terms that come up when you sell by quote on Shopify.

2/10 Net 30: A standard credit term notation meaning the buyer may take a 2 percent discount if the invoice is paid within 10 days, but the full balance is otherwise due within 30 days.
Abandoned cart recovery rate: The percentage of abandoned carts that are recovered into completed purchases, usually through follow-up emails, reminders, or retargeting.
Abandoned quote: A quote that was viewed but not accepted. It is a prime follow-up opportunity.
ABC analysis: A method of classifying inventory into categories (A, B, and C) by value or importance so that management attention and controls are focused on the highest-value items. A items typically represent a small share of units but a large share of value.
Access scope: A permission that defines what data and actions an app is authorized to read or write through an API. Shopify apps request specific scopes during OAuth installation, and merchants approve them.
Accessorial charges: Extra freight fees for services beyond basic pickup and delivery, such as liftgate use, residential delivery, inside delivery, or detention. These charges are often added to a freight quote after booking if not specified up front.
Account: A company or organization tracked as a single entity in the CRM, under which contacts, deals, and quotes are grouped. Account based selling focuses effort on winning and expanding whole organizations rather than individual leads.
Accounts payable (AP): The money a business owes to its suppliers for goods or services received but not yet paid for. It is the buyer-side counterpart to the seller's accounts receivable.
Accounts receivable (AR): The money a business is owed by its customers for goods or services delivered but not yet paid for. Each unpaid invoice on credit terms is recorded as a receivable until settled.
ACH (Automated Clearing House): A US electronic funds transfer network used to move money directly between bank accounts in batches, commonly used for B2B invoice payments because it is lower cost than card payments. ACH transfers typically settle in one to three business days.
Add to Quote: A storefront button that lets a shopper add products to a quote request instead of a cart. Common on B2B and made-to-order stores.
Add-to-cart rate: The percentage of sessions or product views in which a shopper adds at least one item to the cart, an early indicator of purchase intent.
Admin API: Shopify's primary API (available in GraphQL and REST) for reading and writing store data such as products, orders, draft orders, customers, and companies. Quoting apps use it to create draft orders, manage price lists, and update company records.
Advance payment: Payment made in full before goods are shipped or services are performed, transferring the timing risk to the buyer. It is often required for new customers, custom manufacturing, or high-risk international orders.
Advance Shipping Notice (ASN): An electronic notification (EDI 856) a supplier sends before a shipment arrives, detailing its contents, packaging, and expected delivery. It lets the receiver prepare for the goods and reconcile them against the purchase order at receipt.
Aging report: A report that groups outstanding invoices by how long they have been unpaid, typically in buckets such as current, 1 to 30 days, 31 to 60 days, and over 90 days. It helps a business monitor overdue receivables and prioritize collections.
Air waybill (AWB): A transport document issued for goods shipped by air that serves as a contract of carriage and a receipt, but not a document of title. It accompanies the shipment and carries a unique number for tracking.
Allowlist (whitelist): A list of trusted senders that a recipient or provider permits to bypass certain spam filters. Recipients adding your sending address to their contacts is a common form of allowlisting.
Anchor price: A reference price shown to buyers to make another price appear more favorable by comparison, such as a crossed-out original next to a sale price. It influences perception of value.
Annual contract value (ACV): The average annualized revenue from a customer contract, normalizing total contract value over its term to a per-year figure. It is a common metric for subscription and recurring B2B agreements.
Annual recurring revenue (ARR): The normalized annual value of recurring revenue from subscriptions or contracts, excluding one-time fees. It measures predictable yearly revenue for subscription businesses.
App block: A modular piece of app-provided content that a merchant can add to a theme section through the theme editor, part of the theme app extension framework. It lets merchants place app features on specific pages without touching Liquid.
App embed block: A theme app extension component that adds app functionality across the storefront (such as a floating widget or script) rather than into a specific section. Merchants toggle it on or off from the theme editor.
App proxy: A Shopify feature that forwards requests from a storefront URL path to an app's own server, letting an app serve dynamic, authenticated content under the merchant's domain, such as a custom bulk order or quote page.
Approval workflow: A review step where a quote or order must be approved (by a manager or the buyer’s procurement team) before it is finalized.
Approved Supplier: A vendor that has passed a buyer's qualification and vetting process and is authorized to receive orders. Buyers often maintain an approved supplier list to control who can be purchased from.
Approved Supplier List (ASL): A maintained register of vendors that have been vetted and cleared to supply specific goods or services. Purchasing is typically restricted to suppliers on this list to enforce quality and compliance.
Assemble-to-order (ATO): A strategy where standard components and sub-assemblies are pre-produced and then combined into a finished product only after an order is received. It balances the speed of stock with the flexibility of customization.
Attach rate: The rate at which a secondary or complementary product is sold alongside a primary product, expressed as the percentage of primary sales that include the add-on.
Attainment: The degree to which a rep or team reached its quota, expressed as a percentage of the target achieved. It is a core performance metric in sales compensation and review.
Auto-renewal (evergreen contract): A contract term under which the agreement automatically extends for successive periods unless a party gives notice to cancel before a stated deadline.
Automatic discount: A discount applied to a cart automatically when its conditions are met, without the buyer entering a code. Shopify supports automatic discounts alongside code-based ones.
Available to promise (ATP): The quantity of a product that can be committed to new customer orders based on current inventory plus scheduled incoming supply, minus quantities already promised. It tells sales what can be reliably delivered by a given date.
Average deal size: The mean revenue value of closed won deals over a period, calculated by dividing total won revenue by the number of deals. It is a key input to forecasting and sales velocity.
Average order value (AOV): The average amount a customer spends in a single order, calculated by dividing total revenue by the number of orders over a period. In B2B quoting, higher deal sizes typically lift AOV compared with self-serve checkout carts.
Average revenue per user (ARPU): The average revenue generated per active user or account over a period, calculated by dividing total revenue by the number of users.
B2B (business to business): Selling to other businesses rather than consumers. B2B buyers often expect quotes, negotiated pricing, and payment terms.
Backorder: An order for a product that is temporarily out of stock and will be fulfilled once inventory is replenished. On a quote, items may be marked as backordered with an expected availability date.
Bank guarantee: A commitment by a bank to cover a financial obligation if the party it is issued for fails to fulfill its contractual duty, giving the beneficiary assurance of payment or performance.
BANT: A qualification framework that evaluates a prospect on Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing to decide whether they are ready to buy. It is one of the oldest and simplest qualification checklists in B2B sales.
Batch production: A manufacturing method where a defined quantity of identical items is produced together in a group before switching to the next product. Each batch typically shares a lot number and moves through production stages as a unit.
Bespoke: A product made entirely to an individual customer's specification from the ground up, with no fixed base pattern. It represents the most customized end of made-to-order and almost always requires a quote.
Bill of lading (BOL): A legal document issued by a carrier that acknowledges receipt of goods for shipment and serves as a contract of carriage and, in some forms, a document of title. It is a core document in freight and international shipping.
Bill of materials (BOM): A structured list of all components, parts, or sub-items that make up a finished product. In quoting for assembled or configured goods, the BOM determines which items and costs roll up into the quoted price.
Bill of materials level (multi-level BOM): A BOM structured in tiers, where the finished product breaks down into sub-assemblies, which in turn break down into components and raw materials. The hierarchy shows how items nest inside one another for costing and production.
Bill of quantities (BOQ): An itemized document listing the materials, parts, and labor with quantities required for a project, used to solicit and compare supplier bids on a like-for-like basis, common in construction and engineered orders.
Bill-to address: The address of the party responsible for paying an invoice, used for billing and accounts receivable. It can differ from the ship-to address when a central office pays for goods delivered elsewhere.
Billings: The total amount invoiced to customers within a period. Billings differ from bookings (signed value) and from recognized revenue, which is spread over the period the goods or services are delivered.
Blanket Purchase Order: A single purchase order that covers multiple deliveries of goods or services over a set period at agreed prices, rather than one shipment. It reduces repeated paperwork for recurring buys.
Blocklist (blacklist): A published list of IP addresses or domains known for sending spam, which receiving servers consult to block or filter mail. Landing on a widely used blocklist such as Spamhaus can halt delivery across many providers.
Bonded warehouse: A secure facility, authorized by customs, where imported goods can be stored without paying duties until they are withdrawn for sale or re-export. It lets importers defer duty payments and manage cash flow.
Bookings: The total value of contracts a business has signed or committed to within a period, recognized when the deal is closed rather than when cash is collected or revenue is earned.
Bounce: A delivery failure returned by the receiving mail server when a message cannot be delivered. Bounces are classified as hard or soft depending on whether the failure is permanent or temporary.
Bounce rate: The percentage of sessions that view a single page and leave without triggering any further interaction. A high bounce rate can signal weak page relevance, slow load times, or mismatched traffic.
Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI): A standard that lets a domain with an enforced DMARC policy display its verified logo next to messages in supporting inboxes. It requires DMARC at quarantine or reject and often a Verified Mark Certificate.
Build-to-order (BTO): A model in which a product is assembled from stocked components once a specific order arrives, allowing customer-selected options while keeping component inventory rather than finished goods. It is common for configurable products like computers or furniture.
Bulk (marketing) email: Email sent to many recipients at once for promotional purposes, subject to stricter consent rules and closer filtering than transactional mail. Mixing bulk and transactional sends on the same domain can drag down deliverability.
Bulk order: A single purchase of large quantities of one or more products, often across multiple variants at once. Bulk orders are a primary driver of B2B quoting because they usually involve negotiated or tiered pricing rather than standard retail rates.
Bulk order form: A storefront interface that lets buyers add many products or variants to a cart at once, often in a grid with quantity inputs. It is a common B2B and quoting feature added through apps or theme extensions to speed large orders.
Bundle: A group of individual products sold together as a single purchasable offering, often at a combined price. Unlike a configurable product, a bundle is a fixed set rather than a buyer-defined combination.
Bundle pricing: Offering multiple products together for a single combined price that is typically lower than buying each item separately. It encourages larger purchases and moves related items together.
Buyer (assigned buyer): An individual authorized to place orders on behalf of a company or company location. A single company may have several buyers with different permissions or spending limits.
Buyer identity: The context passed to Shopify's cart and Storefront API that identifies who is buying, including customer, company location, country, and market. It determines which catalog, pricing, and checkout options apply to a cart.
Buyer persona: A semi fictional profile of a specific individual involved in a purchase, capturing their role, goals, and objections. Personas complement the ICP by describing the people inside a target account rather than the account itself.
CAC payback period: The number of months of revenue or gross margin required to recover the cost of acquiring a customer. Shorter payback periods free up cash to reinvest in growth.
Call-off order: An order placed against an existing blanket or framework agreement to release a specific quantity of goods or services under previously agreed terms. It draws down committed volume rather than negotiating a new contract.
Carriage Paid To (CPT): An Incoterm where the seller pays for carriage to a named destination but risk transfers to the buyer once goods are handed to the first carrier. It applies to any transport mode.
Carrying cost (holding cost): The total cost of holding inventory over a period, including warehousing, insurance, capital tied up, obsolescence, and shrinkage. It is usually expressed as a percentage of the inventory's value per year.
Cart abandonment rate: The percentage of shoppers who add items to a cart but leave without completing checkout, calculated as one minus the ratio of completed purchases to carts created.
Cart transform: A type of Shopify Function that modifies cart line items before checkout, such as merging items, expanding bundles, or adjusting prices. It can be used to apply negotiated or quoted prices to a buyer's cart.
Case pack (inner pack): A fixed quantity of units bundled together as the smallest sellable pack in wholesale, such as 12 units per case. Buyers often must order in multiples of the case pack rather than single units.
Cash conversion cycle: The number of days it takes a company to convert investments in inventory and other resources into cash from sales, calculated from days inventory outstanding plus days sales outstanding minus days payable outstanding.
Cash discount: A price reduction offered to buyers who pay within a specified period, such as terms written as 2/10 net 30. It incentivizes early or prompt payment.
Cash on delivery (COD): A payment term under which the buyer pays for goods at the time they are delivered rather than in advance or on credit. It reduces nonpayment risk for sellers dealing with new or unverified buyers.
