Look. We get it. There are a ton of marketing terms to keep track of. And a lot of information out there that can leave you feeling 🤯.

So we put together this guide of the marketing terms you really need to know to run and grow your ecommerce brand.

With real-life examples to inspire you.

A/B testing, or split testing, is the process of serving two variants of the same web page to different groups of website visitors. The goal of A/B testing is to optimize different elements of a webpage, email, or marketing campaign to maximize its conversion potential.

What can you A/B test?

The use cases of A/B tests are limitless. Some common A/B tests include:

• Website copy
• Pop up offers
• Website design elements
• Product description copy
• Headlines
• Email subject lines

How does A/B testing work?

The way A/B testing works is simple. After deciding what the test will be, you'll create two variants for the test to serve to your website visitors.

By showing half your visitors variant A, and the other half variant B, you can come to a conclusion based on which version converts better. This way, changes made to your site will be based on live feedback from your website visitors. Whichever version gets more engagement is your winner.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re trying to build your email list and you’re not sure whether you should offer 10% or a flat $10 off a new subscriber’s first purchase.

This is the perfect use case for an A/B test. Half your site visitors will see the 10% option, while the other half sees the $10 off option. You’ll get a sense of which version performs best based on the number of email addresses you capture from each. Then you can switch over full-time to the winning variation and grow your list even faster.

A/B Test Resources:

Learn about A/B testing on Shopify

Learn how to run A/B tests on Privy campaigns.

Average order value (AOV) is the average amount spent every time a customer makes an online purchase. The formula to calculate it is really straightforward. Divide your revenue by the number of orders you’ve had in a given timeframe and you’ll get AOV.

Say you want to know your AOV for a specific month. Revenue is $5580 and you’ve had 100 orders. Your AOV for the month is $55.80.

AOV is one of the most important KPIs for ecommerce brands to track. Knowing the average amount a customer is going to spend on an order gives you a much better sense of what you should be spending on your marketing efforts across the board.

Common strategies for increasing AOV include cross-selling, upselling, and bundling. Because it’s cheaper to improve relationships with current customers than it is to acquire new ones. And you already know they’re interested in your products.

Audience targeting allows you to separate consumers based on age, location, gender, average income, level of education, interests, interaction with your brand, etc.

Reaching the right audience means you’re not wasting valuable resources on people who are unlikely to convert.

You know those ads that you just can’t help but click on? That’s on purpose. You were targeted based on certain criteria that made a brand think you fit their ideal customer profile. And the audience targeting they use reflects that. That’s why you immediately think, “Wow. I need that!”

On the other end of the spectrum, I’m sure you’ve also seen some ads in your feed that make absolutely no sense. Their targeting could use some work.

How many times have you seen language like this the first time you go to a new site?

A lot right?

So what exactly are you agreeing to? What even is a cookie?

A cookie allows certain data to be passed from a website’s server to your browser. They’re often used to collect information like your name, address, card information, items in your cart, browsing history, etc.

Think of it as your virtual ID. It’s what websites use to identify you and provide a more personalized experience.

It’s why when you clear your cookies your life is in shambles for weeks. Kidding, but you really do have to re-enter everything which can be a total pain.

Customer retention is a focus on keeping your current customers around for the long haul by creating an experience and product that makes them want to keep coming back.

Unlike customer acquisition, which is all about landing new customers, retention is driven by loyalty and repeat purchases.

Happy customers are more likely to buy from your brand again and spread the word about the products they love.

It’s also more cost effective to keep your current customers engaged than to acquire new ones, so retention should be a focus from the very beginning. You should constantly be asking yourself how you can be creating an incredible customer experience from the first purchase on.

This is truly a ‘ta-may-toe’ ta-mah-toe’ situation. DTC/D2C are both shorthand for direct to consumer, which means products are sold to the end customer directly, bypassing any middlemen.

This means you’re not selling through a distributor, retailer, or wholesaler. When a customer makes a purchase, it goes straight from you to the customer.

