E-commerce glossary
There are many terms for many strategies that differentiate between lots of different sorts of prices! Pricing in itself can be tricky. To decide a price for a product, you’ll need to consider the costs, the break-even, the expected sales, market-factors, price-fluctuations due to offer and demand, competition, price-elasticity, market velocity etc.
Try to say that last sentence out loud and really fast. Exactly, there are so many terms in there it’s a real tongue breaker. If you scroll down really fast and then scroll up again, you’ll notice that there are many more terms.
We specialize in pricing. We understand if you don’t, and you may have some questions about a lot of terms regarding pricing strategies. That’s why we’ve created this longlist of price-related terms and their definitions. Is there a strategy that fits you?
#
300 Multiple choices:
301 Moved Permanently:
307 Temporary Redirect:
- In this case, the request should be repeated with another URI; however, future requests should still use the original URI. In contrast to how 302 was historically implemented, the request method is not allowed to be changed when reissuing the original request. For example, a POST request should be repeated using another POST request.
400 Bad Request:
- The server cannot or will not process the request due to an apparent client error (e.g., malformed request syntax, size too large, invalid request message framing, or deceptive request routing).
403 Forbidden:
- The request contained valid data and was understood by the server, but the server is refusing action. This may be due to the user not having the necessary permissions for a resource or needing an account of some sort, or attempting a prohibited action (e.g. creating a duplicate record where only one is allowed). This code is also typically used if the request provided authentication via the WWW-Authenticate header field, but the server did not accept that authentication. The request should not be repeated.
404 Not Found:
- The requested resource could not be found but may be available in the future. Subsequent requests by the client are permissible.
410 Gone:
- Indicates that the resource requested is no longer available and will not be available again. This should be used when a resource has been intentionally removed and the resource should be purged. Upon receiving a 410 status code, the client should not request the resource in the future. Clients such as search engines should remove the resource from their indices. Most use cases do not require clients and search engines to purge the resource, and a “404 Not Found” may be used instead.
451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons:
- A server operator has received a legal demand to deny access to a resource or to a set of resources that includes the requested resource.
500 Internal Server Error:
- A generic error message, given when an unexpected condition was encountered and no more specific message is suitable.
501 Not Implemented:
- The server either does not recognize the request method, or it lacks the ability to fulfill the request. Usually this implies future availability (e.g., a new feature of a web-service API).
502 Bad Gateway:
- The server was acting as a gateway or proxy and received an invalid response from the upstream server.
503 Service Unavailable:
- The server cannot handle the request (because it is overloaded or down for maintenance). Generally, this is a temporary state.
504 Gateway Timeout:
- The server was acting as a gateway or proxy and did not receive a timely response from the upstream server.
505 HTTP Version Not Supported:
- The server does not support the HTTP protocol version used in the request.
A
A/B Testing:
Abandonment:
Abandoned Carts:
Address Verification Service (AVS):
Admin Panel:
Affiliate:
Affiliate links:
Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate Tracking:
Amazon Marketplace:
Anchored Pricing:
With anchored pricing, you label your products. You distinguish between a ‘basic’ label and a ‘premium’ label, with a more expensive price for a slightly different product. People are more inclined to buy the basic option because it’s cheaper. Sometimes, the only difference is the packaging. The idea is that the expensive version makes the cheap version seem like a really good deal.
Application Programming Interface (API):
Assisted Conversions:
Attribution model:
1. Last interaction model:
2. Last non-direct click model:
3. Last AdWords click model:
4. First interaction model:
5. Linear model:
6. Time decay model:
7. Position-based model:
Attribute set:
Automated Pricing Strategy:
With automated pricing, you use a tool to update your prices a few times a day. This way, you can keep track of all current price-fluctuations in the market. You can implement any strategy you want. If you have a pricing strategy to be the cheapest, this is the way to insure that.
Authorization:
Auto Responder:
Average Order Value:
Average Resolution Time:
Average time taken to resolve a customer problem.
Average Time on Site:
B
B2B (Business to Business):
B2C (Business to Consumer):
Banners:
Form of prevalent internet advertising on many sites.
Basket:
Part of shopping cart software which lets online buyers choose items to buy. At the checkout, the software calculates the total cost of delivery and taxes, and takes the buyer to a payment procedure.
Best Price Guarantee:
You sometimes come across this sign. Usually, if this sign is used, you can get a refund if you bought something, but it was cheaper elsewhere. You just come back with your receipt and you’ll receive the price-difference.
Big Commerce:
Big Data:
Billing address:
Blog:
Bootstrapping:
Bottom of the Funnel:
Bounce Rate:
Brick & Click Store:
Brick & Mortar Store:
Budget Pricing:
Budget pricing is more an identity than a strategy. Budget pricing basically means that you’ll only ask really low prices. People usually understand that they won’t receive a great service when they pay a budget price. It is called budget pricing, because you conform you prices to the low budget people have, or to what people want to pay. Walmart, SoLow or the DollarStore are good examples of this.