Catalog (B2B catalog): A curated collection of products, with associated prices and publications, made available to specific business customers or company locations. Catalogs let merchants control which items and prices each buyer can access.
Catalog Procurement: Buying from a pre-approved electronic catalog of products with set prices and suppliers, allowing fast, controlled ordering. In B2B ecommerce this often takes the form of a company-specific storefront with negotiated pricing.
Ceiling price: The highest price allowed for a product, whether set by policy, regulation, or internal rule. It caps how much can be charged.
Certificate of origin: A document certifying the country in which goods were produced, often required by customs authorities or to claim preferential tariff treatment under a trade agreement. It supports the declared country of origin on an import.
Change order: A formal document that modifies an existing order or contract, adjusting scope, quantity, price, or delivery terms after the original agreement was signed. Both parties typically must approve it before work continues.
Channel conflict: Tension that arises when a manufacturer's sales channels, such as direct sales and its distributors or resellers, compete for the same customers. It is often managed through territory rules, MAP policies, and pricing controls.
Chargeback: A forced reversal of a card payment initiated by the buyer's bank, usually after the cardholder disputes a transaction. The funds are returned to the buyer and the seller may incur a fee and the loss of the goods.
Checkout: The Shopify-hosted flow where a buyer confirms items, enters shipping and payment details, and places an order. B2B checkout supports company-specific features such as payment terms, purchase orders, and net terms.
Checkout abandonment rate: The percentage of shoppers who begin the checkout process but do not finish it, isolating drop-off during checkout rather than earlier in the funnel.
Checkout extensibility: Shopify's framework for customizing the checkout with app-provided UI components and Functions, replacing legacy checkout.liquid scripts. It enables B2B-specific fields like PO numbers, custom validation, and tailored order summaries.
Churn: The rate at which existing customers stop buying or cancel over a period, applied to recurring or repeat purchase relationships. High churn undermines the revenue that new deals add to the pipeline.
Click tracking: A method of measuring which links in an email a recipient clicked, usually by rewriting links to pass through a redirect that logs the click before forwarding to the destination. It measures engagement more reliably than open tracking.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click a link, ad, or email after seeing it, calculated by dividing clicks by impressions.
Close rate: The percentage of leads or opportunities that convert into paying customers over a period, often used more broadly than win rate to include earlier stage volume. Definitions vary by team, so the denominator should always be stated.
Closed lost: The final pipeline status for a deal that did not result in a sale, usually recorded with a reason such as price, timing, or a competitor. Tracking loss reasons helps refine pricing and qualification.
Closed won: The final pipeline status for a deal that the customer agreed to and that resulted in a sale. In quoting, a quote that the buyer accepts and converts into an order typically moves the deal to closed won.
Commercial invoice: A document issued by the seller to the buyer that details the goods sold, their value, and terms of sale, used by customs authorities to assess duties and taxes on international shipments. It differs from a standard sales invoice by including trade-specific data such as HS codes and Incoterms.
Company (company profile): A B2B record in Shopify that represents a business buyer, containing one or more locations, associated customer contacts, payment terms, and assigned catalogs. Orders and pricing in Shopify B2B are tied to a company and its location rather than only to an individual customer.
Company location: A specific address or division within a B2B company record that can have its own catalog, price list, payment terms, tax settings, and shipping rules. A single company can have multiple locations that buy under different conditions.
Company profile: A B2B record representing a business customer, which can contain multiple locations, assigned buyers, payment terms, and catalogs. On Shopify, companies are the core object for organizing wholesale relationships.
Competitive pricing: Setting prices based primarily on the prices charged by competitors for similar products. Prices may be set at, above, or below the market reference.
Component: An individual part that combines with others to form a sub-assembly or finished product. Components are the discrete buildable items listed in a bill of materials.
Configurable product: A product that a buyer defines by selecting from a set of options, variants, or parameters (such as size, material, or features) rather than buying a fixed catalog item. In quoting workflows, each configuration can generate a distinct price and specification.
Configure, price, quote (CPQ): Software or a process that lets sellers configure complex product combinations, apply correct pricing rules, and produce an accurate quote quickly. CPQ is common where products have many options, tiers, or dependencies that make manual pricing error prone.
Consignment inventory: An arrangement in which a supplier places stock at the buyer's location but retains ownership until the buyer sells or uses it, at which point the buyer is billed. It shifts holding risk to the supplier while keeping goods close to the point of need.
Contextual pricing: Shopify's model of returning prices that vary by context, such as the buyer's market, currency, or assigned B2B catalog. APIs accept a buyer or market context and return the correct price list values for that context.
Contract Pricing: Pre-negotiated prices agreed between a buyer and supplier for specific products over a contract period, often tied to a customer account. In Shopify B2B, such prices can be assigned to particular companies or buyer groups.
Contribution margin: The revenue remaining from a sale after variable costs such as goods, shipping, and payment fees, representing what is available to cover fixed costs and profit.
Conversion rate (quotes): The share of quotes that turn into paid orders. A core metric for any quoting workflow.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO): The practice of systematically testing and improving a website or funnel to increase the share of visitors who complete a desired action.
Cost and Freight (CFR): An Incoterm for sea transport where the seller pays freight to the destination port but not insurance, and risk passes to the buyer when goods are loaded onto the vessel. It is CIF without the insurance obligation.
Cost of goods sold (COGS): The direct costs of producing the goods a business sells, including materials and manufacturing labor. In quoting, COGS forms the baseline over which margin and markup are applied.
Cost per acquisition (CPA): The average cost to generate one conversion, such as a sale or qualified lead, from a marketing channel. It is narrower than CAC, which includes all acquisition costs.
Cost per click (CPC): The average amount paid each time someone clicks a paid advertisement, calculated by dividing total ad spend by the number of clicks.
Cost per mille (CPM): The cost to serve one thousand ad impressions, used to compare the price of reach across advertising channels.
Cost-plus pricing: A method that sets price by adding a fixed markup or margin to the cost of a product. It ensures a target profit per unit regardless of market conditions.
Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF): An Incoterm for sea transport where the seller pays the cost, freight, and minimum insurance to bring goods to the destination port, though risk transfers to the buyer once goods are loaded. The buyer handles import clearance and onward transport.
Country of origin: The country where goods were produced, manufactured, or substantially transformed, which determines applicable tariffs, trade preferences, and labeling requirements. It is distinct from the country the goods were shipped from.
Credit check: An assessment of a business buyer's financial history and ability to pay before extending net terms or a credit line. It helps suppliers manage the risk of non-payment.
Credit hold: A status that blocks an order from being processed or shipped because the customer has exceeded their credit limit, has overdue invoices, or has failed a credit check. It protects the seller from extending further unpaid exposure.
Credit limit: The maximum outstanding balance a seller allows a buyer to owe at any one time under trade credit terms. Orders that would exceed the limit may be held until the buyer pays down the balance.
Credit line: A pre-approved maximum amount of credit a supplier extends to a business customer, allowing purchases on account up to that limit before payment is required. It lets buyers order repeatedly without paying upfront each time.
Credit note (credit memo): A document a seller issues to reduce the amount a buyer owes, used to correct an overcharge, account for returned goods, or apply an agreed adjustment. It can offset a future invoice or trigger a refund.
Credit terms: The conditions under which a seller allows a buyer to pay after delivery rather than upfront, including the payment window (such as Net 30), any early-payment discounts, and interest or fees for late payment. They are typically extended after a credit check.
Cross-docking: A logistics practice where incoming goods are transferred directly from inbound to outbound transport with little or no storage in between. It speeds fulfillment and reduces warehousing costs.
Cross-sell: Offering a buyer complementary or related products alongside their primary purchase, such as accessories or consumables, to increase total order value.
Cumulative discount: A discount based on total purchases accumulated over a defined period rather than a single order. It rewards ongoing buyer loyalty across multiple transactions.
Custom fabrication: The process of building a product or component to a customer's specific design, dimensions, or requirements rather than from a standard catalog. It usually requires a quote because materials, labor, and time vary per job.
Custom quote domain: Serving quote pages from your own domain instead of the app’s domain, for branding and buyer trust.
Custom sending domain: A domain you own and authenticate so that outgoing email (such as quotes and notifications) is sent from your own address rather than a generic platform address. Authenticating it with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC improves deliverability and trust.
Custom tracking domain: A branded domain you configure to serve open and click tracking links instead of a shared platform domain. Using your own tracking domain avoids reputation problems from shared domains and looks more trustworthy to filters.
Customer (contact): An individual buyer record in Shopify holding name, email, addresses, and order history. In B2B, a customer is linked to a company as a contact and inherits the company's assigned pricing and permissions.
Customer account (new customer accounts): Shopify's login system where buyers authenticate with a one-time code to access order history, profiles, and B2B features. B2B buyers use it to see their company's assigned catalog, pricing, and to place orders on account.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The total sales and marketing spend required to win one new customer, calculated by dividing those costs by the number of customers acquired. It is weighed against customer lifetime value to judge whether growth is profitable.
Customer churn rate: The percentage of customers who stop buying or cancel over a period. It is the inverse of retention and is a core metric for subscription and recurring B2B accounts.
Customer group (customer segment): A defined set of customers who share pricing, catalog access, or terms, such as wholesalers, VIPs, or a specific region. Grouping lets merchants apply the right prices and permissions to the right buyers automatically.
Customer lifetime value (LTV or CLV): The total revenue or gross profit a business expects to earn from a customer across the entire relationship. It is often compared against acquisition cost to judge whether a customer is profitable over time.
Customer relationship management (CRM): Software and practices for tracking every interaction with leads and customers, including contacts, deals, activities, and pipeline stages. A CRM is the system of record that connects quoting activity to the broader sales process.
Customer retention rate: The percentage of customers retained over a period after excluding newly acquired customers, showing how well a business keeps its existing base.
Customer-specific pricing: Prices negotiated and set for an individual buyer or account that differ from public list prices. In B2B quoting these prices are applied automatically so a given customer sees their agreed rates.
Customs broker: A licensed professional or firm that handles the clearance of goods through customs on behalf of importers, including classification, valuation, and duty payment. They help ensure shipments comply with import regulations.
Customs clearance: The process of getting imported or exported goods approved to cross a border, including submitting documentation, paying duties and taxes, and passing inspection. Goods cannot legally move onward until they are cleared.
Customs duty: A tax imposed by a government on goods imported across its border, usually calculated as a percentage of the declared value. Duties affect the total a B2B buyer pays and are allocated between buyer and seller by the chosen Incoterm.
Customs value: The declared value of imported goods used as the basis for calculating duties and import taxes, usually determined from the transaction price. Accurate customs valuation affects the total duty owed on a shipment.
cXML (commerce XML): An XML-based protocol used for exchanging procurement documents such as orders and catalogs between buyers and suppliers, most commonly in punchout catalog integrations. It underpins many e-procurement platforms that connect corporate purchasing systems to supplier storefronts.
Cycle count: An inventory auditing method in which a subset of stock is counted on a rotating schedule rather than closing operations for a full physical count. It keeps recorded quantities accurate throughout the year.
Days inventory outstanding (DIO): The average number of days a company holds inventory before selling it, calculated from average inventory and cost of goods sold. It shows how long capital stays tied up in stock.
Days payable outstanding (DPO): The average number of days a company takes to pay its suppliers after receiving an invoice, measuring how long it holds onto cash before settling payables.
Days sales outstanding (DSO): A metric measuring the average number of days it takes a business to collect payment after a sale on credit. A lower DSO indicates faster collection of receivables.
De minimis threshold: A value limit below which imported goods can enter a country free of duty and sometimes import tax. Shipments valued under the threshold clear customs with reduced or no charges.
Dead stock (obsolete inventory): Inventory that is unlikely to sell because it is outdated, damaged, or no longer in demand. It ties up capital and warehouse space and is often cleared through markdowns or write-offs.
Deal: A specific potential or completed sale tracked in a CRM, commonly used as a synonym for opportunity. A deal carries attributes such as amount, stage, owner, and probability of closing.