Exit intent pop ups help you reduce cart abandonment and grow your email or text list.

You know those pop ups you see that try to get you to stick around to make or complete a purchase as you’re about to leave a site? Or at the very least, enter your email address before you go?

Those are triggered by your cursor’s movement – so when you’re getting close to closing the window, you see a pop up

Fulfillment is everything that happens between clicking that ‘purchase now’ button to when it arrives at your door.

Once you actually place an online order, a lot goes on behind the scenes. The brand you purchase from has to actually pull the product(s) from the shelf, package it up, create a label, and ship it out. You’ll likely get confirmation emails and tracking information along the way, too.

And if you receive the order and aren’t happy with it, then what happens? You return it, right? Well that’s also part of the fulfillment process.

A hard bounce tells you that your email cannot be delivered to a particular email address.

It signifies that this is not a temporary signal, but a permanent response for that contact.

A hard bounce can be explained by one of three reasons: the email is invalid, the email domain isn’t real, or the email recipient’s server won’t accept emails. And since a hard bounce is permanent, you should treat these contacts as “unmailable.”

Newsletter emails are the perfect opportunity to engage with your email list on a regular basis. These emails are sent on a one-off basis and different from your automated email programs that are always on (like your abandoned cart and customer winback emails).

You can plan your newsletter emails to line up with product launches, new events, and even holidays.

Your newsletters should drive your subscribers to take a specific action (check out a new collection, read a new piece of content, etc.) and be sent out at least once a month.

An open rate is the percentage of people who open a marketing message—most commonly an email or, in some cases, a push notification or text—out of the total number of recipients it was sent to.

A promotional email is an email you send to your list that promotes a new product or offer. These types of emails are meant to drive purchases for your brand and are sent on a one-off basis, like your newsletters.

There are a lot of ways you can approach promotional emails, but a few examples of offers you can promote are new product drops, special offers, and exclusive content.

Spin to win is a more engaging way to grow your email list than many traditional pop ups (/glossary/pop-ups).

Visitors to your site are asked to enter their email address for a chance to spin the wheel to win one of 12 prizes.

Popular offers for the slices include free shipping, different percentages off, and a free gift with purchase. But of course they’re not all winners – that’s the fun of it! So there are often slices with language like ‘So close!’ ‘No luck today.’ and ‘Bummer!’

It’s a great option for brands with a certain feel. It’s the perfect fit for Death Wish because their brand is bold, and spin to win offers a more fun experience than a typical pop up.

The email subject line is what shows up next to the sender’s name in your inbox. And it’s super important because it’s what gets your subscribers to open your emails and read your messages.

Because let’s face it. Your subscribers are judging a book by the cover in this case. So you need to hook them with something they care about.

Think about the marketing emails in your own inbox. Which subject lines get you to click?

Here are tips (/blog/how-to-write-email-subject-lines) (and examples) to help you write killer subject lines.

Text marketing (also called SMS marketing) is a way for businesses to send promotional or transactional messages directly to a customer’s mobile phone via text message.

An upsell email encourages your customers to upgrade their purchase to a more expensive version of a product.

They’re the perfect way to increase your average order value and should be part of your automated series so they’re triggered after a purchase is made.

Remember that you can always work in upsells on your site before checkout, but an upsell email is a great way to encourage customers to upgrade after a purchase has been made.

A unique coupon code is generated and assigned to each individual that signs up for your email list. Which means every person on your email list gets their own code.

And unlike master coupon codes like WELCOME10 or LABORDAY20, a unique coupon code can only be used once. So your codes can’t be passed from person to person or distributed on coupon sites for anyone to use.

A unique coupon code also allows you to drive urgency because you’re able to set expiration dates based on when the code was created.

So, for example, if someone abandons their cart, you may want to include a unique code that expires 48 hours after they leave. Or give a new shopper 7 days to use their welcome discount.