Bundle Pricing:
By bundling products and asking a lower price, you can entice customers to buy it. For example: create a package with all necessary ingredients to make an apple pie, and ask a combined price that’s lower than all individual prices cumulated.
Business Process Execution Language (BPEL):
A language for specifying business behaviors using Web services, it is a standard produced as part of the OASIS XML standards. BPEL is itself two specifications, an abstract version for describing business processes from a modeling standpoint, and an executable version that can actually perform business processes in conjunction with a BPEL processor.
Buy-to-detail rate:
Here’s the calculation:
Buyers Persona:
C
Cache:
Call-to-action (CTA):
Canonical URL:
Captive product pricing:
You offer a core product for a low price, but sell captive products with high margins. These captive products are additional products you need to be able to use the core product. Think about a keyboard as a core product, and the music-standard, microphone, headphones en keynote-stickers as captive products.
Cart Abandonment Rate:
Cart-to-detail rate:
Here’s the calculation:
Catalog:
Channel Conflict:
Chargeback:
Charm Pricing:
Charm pricing is basically the same as the well-known psychological prices. You make the prices look cheap by not asking a full number. Instead of €35,00, you ask €34,99.
Checkout:
Choreography:
Churn Rate:
It is the percentage of customers or subscribers who cut ties with the company or from the services in the given period of time. So it is basically the revenue or customers lost during a specific period (typically a month), by unsubscribing from the services.
Click-through rate:
Click-to-open rate (CTOR):
Here is the calculation:
Closed-Loop Marketing:
Cohort Analysis:
Competitive price intelligence:
The extensive use of data and detailed analytics to charter your competitors and anticipate on them is what’s called the competitive price intelligence. Basically, you spy on the market to spot opportunities. There are many tools that can help you with this.
Competitive price tracking tools:
These are the tools that will help you gain detailed analytics as competitive price intelligence. Our tool, for example, tracks all prices in the market for a specific product. All competitors are shown together with their prices, so you can see where you stand with yours.
Comma Separated Values (CSV) :
A CSV or a comma-separated file is a file-type that stores data in a tabular form. They look like a general spreadsheet but have a .csv extension.
Commerce Service Provider (CSP):
Solutions partner that provides the system and services to establish the back-office infrastructure for online businesses.
Content Delivery / distribution Network (CDN):
Content Management System (CMS):
Content Optimization System (COS):
It is a holistic solution designed to help you manage your website and other components of digital marketing all together in one system. It provides you with sales-ready website that allows easy updates, have a responsive design for the website and give it a personalized look and feel.
Conversion:
Conversion Funnel:
Conversion Path:
Conversion Path is a step-wise approach that involves converting anonymous website visitor into a known lead. The typical conversion path begins when a user arrives on the landing page, browses through series of page transitions and reaches the final state which is either a purchase or an abandoned session.
Conversion Rate:
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO):
Configurable Product:
Cookies:
Corporation:
A company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (legally a person) and recognized as such in law.
Cost-per-click (CPC):
Online advertising payment process where payment is based on qualifying actions such as clicking on a banner or search engine listing.
Cost-per-thousand (CPM):
Cost of an ad per thousand impressions.
Cost plus pricing:
The cost plus pricing strategy is often used. You basically calculate the costs of every individual product and add a certain margin, usually a percentage. For example, you add a 23% margin to every product. If product A costs €2,00 to make, you multiply it by 1,23 and the selling price is €2,46.
Cost-oriented pricing:
This pricing strategy heavily relies on the costs of a product, usually when you want to be the cheapest. You’ll calculate the costs of a product and at what margin you’ll need to sell to make a profit. It’s usually the same as the cost plus pricing. However, cost-oriented pricing can be adopted as a corporate-strategy, where you try to lower your costs in order to be able to lower your prices. So instead of focussing a 100% on sales, you might focus 20% on sales and 80% on development to make the product cost less. That way, you’ll be able to ask the lowest price in the market.
Coupon Code:
With coupons, you can convince a consumer that they’re striking a good deal. You’ll make them feel special as if no-one else receives that discount. Coupon codes can be a gift, a themed discount like Christmas, or a loyalty gift for returning customers. By adding a time-limit, you’ll add pressure to buy as soon as possible: ‘Special for you: use the coupon code ‘SANTA18’ to receive a 10% on you Christmas outfit! Valid until december 24th’.
Cross-selling:
Crowdsourcing:
Crowdsourcing is a practice of intellectual gathering of information that comes from loosely defined external group of people to achieve a business-related goal. This involves obtaining ideas, content, ideas or opinions from larger group of people who submit their data online via internet, social media and smartphone apps.
CSS:
Currency:
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC):
CAC is an important business metrics which refers to the cost associated in acquiring and convincing potential customers. This helps to determine how to allocate resources while gaining new customers.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV):
Customer-oriented pricing:
Instead of focussing on costs, you focus on what a customer is willing to pay. You research what the expectations for a certain product are and what consumers are willing to pay, and than you overdeliver just slightly so it will feel worth it for the consumers, even if they heavily overpay.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
Cyber Monday
The Monday after Black Friday. Historically, this day has more deals and discounts than any other day of the year. Some claim in the last few years that Cyber Monday has exceeded Black Friday in overall sales.