Deal desk: A cross-functional team or process that reviews, prices, and approves complex or non-standard sales deals and quotes before they go to the customer. It coordinates sales, finance, and legal to manage discounts, terms, and margin.
Deal owner: The individual rep responsible for advancing a specific opportunity and accountable for its outcome. Clear ownership prevents deals from stalling and clarifies who follows up on an outstanding quote.
Deal registration: A process by which a channel partner or reseller informs a vendor of an opportunity they are pursuing, securing priority, pricing protection, or margin on that specific deal against other partners.
Deal value: The total amount of a quote or opportunity, used for pipeline forecasting.
Debit note (debit memo): A document indicating that an additional amount is owed, issued by a buyer or seller to adjust a previously invoiced amount upward, for example due to an undercharge or extra charges.
Dedicated IP address: A sending IP used by a single sender, giving that sender full control of and responsibility for its reputation. It suits high-volume senders but must be warmed up and kept active to stay in good standing.
Delivered at Place (DAP): An Incoterm where the seller delivers goods ready for unloading at a named destination and bears risk up to that point, but the buyer is responsible for import clearance and duties. It differs from DDP in who pays the import taxes.
Delivered at Place Unloaded (DPU): An Incoterm where the seller delivers and unloads the goods at a named destination and bears risk until unloading is complete. It is the only Incoterm that requires the seller to unload.
Delivered Duty Paid (DDP): An Incoterm where the seller bears all costs and risk of delivering goods to the buyer's named destination, including import duties, taxes, and customs clearance. It places the maximum obligation on the seller and gives the buyer a fully landed price.
Demurrage: A fee charged by a carrier or port when a shipping container or freight is held at a terminal beyond the allotted free time before pickup. It penalizes delays in retrieving goods from the port.
Deposit (down payment): A partial payment collected upfront before an order is fulfilled, with the balance due later according to agreed terms. Deposits are common for large or made-to-order B2B purchases.
Destination-based sourcing: A sales tax rule that applies the tax rate of the location where the buyer receives the goods or services. Most United States states use destination sourcing for interstate sales.
Detention: A charge levied when a shipper or consignee keeps a carrier's equipment, such as a container or trailer, longer than the agreed free time outside the terminal. It compensates the carrier for the idled equipment.
Dimensional weight (DIM weight): A pricing method where shipping cost is based on a package's volume rather than its actual weight when the volume-based figure is higher. Carriers use it so bulky but light shipments are priced fairly, and it affects quoted shipping charges.
Direct Spend: Spending on goods and materials that go directly into the products a company sells, such as raw materials and components. It is closely tied to production volume and cost of goods sold.
Discount approval threshold: A preset limit that determines the discount level a salesperson can grant before higher-level sign-off is required. It controls margin erosion by routing larger discounts through an approval step.
Discount code (coupon code): An alphanumeric code a buyer enters to receive a price reduction at checkout. On Shopify it can apply a percentage, fixed amount, free shipping, or buy-one-get-one offer.
Discount code and automatic discount: Shopify mechanisms for reducing order totals, either entered by the buyer as a code or applied automatically when conditions are met. B2B deals are sometimes delivered through automatic discounts tied to a customer or company.
Discovery: The early sales stage in which a rep asks questions to understand a prospect's needs, constraints, and decision process before proposing a solution or price. Good discovery shapes a quote that fits the buyer's actual requirements.
Distance selling threshold: A sales value limit above which a seller shipping to consumers in another jurisdiction must register for and charge that destination's local tax rather than its home tax. In the EU it is now a single combined threshold across member states.
Distributor: A business that buys goods in large quantities from a manufacturer and resells them to retailers, resellers, or end businesses, often within a defined territory. Distributors typically hold inventory and provide logistics, credit, and local market coverage.
Distributor pricing: Special pricing offered to distributors who resell your products.
DKIM and SPF: Email authentication standards that prove a message really came from your domain, so quotes land in the inbox instead of spam.
DMARC alignment: The requirement that the domain validated by SPF or DKIM matches the domain shown in the visible From header. Without alignment, a message can pass SPF or DKIM yet still fail DMARC.
DMARC policy (p= value): The instruction in a DMARC record telling receivers how to handle failing mail: none (monitor only), quarantine (send to spam), or reject (block outright).
Documentary collection: A trade payment method in which a seller's bank forwards shipping and title documents to the buyer's bank, releasing them to the buyer only against payment or acceptance of a draft.
Domain reputation: The portion of sender reputation tied to the sending domain rather than the IP address, following the domain even if the underlying servers change. It is increasingly the primary factor mailbox providers use.
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC): A policy layer built on top of SPF and DKIM that tells receiving servers what to do when a message fails authentication and where to send aggregate reports. It ties the authenticated domain to the visible From address to prevent spoofing.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM): An authentication method that attaches a cryptographic signature to outgoing email, letting the receiving server verify the message was not altered in transit and truly came from the signing domain. The public key used to check the signature is published in the domain's DNS records.
Down payment: An initial portion of the total price paid upfront at the time of order, with the remainder paid later according to the agreed terms. The term is often used interchangeably with deposit.
Draft order (Shopify): An order a merchant builds in the Shopify admin and can send as an invoice link. ShopQuotes builds Live Quotes on top of real draft orders.
Draft order invoice: An email Shopify can send from a draft order containing a summary and a checkout link so the customer can review and pay. It is a common mechanism for delivering an accepted quote to a B2B buyer for payment.
Draft quote: A quote that is still being prepared and has not yet been sent to the buyer. It can be edited freely and carries no commitment until it is finalized and issued.
Drop shipping: A fulfillment model where a seller passes customer orders to a supplier or manufacturer who ships directly to the end customer, so the seller never holds the inventory. It is common among resellers who want to avoid stocking goods.
Dual Sourcing: Splitting purchases of a product or category between two suppliers to reduce dependency risk and maintain competitive pressure. It balances supply security against the efficiency of consolidating volume.
Due on receipt: A payment term requiring the buyer to pay the invoice immediately upon receiving it, with no credit period. It contrasts with net terms that allow a delay before payment.
Dunning: The process of systematically communicating with buyers to collect payment on overdue invoices, typically through a sequence of escalating reminder messages. Automated dunning is common in subscription and recurring billing systems for failed or late payments.
Duty: A customs charge levied on goods imported into a country, often used interchangeably with import tariff. The amount depends on the goods' classification, declared value, and country of origin.
Duty drawback: A refund of import duties, taxes, or fees paid on goods that are later exported or used in the production of exported products. It reduces the cost burden of imports that do not remain in the domestic market.
Dynamic pricing: The practice of adjusting prices in real time or frequently based on factors such as demand, inventory, competitor prices, or customer segment. It contrasts with fixed, static pricing.
E-invoicing: The exchange of invoices in a structured electronic format that can be processed automatically by accounting systems, rather than as paper or a plain PDF. Many jurisdictions now mandate e-invoicing for tax compliance.
Early payment discount: A reduction offered to a buyer who pays an invoice before its due date, expressed in terms such as 2/10 Net 30, meaning a 2 percent discount if paid within 10 days, otherwise the full amount is due in 30 days.
Economic nexus: A form of sales tax nexus triggered when a seller's sales revenue or transaction count into a state exceeds a defined threshold, even without any physical presence there. It became widespread in the United States after the 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair decision.
Economic order quantity (EOQ): A formula-based calculation of the order size that minimizes the combined cost of ordering and holding inventory. It balances the fixed cost incurred per order against the cost of carrying stock over time.
EDI 850 (Purchase Order): The EDI transaction set that transmits a buyer's purchase order to a supplier, listing items, quantities, prices, and delivery terms. It is the electronic equivalent of a paper PO in large B2B and retail supply relationships.
Effective price: The actual per-unit price a buyer pays after all applicable discounts, rebates, and adjustments are factored in. It may differ substantially from the list price.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): A standardized electronic format for exchanging business documents such as purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notices directly between the computer systems of trading partners. It replaces paper or email documents with structured transaction sets that flow automatically between buyer and supplier.
Email deliverability: The measure of whether an email successfully reaches the recipient's inbox rather than being blocked, bounced, or filtered to spam. For quoting apps, strong deliverability determines whether a buyer actually sees the quote you send.
Email verification (validation): Checking whether an address is properly formatted, has a valid domain, and is likely deliverable before sending to it. It reduces hard bounces and helps avoid spam traps, useful when collecting buyer contact details on quote request forms.
Engagement rate: In GA4, the percentage of sessions that last longer than ten seconds, include a conversion event, or have two or more page views. It is the inverse concept to the older bounce rate metric.
Engineer-to-order (ETO): A model where each product is custom designed and engineered to a customer's unique specifications before it is manufactured. It applies to complex items like industrial machinery or custom buildings and typically requires quoting before design work begins.
Engineering change order (ECO): A formal document that authorizes and records a change to a product's design, components, or bill of materials, including the reason and affected parts. It ensures changes are reviewed, approved, and traceable across engineering and production.
Envelope sender (Return-Path): The address used during the SMTP transaction to route bounce notifications, distinct from the visible From address. SPF is checked against this envelope sender rather than the header From.
EORI number: An Economic Operators Registration and Identification number required by the European Union and United Kingdom to identify businesses that import or export goods. Customs uses it to track and process shipments across the border.
eProcurement: The use of digital systems to manage purchasing activities such as requisitions, approvals, purchase orders, catalogs, and supplier transactions electronically, often integrated with punchout catalogs and ERP systems.
Escrow: An arrangement in which a neutral third party holds a buyer's payment and releases it to the seller only when agreed conditions are met. It protects both sides in large or higher-risk transactions.
Estimate: An approximate, non-binding figure for the likely cost of goods or services, given when exact pricing cannot yet be fixed. Unlike a firm quote, an estimate signals that the final amount may change.
Estimated time of arrival (ETA): The predicted date or time a shipment will reach its destination. ETAs help B2B buyers plan around quoted delivery windows.
European Article Number (EAN): A 13-digit international barcode standard used to identify retail products outside North America. It is administered by GS1 and, like the UPC, is unique to a specific product across all sellers.
Everyday low pricing (EDLP): A pricing strategy of maintaining consistently low prices rather than relying on temporary promotions or discounts to drive demand.
Ex Works (EXW): An Incoterm where the seller makes goods available at their own premises and the buyer bears all costs and risk from that point onward, including loading, transport, and customs. It places the maximum obligation on the buyer.
Excise tax: A tax levied on specific goods such as alcohol, tobacco, fuel, or sugary drinks, often charged per unit rather than as a percentage of price. It is typically built into the product price before any sales tax or VAT is added.
Exempt supply: A supply on which no VAT or GST is charged and for which the seller generally cannot reclaim related input tax. It differs from zero-rating, where the rate is 0 percent but input tax remains recoverable.
Exemption certificate: A signed form a buyer provides to justify not paying sales tax on a purchase, covering reasons such as resale, nonprofit use, agricultural use, or government purchase. It is broader than a resale certificate, which covers only the resale reason.
Feedback loop (FBL): A service offered by some mailbox providers that notifies a sender whenever a recipient marks their message as spam, so the sender can suppress that address. It helps senders react to complaints quickly.
Fill rate: The percentage of a customer's ordered quantity that a supplier delivers complete and on time. It is a key service metric in distributor and wholesale relationships.
Finished good: A completed product that has passed through all manufacturing stages and is ready for sale or shipment to a customer. It is the top-level output of a BOM, as opposed to raw materials or work in progress.
Firm quote: A quote whose stated prices and terms are guaranteed for the validity period and will not change if the buyer accepts within it. It contrasts with an estimate or an indicative quote, which are not binding.
First article inspection (FAI): A detailed inspection of the first item produced from a new or changed manufacturing process to verify it meets all specifications before full production begins. It confirms tooling, setup, and documentation are correct.
Fixed-amount discount: A price reduction of a specific currency value, such as 20 dollars off, applied to an order or item. The amount stays constant regardless of the item's price.
Floor price: The lowest price a seller is willing to accept for a product, below which a sale is not permitted. It sets a hard limit for discounting and negotiation.
Follow-up: Reaching out after a quote is sent or viewed to move the deal forward.
Force majeure: A contract clause that excuses a party from performing its obligations when extraordinary events beyond its control, such as natural disasters or war, prevent performance.
Fourth-party logistics (4PL): A provider that manages and coordinates an entire supply chain, including overseeing multiple 3PLs, on behalf of a client. A 4PL acts as a single point of accountability across logistics partners.
Free Carrier (FCA): An Incoterm where the seller delivers goods, cleared for export, to a carrier or place named by the buyer, at which point risk transfers. FCA can be used for any mode of transport.
Free On Board (FOB): An Incoterm for sea and inland waterway transport where the seller's responsibility ends once goods are loaded onto the vessel, after which risk and cost pass to the buyer. In North American domestic usage FOB is also loosely used to indicate the point where title and freight responsibility transfer.
Free trade agreement (FTA): A treaty between two or more countries that reduces or eliminates tariffs and other trade barriers on qualifying goods. Goods meeting the agreement's rules of origin can be imported at preferential duty rates.
Freight: The transport of goods in bulk by truck, rail, sea, or air, and the charge levied for that transport. Freight typically applies to shipments too large or heavy for standard parcel carriers.
Freight class: A standardized classification (in the NMFC system) that categorizes LTL freight from class 50 to 500 based on density, handling, stowability, and liability. Freight class determines LTL shipping rates.
Freight forwarder: An intermediary that arranges the transport of goods on behalf of shippers, coordinating carriers, customs, and documentation across international routes. Forwarders are common in cross-border B2B logistics.
Freight on Board destination (FOB destination): A domestic shipping term where the seller retains ownership and risk of the goods until they reach the buyer's location. It is the counterpart to FOB origin, where risk passes to the buyer at the shipping point.
Freight quote: A carrier or forwarder's price estimate for moving a specific shipment, based on weight, dimensions, freight class, distance, and required services. In B2B selling, a freight quote is often folded into the overall sales quote as the shipping line.
From header: The visible sender address a recipient sees in their inbox. DMARC alignment compares this domain against the authenticated SPF or DKIM domain.
Fulfillment: The end-to-end process of receiving, picking, packing, and shipping an order to the buyer. In B2B quoting, fulfillment terms and timelines are often specified on the quote because large orders may ship in stages.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): Amazon's service in which merchants send inventory to Amazon warehouses and Amazon handles storage, picking, packing, shipping, and customer service. Some Shopify merchants use FBA as a 3PL through multi-channel fulfillment.
Fulfillment service: A third party or app that stores inventory and ships orders on a merchant's behalf. In Shopify, a fulfillment service is registered to receive fulfillment requests and report tracking back to the store.
Full container load (FCL): An ocean freight arrangement in which a shipment fills or is dedicated to an entire container for a single consignee. It contrasts with sharing container space and generally offers lower per-unit cost at higher volumes.
Full truckload (FTL): Freight shipping in which a single shipment fills or is charged for an entire trailer. FTL is generally faster and lower-risk than LTL because the goods are not transferred between trucks along the way.
Funnel: The sequence of stages a visitor moves through toward a goal, such as landing, product view, add to cart, and purchase. Measuring drop-off at each stage reveals where prospects are lost.
Global Trade Item Number (GTIN): The umbrella GS1 standard that encompasses UPC, EAN, and other product identifier formats used to uniquely identify trade items worldwide. Shopify uses a barcode field that commonly stores a GTIN value.
Goods and services tax (GST): A broad consumption tax on the supply of goods and services used in countries such as Canada, Australia, India, and Singapore. It functions similarly to VAT, with registered businesses generally able to claim credits for tax paid on inputs.
Goods Receipt Note (GRN): A document recording that ordered goods have physically arrived and been inspected against the purchase order. It provides the receiving evidence used in a three-way match.
GraphQL: The query language Shopify's Admin and Storefront APIs primarily use, letting clients request exactly the fields they need in a single call. Quoting integrations rely on it to read and write products, price lists, companies, and draft orders efficiently.
Greylisting: An anti-spam technique where a receiving server temporarily rejects mail from an unfamiliar sender and only accepts it when the sender retries, since legitimate servers retry and many spam sources do not. It can briefly delay first-time messages.
Gross merchandise value (GMV): The total value of goods sold through a store over a period before deducting fees, discounts, or returns. It measures overall sales volume rather than net profit.
Gross price: The price of a product before deductions such as discounts or, in some usages, before or after tax depending on convention. It contrasts with the net price paid after adjustments.
Gross profit margin: The percentage of revenue left after subtracting the cost of goods sold, showing how much each sale contributes before operating expenses.
Group pricing (customer group pricing): A method of assigning distinct prices to defined segments of customers, such as wholesale, distributor, or VIP tiers. Each group sees prices appropriate to its category.
Hard bounce: A permanent delivery failure, typically because the recipient address does not exist or the domain is invalid. Repeated sends to hard-bouncing addresses damage sender reputation and should be removed from lists.
Harmonized System code (HS code): A standardized international numbering system administered by the World Customs Organization that classifies traded products for customs purposes. The first six digits are globally consistent, and countries add further digits for their own tariff schedules.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS): A country-specific extension of the HS code that sets the exact duty rates applied to imported goods, such as the United States HTS. It typically uses eight to ten digits to specify products in detail.
Hide price: Removing the price, and often the Add to Cart button, from a product so buyers request a quote instead. Common for B2B, MAP, and quote-only items.
Ideal customer profile (ICP): A description of the type of company that gets the most value from your offering and is most profitable to sell to, defined by attributes such as industry, size, order volume, and region. The ICP guides which leads to prioritize and qualify.
Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS): An EU scheme that lets sellers collect and remit VAT on low-value imported goods (up to a set threshold) through a single registration rather than at the border. It simplifies VAT on cross-border ecommerce parcels sold to EU consumers.
Import tax: Any tax charged on goods brought into a country, which can include customs duty as well as import VAT or GST. It is assessed at the border and generally paid before the goods are released.
Importer Security Filing (ISF): A US Customs requirement, also called 10+2, obliging importers to submit shipment data electronically before ocean cargo is loaded at the foreign port. Missing or late filings can trigger penalties and shipment holds.
Inbox placement rate: The percentage of delivered messages that land in the inbox rather than the spam or junk folder. It is a more meaningful measure of deliverability than the raw delivery rate, which counts spam-foldered mail as delivered.
Incoterms: A set of standardized international trade terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce that define who is responsible for shipping, insurance, duties, and risk at each stage of a cross-border sale. B2B quotes for international buyers usually name a specific Incoterm to remove ambiguity about who pays for what.
Indemnification: A contractual obligation for one party to compensate the other for specified losses, damages, or third-party claims arising from the agreement or the products supplied.
Indirect Spend: Spending on goods and services that support operations but are not part of the finished product, such as office supplies, software, and facilities. It is often more fragmented and harder to control than direct spend.
Input tax credit (ITC): The VAT or GST a business pays on its purchases that it can deduct from the tax it collects on sales. It prevents tax from cascading at each stage of the supply chain.
Installment payment: An arrangement in which the total amount owed is split into a series of scheduled partial payments over time rather than paid all at once.
Inventory turnover (stock turns): A ratio measuring how many times inventory is sold and replaced over a period, calculated as cost of goods sold divided by average inventory value. Higher turnover generally indicates efficient stock management, while low turnover can signal overstocking.
Invoice: A commercial document a seller issues to a buyer that itemizes goods or services supplied, quantities, prices, and the total amount due, and serves as a formal request for payment. In B2B quoting, an accepted quote is often converted into an invoice once the order is confirmed.
Invoice factoring: A financing method in which a business sells its unpaid invoices to a third party at a discount to receive cash immediately rather than waiting for buyers to pay. The factor then collects payment from the buyers.
IP reputation: The reputation attached to the specific IP address that sends mail, influenced by volume, complaints, and blocklist status. Shared sending platforms pool many senders on the same IPs, so one sender's behavior can affect others.
IP warming (warm-up): The gradual increase of sending volume from a new IP address or domain so mailbox providers can build trust incrementally. Sending high volume immediately from a cold IP often triggers throttling or blocking.
Job costing: An accounting method that tracks the material, labor, and overhead costs of each specific job or custom order separately. It is common in made-to-order and project-based manufacturing where products differ from one order to the next.
Just-in-time (JIT): A production and inventory strategy where materials and components arrive exactly when needed for manufacturing, minimizing stock on hand. It reduces holding costs but depends on reliable supplier lead times.
Kanban: A visual signaling method for controlling the flow of work or inventory, where a card or bin triggers replenishment or the next production step only when needed. It supports just-in-time production by limiting work in progress to actual demand.
Kitting: The practice of grouping separate components into a single package or kit that is picked, shipped, or sold together as one unit. In selling, a kit can carry its own SKU while drawing down the stock of its parts.
Landed cost: The total cost of a product once it arrives at the buyer's door, including the item price, shipping, insurance, duties, taxes, and handling fees. B2B quotes for imported goods often show landed cost so the buyer can compare true delivered pricing.
Last-mile delivery: The final leg of shipping in which goods move from a local hub or distribution center to the customer's door. It is often the most expensive and time-sensitive part of the delivery process.
Late fee: A charge added to an invoice when the buyer fails to pay by the due date, often expressed as a flat amount or a percentage of the overdue balance per month. Late-fee terms are usually stated in the payment terms.
Lead: A person or company that has shown some interest in your products but has not yet been qualified as a genuine buying prospect. In a B2B quoting context, a lead often arrives through a request for quote form or an inquiry before any pricing conversation begins.
Lead nurturing: The process of building relationships with leads that are not yet ready to buy through relevant, timed follow up until they become sales ready. In B2B, nurturing bridges the gap between an early inquiry and a formal quote request.
Lead qualification: The process of assessing whether a lead is worth pursuing by checking need, budget, authority, and timing against defined criteria. Qualification frameworks such as BANT and MEDDIC are commonly applied here.
Lead scoring: A method of ranking leads by assigning points for attributes and behaviors that indicate fit and buying intent. Higher scoring leads are prioritized for sales follow up and quoting.
Lead time: The total elapsed time between placing an order and receiving the finished product. In made-to-order and custom work it includes sourcing, production, and shipping, and it is a common line item in a quote.
Less than container load (LCL): An ocean freight arrangement in which a shipment occupies only part of a container and is consolidated with other shippers' goods to fill it. It suits smaller volumes that do not justify a full container.
Less than truckload (LTL): Freight shipping for loads that occupy only part of a trailer, where multiple shippers' goods share the same truck and costs are split by space and weight. LTL suits palletized B2B orders that are larger than parcel but smaller than a full truckload.
Letter of credit (LC): A guarantee issued by a bank on behalf of a buyer promising to pay the seller a specified amount once agreed documentary conditions are met. It is widely used in international trade to reduce payment risk for both parties.
Line item: A single entry on a quote or invoice representing one product or service, with its own description, quantity, unit price, and line total. The sum of all line items, plus tax and fees, forms the document total.
Link rewriting: Replacing the original URLs in an email with tracking URLs that redirect through the sending platform to record clicks. Poorly configured rewriting can trigger spam filters or break links if the tracking domain has a bad reputation.
Liquid: Shopify's open-source templating language used to build themes and render dynamic store content. Liquid can display B2B pricing, company details, and metafield values on storefront pages.
Liquidated damages: A predetermined amount specified in a contract that one party must pay if it breaches specific terms, such as missing a delivery deadline, agreed in advance in place of proving actual losses.
List hygiene: The ongoing practice of removing invalid, bouncing, complaining, and inactive addresses from a mailing list. Good hygiene reduces bounces and spam trap hits and protects sender reputation.
List price: The published or standard price of a product before any discounts, negotiation, or promotions are applied. It is often the starting point from which contract and volume discounts are calculated.
Live Quote: A branded, shareable quote page a customer can open, accept, and pay for. It can expire and is tracked. ShopQuotes’ core unit.
Location (inventory location): A physical or logical place where a merchant stocks inventory, used to track stock levels and route fulfillment. Not to be confused with a B2B company location, which represents a buyer's address and buying terms.
Loss leader: A product priced at or below cost to attract customers, with the expectation of profit from other items they buy. It sacrifices margin on one item to drive overall sales.
Lot: A specific quantity of product manufactured or produced together under the same conditions, sharing a single identifier for tracking. Lots let a business trace quality, sourcing, or defects back to a particular production run.
Lot number: The unique code assigned to a production lot so it can be tracked through manufacturing, storage, and distribution. It is essential for recalls, quality control, and regulatory traceability in industries like food and pharmaceuticals.
LTV to CAC ratio: A profitability benchmark comparing customer lifetime value to acquisition cost, expressed as a ratio such as 3:1. A ratio above 1 means a customer generates more value than it cost to acquire them.
Made-to-measure: A production approach where a standard base design is adjusted to a customer's specific measurements. It sits between fully bespoke custom fabrication and off-the-shelf sizing.
Made-to-order (MTO): A production approach where an item is manufactured only after a customer order is confirmed, rather than kept in stock. It reduces inventory holding but extends the time between order and delivery.
Made-to-order lead time quote: A price estimate that includes both the cost and the expected production and delivery timeline for an item not held in stock. It sets buyer expectations before a manufacturing order is committed.
Make-to-stock (MTS): A production strategy where goods are manufactured in advance against demand forecasts and held as finished inventory ready to ship. It offers fast fulfillment but risks overstock or stockouts if forecasts are wrong.
Manufacturer part number (MPN): The identifier a manufacturer assigns to a specific part or product in its own catalog. It helps buyers and resellers reference the exact item across suppliers, and it pairs with a GTIN for product matching.
Manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP): The price a manufacturer recommends that retailers charge for a product. It serves as a reference point and is not binding on the retailer.
MAP (minimum advertised price): A manufacturer policy setting the lowest price a reseller may advertise. A common reason to hide prices and quote instead.
Margin (gross margin): The difference between selling price and cost of goods, expressed as a percentage of the selling price. A product sold at 15 dollars costing 10 dollars has a 33 percent margin.
Markdown: A reduction from a product's original or list price, often used to clear inventory or drive sales. It is typically expressed as a percentage or dollar amount off the prior price.
Marketing qualified lead (MQL): A lead that marketing has judged more likely to become a customer based on behavior or fit, such as downloading a catalog or repeatedly viewing wholesale pages, but that is not yet ready for direct sales contact.
Marketplace facilitator: A platform that lists and processes sales on behalf of third-party sellers and, under many laws, must collect and remit sales tax on those sellers' transactions. This shifts the collection duty from the individual seller to the platform for marketplace sales.
Markets: A Shopify feature for managing selling across different regions or buyer groups, controlling currency, pricing, domains, and product availability per market. B2B is modeled as a distinct market type with its own catalogs and price lists.
Markup: The amount added to the cost of an item to arrive at its selling price, often expressed as a percentage of cost. Markup and margin describe the same gap between cost and price but are calculated on different bases.
Master production schedule (MPS): A plan that specifies which finished products to make, in what quantities, and by when, over a defined horizon. It drives material requirements planning and links customer demand to production capacity.
Master service agreement (MSA): An overarching contract that sets the general legal and commercial terms governing an ongoing relationship between two parties, so that individual orders or statements of work can be executed without renegotiating base terms each time.
Material requirements planning (MRP): A system that calculates the quantities and timing of raw materials and components needed to meet a production schedule, based on the bill of materials and current inventory. It generates purchase and work orders to avoid shortages and excess stock.
Maverick Spend: Purchasing done outside approved contracts, suppliers, or procurement processes, often at higher prices. Also called off-contract or rogue spend, it undermines negotiated savings and compliance.
MEDDIC: A qualification and deal management framework covering Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, and Champion. It is used in complex B2B sales to assess and control large opportunities.
Message Transfer Agent (MTA): The software or server responsible for sending, receiving, and relaying email between domains using SMTP. The sending MTA's configuration and reputation directly affect deliverability.
Metafield: A custom data field attached to a Shopify resource (product, variant, customer, company, order, and others) to store information not covered by standard fields. Metafields are commonly used in quoting to hold custom attributes like tiered pricing notes, buyer references, or approval status.
Metaobject: A custom, reusable data structure in Shopify defined by the merchant to model information that does not fit existing resources, such as a quote record or a custom pricing rule. Metaobject entries can be referenced by metafields and rendered in themes or apps.
Micro conversion: A smaller action that signals progress toward a purchase, such as signing up for email, requesting a quote, or adding to a wishlist, rather than the final sale itself.
Milestone billing: An invoicing method that bills a buyer in stages tied to defined project milestones or deliverables rather than in a single payment. It is common for large, phased, or long-running B2B engagements.
Minimum advertised price (MAP): A policy set by a supplier specifying the lowest price at which resellers may advertise a product, though the actual selling price may differ. It is used to protect brand value and prevent price erosion among resellers.
Minimum order quantity (MOQ): The smallest number of units or the smallest order value a supplier will accept in a single order. MOQs help sellers cover production or fulfillment costs and are often set per product, per variant, or per order in B2B quoting.
Minimum order value (MOV): The lowest total monetary amount a buyer must reach for an order to be accepted, expressed as a currency threshold rather than a unit count. It is commonly enforced at checkout or at the quote stage for wholesale accounts.
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR): The predictable revenue a business expects to receive each month from active subscriptions or recurring contracts, normalized to a monthly figure.
Negotiation (counteroffer): The back-and-forth in which buyer and seller propose changes to price, quantity, or terms until they reach agreement. A counteroffer is a revised proposal that replaces the previous quote's terms until one side accepts.
Net 30: A credit term meaning the full invoice balance is due 30 days after the invoice date. Variants such as Net 15, Net 45, and Net 60 follow the same logic with different day counts.
Net 60 / Net 90: Credit terms giving the buyer 60 or 90 days from the invoice date to pay in full. Longer terms are common in wholesale and enterprise B2B relationships where buyers expect extended payment windows.
Net price: The final price a buyer pays after all discounts, allowances, and deductions are subtracted from the list price, but typically before taxes and shipping. It represents the effective transaction value.
Net promoter score (NPS): A customer loyalty metric based on how likely customers are to recommend a company, calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters on a zero to ten scale.
Net revenue: Total sales revenue after subtracting discounts, returns, and refunds, representing the money a business actually keeps from sales.
Net revenue retention (NRR): The percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers over a period, including expansion from upsells and cross-sells and subtracting downgrades and churn. Above 100 percent means the existing base grew net of losses.
Net terms (Net 30, 60, 90): An agreement to pay an invoice within a set number of days after delivery. Standard in B2B.
New versus returning customer ratio: The proportion of revenue or orders coming from first-time buyers compared with existing customers, used to balance acquisition against retention.
Non-disclosure agreement (NDA): A contract in which parties agree to keep shared confidential information private and to limit its use to a stated purpose. It is common early in B2B deals before detailed pricing or specifications are exchanged.
Off-invoice discount: A price reduction granted outside the invoice itself, such as a later rebate or allowance, rather than being deducted on the invoice line at the time of sale.
One-Stop Shop (OSS): An EU VAT scheme that allows a business to report and pay VAT on cross-border sales to consumers across all member states through one quarterly return in a single country. It removes the need to register for VAT in every country where sales occur.
Open account: A trade payment arrangement where goods are shipped and delivered before payment is due, with the buyer settling the invoice within an agreed credit period. It is common between established trading partners.
Open and click tracking: Seeing when a buyer opens or clicks a quote, used to time follow-ups.
Open tracking: A method of measuring whether a recipient opened an email, typically by embedding a tiny invisible tracking pixel that loads from a server when the message is viewed. Image blocking and privacy features like Apple Mail Privacy Protection reduce its accuracy.
Opportunity: A qualified prospect with a defined potential deal, usually attached to an estimated value and expected close date, that is actively moving through the sales pipeline. In quoting, an opportunity often corresponds to one or more quotes issued to a buyer.
Option (product option): A dimension of choice offered on a product, such as size or finish, whose selected values define a variant or configuration. Each option carries a set of possible values a buyer can pick.
Order editing: A Shopify capability to add, remove, or adjust line items and quantities on an existing order after it is placed. Merchants use it to reconcile a placed B2B order with a revised quote or additional items.
Order fulfillment cycle time: The total time from when a customer places an order to when they receive it, measured across processing, packing, and shipping. It is a common metric for evaluating fulfillment performance.
Origin-based sourcing: A sales tax rule that applies the tax rate of the seller's location rather than the buyer's. A minority of United States states use origin sourcing for in-state sales.
Original equipment manufacturer (OEM): A company that produces parts or products that are purchased by another company and incorporated into or resold under that second company's brand. In pricing, OEM terms often carry distinct volume-based rates.
Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE): A metric combining availability, performance, and quality to measure how effectively a piece of manufacturing equipment is used relative to its full potential. A score of 100 percent means only good parts are made, as fast as possible, with no downtime.
Packing list: A shipping document that itemizes the contents of a shipment, including quantities, weights, and package details, without pricing. It helps the carrier, customs, and receiver verify what is physically in each carton or pallet.
Pallet: A flat wooden or plastic platform on which goods are stacked and secured for handling by forklifts and shipment as a unit. Freight and LTL quotes are often priced by the number of pallets.
Parcel shipping: The shipment of individually packaged items, usually under about 150 pounds, through carriers such as UPS, FedEx, USPS, or DHL. Most standard Shopify orders ship as parcels rather than freight.
Partial fulfillment: Shipping part of an order when some items are in stock while others are backordered or delayed, rather than holding the whole order until it is complete. It gets available goods to the customer sooner and can involve split shipments.
Payment gateway: A service that authorizes and processes electronic payments between a buyer, the seller, and the banks involved. On Shopify, payment gateways handle card and other online payments at checkout, including for approved B2B orders.
Payment link: A shareable URL that directs a customer to a hosted checkout page to pay a specific amount, letting a seller collect payment without a full storefront checkout. It is often used to collect quote deposits or invoice balances.
Payment terms (net terms): An agreement that lets a B2B buyer pay for an order within a set period after purchase, such as Net 30 or Net 60, rather than at checkout. Shopify B2B supports assigning payment terms to companies and issuing invoices accordingly.
PDF quote: A downloadable quote document, useful for procurement teams that attach it to a purchase order.
Penetration pricing: A strategy of setting an initially low price to gain market share and attract customers quickly. Prices are often raised later once a customer base is established.
Percentage discount: A price reduction expressed as a percentage of the original price, such as 10 percent off. The discount amount scales with the price of the item.
Phantom BOM: A bill of materials for a sub-assembly that is never actually stocked but is used to organize components in planning. The phantom item exists only in the BOM structure and passes its parts straight into the parent build.
Physical nexus: Sales tax nexus created by a tangible presence in a jurisdiction, such as a store, warehouse, office, employees, or stored inventory. It is the traditional basis for requiring a seller to collect sales tax.
Pick and pack: The warehouse process of selecting ordered items from storage (picking) and packaging them for shipment (packing). Pick and pack fees are a common component of 3PL pricing.
Pipeline coverage: The ratio of total open pipeline value to the sales target for a period, indicating whether there is enough opportunity in play to hit quota. A common benchmark is three to four times coverage, though it depends on win rate.
Pipeline stage: A defined step within the sales pipeline, such as qualification, quote sent, negotiation, or closed, that marks a deal's progress. Each stage usually has entry and exit criteria and an associated win probability.
Pipeline velocity: Another term for sales velocity, describing how fast revenue moves through the pipeline based on opportunity count, average deal value, win rate, and cycle length. It is used to spot bottlenecks and forecast throughput.
Place of supply: The tax rule determining which jurisdiction has the right to tax a given sale of goods or services, and therefore which VAT or GST rules apply. It depends on factors such as where the customer is located and whether the sale is B2B or B2C.
Pocket price: The actual revenue a seller keeps from a transaction after all discounts, rebates, allowances, and off-invoice deductions are subtracted from the list price. It reflects true realized price better than invoice price.
Preorder: An order placed and often paid for before a product is available or released, allowing a seller to gauge demand and secure sales ahead of stock arriving. Fulfillment happens once the item is in inventory.
Price break: The specific quantity threshold at which the unit price drops to a lower level. For example, a product may cost less per unit once an order reaches 100 units.
Price escalation clause: A contract provision allowing the price to be adjusted during the contract term based on defined triggers such as raw material cost increases or inflation indices, protecting the seller against rising costs.
Price list (catalog pricing): A published set of standard prices for a seller's products, often varying by customer segment, region, or currency. Quotes typically pull unit prices from an applicable price list before any negotiated adjustments.
Price override: A manual adjustment that replaces a product's standard price for a specific order, quote, or customer. It lets sellers apply negotiated or one-off pricing outside normal rules.
Price parity: The practice or requirement of keeping a product's price consistent across different channels or marketplaces. It prevents undercutting between sales outlets.
Price skimming: A strategy of launching a product at a high price to capture buyers willing to pay a premium, then lowering it over time. It aims to maximize revenue across different customer segments.
Price waterfall: An analytical breakdown showing how a list price is reduced step by step through discounts, rebates, allowances, and other deductions down to the actual net price a seller realizes.
Pristine spam trap: An address that was never valid for real correspondence and is seeded publicly to catch senders who scrape or buy lists. Hitting one indicates the sender did not obtain consent.
Pro forma invoice: A preliminary, non-binding invoice sent before goods or services are delivered, used to state the expected price and terms so a buyer can arrange payment, financing, or import documentation. It is not a demand for payment and is not recorded as a receivable.
Procure-to-Pay (P2P): The end-to-end cycle that connects requisitioning, purchase ordering, receiving, and supplier invoice payment into one integrated process. It emphasizes the operational flow from need to payment.
Procurement: The end-to-end business function of acquiring goods and services, spanning need identification, sourcing, negotiation, purchasing, and supplier management. It covers both the strategic sourcing side and the transactional purchasing side.
Product configurator: A tool that guides a buyer through valid option combinations for a configurable product and assembles the resulting specification. It enforces compatibility rules so only buildable configurations can be selected.
Product qualified lead (PQL): A lead that has experienced value directly through product usage, such as a free trial or self serve account, and shows signals that they are ready to buy or upgrade.
Progress billing: Invoicing a buyer incrementally as work is completed, typically as a percentage of the total contract value earned to date. It is common in construction and long-lead manufacturing where costs accrue over time.
Proof of delivery (POD): Documentation, often a signed receipt, confirming that a shipment was delivered to and accepted by the recipient. It is used to resolve disputes over whether goods arrived.
Prospect: A qualified lead that fits your target buyer profile and has entered an active sales conversation. The term is often used interchangeably with SQL but generally implies ongoing engagement with a rep.
Publication: A Shopify object that controls which products are available on a given sales channel or catalog. Catalog publications determine the product set a B2B buyer can browse and purchase.
Punchout Catalog: An integration that lets a buyer browse a supplier's ecommerce catalog from within the buyer's own procurement system and return the cart for approval and PO creation. It connects supplier storefronts to enterprise purchasing platforms via standards like cXML.
Purchase frequency: The average number of orders a customer places within a defined period, calculated by dividing total orders by the number of unique customers.
Purchase order (PO): A buyer-issued document that authorizes a purchase by specifying items, quantities, agreed prices, and terms, often matching an accepted quote. It becomes a binding commitment once the seller accepts it and is a common trigger to convert a quote into an order.
Purchase order number (PO number): A unique identifier a buyer assigns to a purchase order so it can be tracked internally and matched to the corresponding invoice. Buyers commonly require the PO number to appear on the seller's invoice for approval and payment.
Purchase Requisition (PR): An internal request created by an employee or department asking the procurement team for authorization to buy specified goods or services. It is not an order to a supplier but a first step that triggers internal approval.
Purchasing: The transactional part of procurement concerned with placing and processing orders, such as issuing purchase orders and confirming receipt. It is narrower than procurement, which also includes sourcing and supplier strategy.
Quantity discount: A reduction in unit price granted when a buyer purchases a larger amount, whether measured per order or cumulatively over time. It overlaps closely with volume and tiered pricing.
Quantity increment (order multiple): A rule requiring order quantities to be placed in fixed steps, such as multiples of 6 or 24. It is used alongside MOQ to match packaging or production constraints.
Quantity price breaks (volume pricing): A B2B pricing method where the per-unit price decreases as the ordered quantity crosses defined thresholds. Shopify supports quantity breaks within B2B price lists to reward larger orders.
Quantity rules: B2B settings that constrain how much of a product a buyer can order, defined as a minimum, maximum, and increment per variant. They ensure buyers order in valid case packs or wholesale lot sizes.
Quota: A sales target assigned to an individual rep, team, or period, usually expressed as revenue or number of deals to be closed. Quota attainment is the primary measure of whether a seller met expectations.
Quotation: Another word for a quote, referring to the seller's stated price and terms for a specific set of items. It is generally treated as a binding offer for the duration of its validity period.
Quote (quotation): A formal offer stating the price and terms at which a seller will supply specific goods or services, usually valid for a stated period. It becomes an order once the buyer accepts it, and in Shopify B2B workflows a quote may be issued as a draft order for approval.
Quote abandonment rate: The share of requested or drafted quotes that are never accepted or converted into an order. It is the B2B analogue of cart abandonment, measuring drop-off in the quote-to-order process.
Quote acceptance: The buyer's formal agreement to the price and terms in a quote, which converts the offer into an order or the basis for a contract. Acceptance may be captured by signature, a click, an email confirmation, or a purchase order.
Quote approval: An internal step in which an authorized person reviews and signs off on a quote before it is sent to the buyer, typically to confirm pricing, discounts, or terms. Approval workflows are used when discounts or values exceed limits a salesperson can grant alone.
Quote audit trail: A recorded history of a quote's changes, approvals, sends, and status updates, showing who did what and when. It supports accountability, dispute resolution, and compliance in the quoting process.
Quote conversion rate: The share of issued quotes that turn into accepted orders, usually shown as a percentage. It is a common sales metric for measuring how effectively quotes lead to closed sales.
Quote CRM: Software that manages quotes as a sales pipeline: build, send, track, follow up, and convert. This is ShopQuotes’ category.
Quote expiry: The date after which a quote is no longer valid and its stated prices and terms no longer apply. Expiry protects the seller from honoring outdated pricing and encourages the buyer to decide within a set window.
Quote number: A unique identifier assigned to each quote for tracking and reference. It links the quote to later documents such as the sales order, invoice, and any revisions.
Quote request: A buyer’s ask for a price on specific products. It is the start of the request-to-paid flow.
Quote revision: An updated version of a previously issued quote that changes prices, quantities, items, or terms. Revisions are usually version numbered so both parties know which version is current and binding.
Quote template: A reusable, preformatted layout for building quotes with standard fields, branding, and terms already in place. Templates speed up quote creation and keep formatting and language consistent across a business.
Quote validity period: The length of time a quote remains open for acceptance, running from the issue date to the expiry date. It is often expressed as a number of days, such as valid for 30 days from issue.
Quote win rate: The share of quotes that result in a closed deal, often segmented by sales rep, product, or customer type to identify what drives successful outcomes.
Quote-based pricing: A model where the final price is determined through a request and quote process rather than a fixed published rate. It is common in B2B where orders are configured or negotiated before purchase.
Quote-to-cash (QTC): The end-to-end business process that spans from generating a customer quote through order, fulfillment, invoicing, and collecting payment. It links sales, finance, and operations so that an accepted quote flows through to recognized revenue.
Quote-to-order conversion: The step of turning an accepted quote into a live order that can be fulfilled and invoiced. On Shopify this often means generating a draft order or checkout from the agreed quote so the buyer can pay at the negotiated terms.
Quote-to-order conversion rate: The percentage of issued quotes that are accepted and become paid orders, a primary efficiency metric for B2B sales and quoting workflows.
Ramp time: The period a newly hired sales rep needs before reaching full productivity and consistent quota attainment. Longer sales cycles and complex quoting processes tend to extend ramp time.
Raw material: The basic unprocessed inputs, such as metal, fabric, or chemicals, that are consumed to manufacture a product. They form the lowest level of a bill of materials.
Rebate: A partial refund paid back to a buyer after purchase, usually for reaching agreed volume or performance targets over a period. Unlike an upfront discount, it is settled retrospectively.
Reconciliation: The process of matching recorded payments against invoices and bank records to confirm that amounts received agree with amounts billed. It resolves discrepancies before books are closed.
Recurring billing: An arrangement in which a buyer is charged automatically at regular intervals for ongoing goods or services, such as a subscription or a standing supply agreement. It relies on a stored payment method and scheduled invoicing.
Recycled spam trap: A formerly legitimate address that was abandoned and later reactivated by the provider as a trap. Hitting one indicates the sender is not removing long-inactive or bouncing addresses.
Refund rate: The percentage of orders or revenue that is refunded over a period, indicating product issues, fulfillment problems, or customer dissatisfaction.
Remittance: A payment sent from a buyer to a seller to settle an invoice or account balance. The term also refers broadly to the transfer of funds to satisfy an obligation.
Remittance advice: A note or document a buyer sends alongside a payment to tell the seller which invoices the payment covers. It helps the seller match incoming funds to open invoices during reconciliation.
Reorder point: The inventory level at which a new purchase or production order should be triggered to avoid running out before replenishment arrives. It is calculated from lead time and demand rate.
Repeat customer rate: A closely related metric measuring the share of total customers who have ordered more than once, often used to gauge loyalty in a customer base.
Repeat purchase rate (RPR): The percentage of customers who make more than one purchase over a given period, indicating how well a business retains buyers.
Request for information (RFI): An early-stage buyer request seeking general information about a seller's capabilities, products, or pricing ranges before any formal quoting. It helps a buyer shortlist suppliers ahead of issuing an RFQ or RFP.
Request for Proposal (RFP): A document that invites suppliers to propose a solution to a defined business need, evaluated on scope, approach, price, and qualifications rather than price alone. It is used when the buyer wants vendors to describe how they would meet requirements.
Request for Quotation (RFQ): A formal document a buyer sends to one or more suppliers asking for a price quote on clearly specified goods or services, usually with defined quantities and delivery terms. In B2B ecommerce, an RFQ often begins with a buyer requesting pricing on items rather than checking out at list price.
Request for Tender (RFT): A formal, often public invitation for suppliers to submit competitive bids for a defined contract, common in government and large enterprise procurement. It is similar to an RFP but typically more structured and compliance-driven.
Requisition: An internal request submitted by an employee or department asking for goods or services to be purchased, which is routed for approval before a purchase order is issued.
Requisition Approval Workflow: The defined sequence of authorizations a purchase request must pass through before it becomes a purchase order, often based on amount or category. It enforces spending controls and accountability.
Resale certificate: A document a buyer gives a seller to purchase goods tax-free because the buyer intends to resell them rather than consume them. On a B2B quote, collecting a valid resale certificate lets a merchant exempt the buyer from sales tax on qualifying items.
Reseller: A business or individual that purchases products in order to sell them onward, either at retail or to other businesses, without materially changing them. Resellers often require documentation such as a resale certificate to buy tax-free.
Restocking fee: A charge deducted from a customer's refund to cover the cost of inspecting, repackaging, and returning an item to sellable inventory. It is common on bulk, custom, or high-value B2B orders.
Retail price: The price charged to the end consumer for a single unit of a product. It is generally higher than the wholesale price to cover the retailer's costs and margin.
Retainage (retention): A portion of a contract payment, often 5 to 10 percent, that a buyer withholds until the work is fully completed and accepted. It is common in construction and large project billing as an incentive for completion.
Return merchandise authorization (RMA): An approval and reference number a seller issues to a customer before accepting a return, used to track the returned goods and authorize a refund, replacement, or repair. It is the starting document of the returns process.
Return on ad spend (ROAS): Revenue generated for every unit of currency spent on advertising, calculated by dividing ad-attributed revenue by ad cost. A ROAS of 4 means four in revenue for every one spent.
Return on investment (ROI): A broad profitability measure comparing net gain from an initiative to its total cost, usually expressed as a percentage of the amount invested.
Return on marketing investment (ROMI): The profit or revenue generated relative to total marketing spend across all channels, giving a fuller view of marketing efficiency than ROAS alone.
Return rate: The percentage of sold units or orders that customers send back, a key metric for merchandising quality and reverse logistics cost.
Reverse charge: A VAT or GST mechanism that shifts the obligation to account for the tax from the seller to the buyer, common in cross-border business-to-business transactions. The buyer self-assesses the tax and, where eligible, reclaims it, so no tax changes hands on the invoice.
Reverse DNS (PTR record): A DNS record that maps a sending IP address back to a hostname, letting receiving servers confirm the IP resolves to a legitimate name. A missing or mismatched PTR record makes mail more likely to be rejected or filtered.
Reverse logistics: The management of goods moving backward through the supply chain, including returns, repairs, recycling, and disposal. It covers everything that happens after a customer receives a product but decides to send it back or retire it.
Routing: The defined sequence of operations, workstations, and machines a product passes through during manufacturing. It pairs with the BOM to describe how a product is made, not just what it is made from.
Rules of origin: The criteria used to determine a product's country of origin for customs and trade agreement purposes. They decide whether goods qualify for reduced or zero tariffs under a free trade agreement.
Safety stock: Extra inventory held as a buffer against demand spikes or supply delays to reduce the risk of stockouts. It is a key input to reorder planning.
Sales accepted lead (SAL): A lead that has been handed from marketing to sales and formally accepted by a rep for follow up, representing the agreed handoff stage between the MQL and SQL definitions.
Sales channel: A place where a merchant sells products, such as the Online Store, POS, or a marketplace app. B2B selling operates through catalogs layered onto the store rather than as a wholly separate channel.
Sales commission: Compensation paid to a salesperson calculated as a percentage of the revenue or margin they generate, or as a fixed amount per deal, used to incentivize closing sales.
Sales cycle: The complete sequence of steps from first contact with a prospect to a closed deal, and by extension the average time that process takes. B2B quoting often lengthens the cycle because of approvals, negotiation, and multiple stakeholders.
Sales forecast: A prediction of the revenue a team expects to close within a defined future period, built from pipeline deals, their values, stages, and probabilities. Forecasts drive planning for inventory, staffing, and cash flow.
Sales funnel: A conceptual model of how a large number of leads narrows down to a smaller number of customers as they progress toward purchase. Unlike a pipeline, which reflects seller actions, the funnel emphasizes the buyer's journey and drop off at each level.
Sales order: An internal seller document, created after a quote is accepted or a PO is received, that confirms what will be fulfilled and at what price. It drives picking, shipping, and invoicing.
Sales pipeline: The organized set of stages a deal passes through from first contact to a closed outcome, giving a visual and quantitative view of all active opportunities. It helps reps and managers see where each deal stands and what work remains.
Sales qualified lead (SQL): A lead that sales has accepted as worth active pursuit after confirming it meets criteria such as budget, need, and buying intent. An SQL is typically the point at which a rep begins working toward a formal quote.
Sales qualified opportunity (SQO): An opportunity that has been vetted and formally entered into the pipeline as a real, workable deal with a defined value and next step. It sits one step beyond an SQL, marking commitment to actively pursue the deal.
Sales qualified revenue: The portion of forecasted or booked revenue attributed to opportunities that sales has formally qualified and accepted. It distinguishes committed, workable pipeline from earlier speculative interest.
Sales rep ownership: Assigning a quote or account to a specific salesperson for follow-up and accountability.
Sales stage probability: The likelihood, expressed as a percentage, that a deal at a given pipeline stage will ultimately be won. These probabilities feed weighted pipeline and forecast calculations.
Sales tax: A consumption tax imposed by a state or locality on the retail sale of goods and some services, usually calculated as a percentage of the sale price and collected by the seller. In the United States it is administered at the state and local level rather than federally.
Sales tax holiday: A limited period during which a jurisdiction suspends sales tax on certain categories of goods, such as school supplies or emergency preparedness items. Sellers must apply the exemption only to qualifying products during the defined window.
Sales tax nexus: The connection between a business and a taxing jurisdiction that is strong enough to require the business to collect and remit sales tax there. Nexus can arise from physical presence (an office, employees, or inventory) or from economic activity above a set threshold.
Sales velocity: A measure of how quickly deals move through the pipeline and generate revenue, typically calculated from the number of opportunities, average deal value, win rate, and average sales cycle length. Higher velocity means revenue is being produced faster.
Scan to checkout (QR): A QR code on a quote that lets a buyer pay from any device.
Scrap: Material or partially made units discarded during production because they are defective or left over. Scrap rates are built into material planning and costing for manufactured goods.
Seed list testing: A deliverability test that sends a campaign to a set of monitored addresses across many mailbox providers to see where messages land. It reveals inbox versus spam placement before or during a real send.
Sell-through rate: The percentage of available inventory sold during a period, calculated by dividing units sold by units received or on hand. It helps gauge how quickly stock moves.
Selling plan: A Shopify construct that defines recurring or deferred purchase terms for a product, such as subscriptions or pre-orders, including billing and delivery frequency and any associated pricing adjustments.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF): An email authentication standard that publishes, in DNS, the list of mail servers authorized to send email on behalf of a domain. Receiving servers check the sending IP against this list to detect spoofing.
Sender reputation: A score that mailbox providers assign to a sending IP address and domain based on past sending behavior, such as complaint rates, bounces, and spam trap hits. A poor reputation causes messages to be throttled or routed to spam.
Serial number: A unique identifier assigned to an individual unit of a product, distinguishing it from every other unit of the same model. Unlike a lot number, which covers a group, a serial number tracks one specific item for warranty or service.
Service Level Agreement (SLA): A documented commitment between buyer and supplier specifying measurable performance standards, such as delivery times or response rates, and the consequences of missing them. It sets clear expectations for ongoing supply.
Sessions: A group of interactions a single user has with a site within a given timeframe. Sessions are a common denominator for conversion and engagement metrics.
Setup cost: The one-time cost of preparing equipment, tooling, or a production line to begin making a particular item or batch. It is often spread across the order quantity, which is why larger runs lower the per-unit price.
Shared IP address: A sending IP used by many senders through a common platform, where reputation is pooled across all of them. It requires no warm-up and suits lower volumes but exposes a sender to the behavior of others on the same IP.
Ship-to address: The physical destination where ordered goods are delivered, which may differ from the billing address. B2B orders frequently split a single account across multiple ship-to locations.
Shopify B2B: A set of native wholesale features available on Shopify Plus that let merchants sell to other businesses using company profiles, customer-specific catalogs, and price lists. It runs on the same store and checkout as direct-to-consumer selling.
Shopify Flow: Shopify's workflow automation tool that triggers actions based on store events using configurable conditions, letting merchants automate tasks such as tagging orders, sending internal notifications, or flagging high-value B2B customers.
Shopify Functions: Shopify's framework for writing custom backend logic that runs within Shopify, extending areas like discounts, cart transformations, and delivery or payment customization. B2B and quoting apps use it to apply custom pricing or discount rules at checkout.
Shopify Plus: Shopify's enterprise subscription tier that unlocks advanced features including native B2B, checkout customization, higher API limits, additional staff accounts, and Shopify Functions. Native company profiles and B2B catalogs require a Plus plan.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): The standard protocol used to transmit email between servers. Understanding SMTP responses, including bounce and deferral codes, helps diagnose delivery problems.
Single Sourcing: Deliberately buying a given product or category from one chosen supplier even though alternatives exist, usually to gain better pricing, quality, or partnership. It differs from sole sourcing, where only one supplier is available.
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): A unique identifier assigned to a product variant for inventory tracking and order management. SKUs are commonly referenced in quotes and purchase orders to match line items precisely.
Slotting fee: A payment a supplier makes to a retailer or distributor to secure shelf space, catalog placement, or listing for its products.
Soft bounce: A temporary delivery failure caused by conditions like a full mailbox, an oversized message, or a server that is momentarily unavailable. Senders usually retry soft bounces for a limited period before treating them as permanent.
Sold-to party: The customer entity that places an order and holds the commercial contract, as distinct from the bill-to party that pays and the ship-to party that receives goods. The distinction is common in enterprise order management systems.
Sole Sourcing: A situation in which only one supplier can provide the required good or service, leaving the buyer no practical alternative. It carries higher supply risk because there is no competitive fallback.
Source-to-Pay (S2P): A broader cycle that adds the strategic sourcing and supplier selection stages in front of procure-to-pay. It spans from identifying suppliers all the way to paying them.
Sourcing: The process of identifying, evaluating, and selecting suppliers to meet a business need at the best combination of price, quality, and reliability. It is the strategic front end of procurement, distinct from placing the actual order.
Spam complaint (complaint rate): When a recipient marks a message as spam or junk, which mailbox providers count against the sender. A complaint rate above roughly 0.1 to 0.3 percent can significantly harm deliverability.
Spam score (content filtering): A rating that spam filters assign to a message based on its content, formatting, links, and headers, often using systems like SpamAssassin. High-risk elements such as excessive images, spammy words, or broken HTML raise the score.
Spam trap: An email address created or repurposed by mailbox providers and blocklist operators solely to catch senders with poor list hygiene, since no real person requests mail at it. Sending to one flags the source as a likely spammer.
Spend: The total amount of money an organization pays to suppliers for goods and services over a period. It is the core metric procurement teams track and seek to optimize.
Spend Analysis: The practice of collecting, categorizing, and reviewing procurement spend data to find savings, consolidation, and compliance opportunities. It answers what an organization buys, from whom, and at what cost.
Split shipment: An order delivered in more than one shipment, often because items are stocked in different locations or some are on backorder. Quotes may note when line items will ship separately.
Spot buy: A one-off purchase made outside of established contracts or preferred suppliers, typically to meet an immediate or unplanned need, often at prevailing market prices.
Standing Order: A recurring order arrangement in which a supplier delivers a fixed quantity of goods on a regular schedule without a new order each time. It is used for predictable, repeat consumption.
Statement of account: A periodic summary a seller sends a buyer listing all invoices, payments, credits, and the outstanding balance over a given period. It helps both parties reconcile what is owed.
Statement of work (SOW): A document that defines the specific deliverables, timeline, scope, and acceptance criteria for a project or engagement, usually attached to a broader master agreement. In B2B deals it often accompanies or follows an accepted quote to formalize what will be delivered.
Stock keeping unit (SKU): A unique internal identifier a business assigns to each distinct product or variant to track inventory, sales, and pricing. On Shopify, each product variant carries its own SKU field.
Stockout: A situation where an item is entirely out of inventory and unavailable to sell or ship. Frequent stockouts signal inventory planning problems and can delay quoted fulfillment.
Store credit: A balance held on a customer's account that can be applied toward future purchases, issued from returns, refunds, or loyalty. Shopify supports store credit as a customer account balance and payment method.
Storefront: The public-facing Shopify store where shoppers browse and request quotes.
Storefront API: A GraphQL API that lets developers build custom storefronts and buyer experiences by querying products, prices, and carts and creating checkouts. It is often used to build custom quoting or wholesale ordering interfaces on top of Shopify.
Strategic Sourcing: A structured, data-driven approach to sourcing that analyzes total spend and supply markets to build long-term supplier relationships and reduce total cost. It goes beyond one-off buying to align purchasing with business goals.
Sub-assembly: A pre-built combination of components that becomes part of a larger finished product. Sub-assemblies appear as intermediate items in a multi-level BOM and can be produced or stocked separately.
Subtotal: The sum of all line items on a quote or invoice before taxes, shipping, discounts, or other adjustments are applied.
Supplier Qualification: The evaluation process of assessing whether a potential supplier meets a buyer's standards for quality, financial stability, compliance, and capacity. Passing qualification is usually a prerequisite for becoming an approved supplier.
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM): The systematic management of interactions with suppliers to maximize value, reduce risk, and improve performance over time. It focuses on the ongoing relationship rather than individual transactions.
Supply chain finance (reverse factoring): A financing arrangement, initiated by a buyer, that lets suppliers receive early payment on approved invoices from a third-party financier, while the buyer pays the financier later on standard terms.
Suppression list: A record of addresses a sender must not email, including unsubscribes, hard bounces, and complainers. Honoring it prevents legal violations and reputation damage from repeated unwanted sends.
Tail Spend: The large number of low-value, often unmanaged purchases that together make up a small share of total spend but a big share of transactions. It is a common target for consolidation and automation.
Tariff: A tax imposed by a government on goods as they cross a border, usually on imports and calculated as a percentage of value or a fixed amount per unit. Tariffs raise the landed cost of imported goods and can affect quoted prices for international B2B orders.
Tax engine: Software that calculates the correct sales tax, VAT, GST, or duty for a transaction in real time based on product type, location, and current rates. Ecommerce and quoting systems connect to a tax engine to apply accurate rates at checkout or on a quote.
Tax exemption (exempt customer): A status allowing a qualifying business or organization to purchase without paying certain taxes, supported by valid documentation. B2B stores often flag exempt customers so tax is not applied to their orders.
Tax identification number (TIN): A unique number a tax authority assigns to a person or business to track tax obligations, such as an EIN in the United States or a VAT number in the European Union. It is often required on invoices and for B2B tax exemption processing.
Tax jurisdiction: A government area, such as a country, state, county, or city, with authority to impose and set the rules for a given tax. A single sale can fall under several overlapping jurisdictions, each with its own rate and rules.
Tax registration: The process of enrolling a business with a tax authority to legally collect and remit a tax, such as obtaining a sales tax permit or VAT registration. Registration is generally required before a seller may charge the corresponding tax.
Tax remittance: The process of paying collected taxes to the relevant tax authority, typically on a periodic filing schedule. Sellers act as intermediaries, holding collected sales tax or VAT until it is remitted.
Tax-exclusive pricing: A pricing display in which tax is shown and added as a separate line on top of the listed price, common in United States sales tax contexts. B2B quotes often use tax-exclusive pricing so the tax amount is itemized.
Tax-exempt (resale): A buyer, often a reseller, that does not pay sales tax on qualifying purchases, using a resale certificate.
Tax-inclusive pricing: A pricing display in which the quoted amount already contains applicable tax, common in VAT and GST markets. On a quote, tax-inclusive figures show the buyer the final price without a separate tax line.
Terms and conditions: The written rules governing a quote or sale, covering matters such as payment, delivery, warranties, liability, and cancellation. They define the legal framework that applies once the buyer accepts the quote.
Territory (sales territory): A defined geographic area or market segment assigned to a distributor, reseller, or sales representative, often on an exclusive basis. It governs where a partner may sell and helps prevent channel conflict.
Theme app extension: A way for apps to inject blocks and functionality into a merchant's Online Store theme without editing theme code, using app blocks and app embeds. Quoting apps use it to add features like a request-a-quote button or a bulk order form to storefront pages.
Third-party logistics (3PL): A provider that handles warehousing, inventory, picking, packing, and shipping on behalf of a merchant. Many Shopify merchants use a 3PL to fulfill orders so they do not run their own warehouse.
Three-way match: An accounts payable control that verifies a purchase order, the goods receipt, and the supplier invoice all agree on items, quantities, and prices before a payment is approved. It guards against overbilling and fraud.
Throttling (rate limiting): When a receiving server deliberately slows or limits how much mail it accepts from a sender in a given period, often due to reputation or volume concerns. Senders respond by pacing delivery and retrying later.
Tiered (volume) pricing: Prices that drop as quantity rises. Common in wholesale quoting.
Time between purchases: The average elapsed time between a customer's consecutive orders, useful for timing reorder reminders and forecasting demand.
Tooling: The dies, molds, jigs, and fixtures required to manufacture a specific part or product. Custom tooling is often a separate upfront charge in a quote for a new made-to-order item.
Total addressable market (TAM): The total revenue opportunity available if every potential customer for your product bought it. It sets the outer boundary for growth planning and is narrowed by the serviceable and obtainable market figures.
Total contract value (TCV): The total revenue expected from a contract over its entire duration, including recurring fees, one-time charges, and any committed extensions.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): The full cost of acquiring and using a product or service over its life, including purchase price plus delivery, maintenance, downtime, and disposal. It gives a truer basis for supplier comparison than price alone.
Touchpoint: Any individual interaction between a prospect and your business, such as an email, call, quote, or site visit. Counting touchpoints helps teams understand how much engagement a typical deal requires before it closes.
Traceability: The ability to track a product's components, materials, and production history through the supply chain using identifiers like lot and serial numbers. It supports quality control, recalls, and regulatory compliance.
Tracking pixel: A small, usually invisible image embedded in an email that registers a request to the sender's server when loaded, indicating an open. It is the standard mechanism behind open tracking.
Trade account: A business customer account that unlocks wholesale or B2B-specific pricing, catalogs, and payment terms after a merchant approves the buyer. On Shopify these are typically represented as company profiles with assigned buyers and locations.
Trade credit: An arrangement in which a supplier allows a business buyer to receive goods or services now and pay later, effectively a short-term, interest-free loan between businesses. Net terms are the most common form of trade credit.
Trade discount: A reduction off the list price offered to businesses within a distribution channel, such as wholesalers or retailers, rather than to end consumers. It is usually a percentage based on the buyer's role or volume.
Traffic source: The channel or referrer that brought a visitor to a site, such as organic search, paid ads, email, or direct. Segmenting metrics by source shows which channels drive value.
Transactional email: Automated one-to-one email triggered by a specific action, such as a quote being sent, an order confirmation, or a password reset. It generally sees higher engagement and deliverability than bulk marketing mail.
Two-Way Match: An accounts payable check that compares a supplier invoice against the purchase order only, without a separate goods receipt. It is used for purchases where receipt confirmation is not tracked, such as some services.
Unique visitors: The count of distinct individuals who visit a site over a period, with repeat visits by the same person counted once.
Unit price: The price charged for a single unit of a product or service before quantity, discounts, and taxes are applied. Multiplying the unit price by quantity gives the line total.
Universal Product Code (UPC): A standardized 12-digit barcode used mainly in North America to identify retail products at the point of sale. Unlike a SKU, it is a global identifier issued through GS1 and is consistent across sellers.
Unsubscribe (List-Unsubscribe header): A mechanism, including the standardized List-Unsubscribe header and one-click unsubscribe, that lets recipients easily opt out of future mail. Major providers now require it for bulk senders, and honoring it protects reputation.
Upsell: Encouraging a buyer to purchase a higher-value, higher-specification, or larger version of a product than originally intended, increasing the value of the sale.
Upsell and cross-sell: Sales techniques where upsell offers a higher-value or upgraded version of the item a buyer is considering, and cross-sell offers complementary or related products. Both aim to increase order value at the point of purchase or quote.
Use tax: A tax owed by the buyer on taxable goods used or consumed in a jurisdiction when sales tax was not collected at purchase, for example on out-of-state or online purchases. It complements sales tax so untaxed purchases do not escape taxation.
Value-added reseller (VAR): A company that buys products from a manufacturer or distributor, adds features, services, or integration, and resells the combined offering to end customers under its own arrangements.
Value-added tax (VAT): A consumption tax charged at each stage of the supply chain on the value added, with registered businesses reclaiming the VAT they pay on inputs. It is common across the European Union, the United Kingdom, and many other countries.
Value-based pricing: Setting price according to the perceived value a product delivers to the customer rather than its cost. It can command higher prices when buyers place high value on the offering.
Variant: A specific version of a product distinguished by option values such as size, color, or material. On Shopify each variant has its own SKU, price, and inventory count, and configurable products often map option choices to variants.
VAT registration number: A unique identifier issued to a business registered for VAT, used on invoices and to validate cross-border transactions. Providing a valid buyer VAT number can allow zero-rating on qualifying intra-EU B2B sales.
Vendor Master Data: The centralized set of records holding standardized information about each supplier, such as legal name, tax IDs, payment terms, and bank details. Clean vendor master data underpins accurate ordering and payment.
Vendor Onboarding: The process of formally setting up a new supplier in a buyer's systems, including collecting tax, banking, compliance, and contact details and completing required approvals. It must be finished before the supplier can be paid or transacted with.
Vendor Scorecard: A structured evaluation tool that rates a supplier on measurable criteria such as quality, on-time delivery, price, and responsiveness. It supports objective supplier performance reviews and sourcing decisions.
Vendor-managed inventory (VMI): A replenishment model in which the supplier monitors the buyer's stock levels and decides when and how much to ship, rather than waiting for the buyer to place orders. It aims to reduce stockouts and lower the buyer's planning burden.
Volume commitment: A buyer's agreement to purchase a specified quantity or value over a defined period, often in exchange for better pricing. It gives suppliers demand certainty and rewards buyers with discounts.
Volume Discount: A price reduction a supplier offers for buying larger quantities, rewarding bigger orders with a lower unit cost. It is often expressed as tiered pricing in B2B quotes and catalogs.
Volume pricing: A pricing method that lowers the unit price as the quantity purchased increases. It rewards larger orders and is common in wholesale and B2B transactions.
Volume rebate: A partial refund paid back to a buyer after they reach an agreed purchase volume within a period. Unlike an upfront discount, it is granted retroactively once the threshold is met.
Volume tier threshold: The specific quantity at which a buyer qualifies for the next pricing tier or discount level. Crossing the threshold changes the applicable unit price for the order.
Voluntary disclosure agreement (VDA): An arrangement in which a business proactively reports and pays previously uncollected taxes to a jurisdiction in exchange for reduced penalties and a limited look-back period. It is often used to resolve past sales tax nexus that was not addressed.
Warranty: A seller's binding assurance about the condition, performance, or quality of goods or services, including the remedies available to the buyer if the product fails to meet the stated terms.
Webhook: An automated HTTP callback that sends data to an external URL when a specific event occurs, such as an order being created. Shopify apps subscribe to webhooks to react to store events in near real time.
Weighted pipeline: The total value of open opportunities after each deal's amount is multiplied by its probability of closing. It produces a more realistic revenue expectation than simply summing full deal values.
Wholesale: The sale of goods in bulk to businesses that resell them or use them commercially, rather than to individual end consumers. Wholesale pricing is generally lower per unit than retail to reflect volume and the buyer's own margin.
Wholesale price: The discounted price charged to businesses that buy in bulk for resale, typically lower than the retail price. It reflects the reduced per-unit cost of selling in larger quantities.
Win rate: The percentage of qualified opportunities that are won out of all opportunities that reached a decision, calculated as deals won divided by deals won plus deals lost. It reflects how effectively the sales team converts real chances into revenue.
Wire transfer: An electronic bank-to-bank payment that moves funds directly and settles quickly, often same day for domestic transfers. It is frequently used for large B2B payments and international transactions, usually for a per-transfer fee.
Withholding tax: Tax that a payer deducts at source from a payment, such as certain cross-border service or royalty payments, and remits directly to the tax authority. It can reduce the net amount a supplier receives on international invoices.
Work in progress (WIP): Partially completed goods that are still moving through the production process and are neither raw materials nor finished goods. WIP represents value tied up on the shop floor between order and completion.
Work order: An internal document authorizing the production of a specific quantity of an item, listing the materials, steps, and schedule required. It is generated once an order or quote is confirmed and drives the shop floor.
Write-off: The accounting removal of an invoice or receivable that a business has determined is uncollectible, recognizing it as a loss. It clears the debt from accounts receivable after collection efforts fail.
Yield: The proportion of started units that emerge as usable finished goods, with the remainder lost to scrap or defects. Low yield raises effective per-unit cost and can factor into quoted pricing.
Zero-rated: A supply that is taxable but charged at a VAT or GST rate of 0 percent, allowing the seller to still reclaim input tax on related costs. Exports and certain essential goods are commonly zero-rated depending on the jurisdiction.

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