D
Day Part Monitoring:
Tracking when visitors attend the site.
Demand pricing:
With complicated algorithms, advanced software and thorough market-monitoring, businesses adjust prices according to the circumstances in the market, much like the dynamic pricing strategy.
Directory:
a search service that arranges the web pages in it is database into categories and subcategories.
Digital Cash:
Money that never leaves the internet (e.g. Paypal, Bitcoin).
Digital Commerce:
An eCommerce system today includes an overarching infrastructure which includes analytics from search engines, social platforms, mobile apps, and other corners of both the internet and the world of commerce. Together, this is called Digital Commerce.
Discount:
A temporary decrease of the prices on your products.
Discount code (or Coupon, or promo code):
Discount rate:
Disintermediation:
Distributor:
Domain:
Domain Authority (DA):
Doorway Page:
Dropshipping/Drop Shipping:
Is a supply chain management method in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer, another retailer, or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer.
Dynamic Pricing:
With dynamic pricing, you adapt to the circumstances on the market, while keeping in mind a certain strategy. The hotel industry makes extensive use of dynamic prices, in combination with a demand-oriented pricing strategy. When the demand large for hotel rooms in a certain period, the price of that room increases enormously. But in quieter periods the prices fall again. There may even be a distinction between certain classes. For example: premium products might have a higher increase in price when demand is high than budget items. The best known example of dynamic pricing is the stock market.
E
eBay:
Ebook:
An eBook also called as electronic book is a digital version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a dedicated e-reader devices. It consists of text and images both in readable format and can be easily accessible on computer device that features a controllable viewing screen or on a specifically designed handheld device.
Ecommerce:
Economy pricing:
This pricing strategy is based on prices that are as cheap as possible. Well-known users of this pricing strategy are the DollarStore, Big Bazar, SoLow, Walmart, Action, Ryanair, Transavia, etc. By using this pricing strategy, people know they can expect the lowest price possible.
Editorial Calendar
Editorial Calendar is a way to define and control the publication of content and to keep track of what to write and when to write it. This is mainly used by businesses, publications and bloggers that help them control publishing of content on different medium like newspaper, magazine, blogs etc
Elastic Search:
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI):
Electronic Wallet:
Email marketing:
Email Spam:
Engagement Rate:
E-tailing:
Event-triggered email:
Evergreen Content:
Evergreen content is a content that is timeless, sustainable and stays relevant and useful for months and years to come. It is referred to as SEO content that remains fresh for readers and is currently a buzzword in content strategy.
Evolutionary Algorithms:
Expert judgement pricing:
Sometimes, the costs or value of a product or service is not clear. It can help to get a second opinion, especially if there isn’t sufficient expertise in a company to make an accurate estimation of the costs or value. An external expert is asked, who will make a judgement based on a certain set of criteria which are usually mainstream in the field of that product or service. This will result in a judgement from the expert, hence the name.
Extensions:
F
Federation:
Multiple independent web services that cooperate as a single system.
Flash Sales:
Flash sales are a term for temporarily offering products at a reduced rate. There is often a clear time-limit. This is meant to entice consumers to buy as soon as possible before the deadline is over and they’ll have to pay the full price again.
Flat-rate pricing:
Flat rates are more mainstream for services, but may also apply to products. It’s basically a pricing system with a fixed price for use, regardless of how many times or how long you use it. For example, you may rent a car for a week for a fixed price, and drive it as much as you want.
Forum:
An online discussion where visitors may read and post information or comments.
Fulfillment:
Front end:
G
Gateway (or payment gateway):
Geographical pricing:
The practice of asking different prices depending on the location is called geographical pricing. For example: an iPhone may cost €650,- in Western-Europe, but only €350,- in Eastern Europe. This may have to do with shipping costs, but also even the GDP of a country. You basically consider the purchasing abilities of the consumers in a set area.
GIF:
image file format used widely on the web.
Google Analytics:
Google Keyword Tool:
Google Trends:
Google Webmaster Tools:
Group Buying Model:
Grouped Products:
Growth hacking:
H
Hashtag:
It is a label or a phrase preceded by a hash character (#) used in social networks and microblogging services to identify the messages of specific topics. When customers use hashtags, the message that has been tagged to it is revealed.
High Risk Processors/Brokers:
Institutions that issue merchant accounts to high risk endeavors, therefore allowing them to accept credit card payment. Used when the bank has too stiff requirements. Compensate risk by charging higher fees than traditional banks.
Hit:
Any request for any file located on the web.
Home page:
The opening page of your website.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language):
Hyperlink:
A link from a hypertext file or document to another location or file, usually activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image on the screen. (Example)
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML):
A standardized system for tagging text files to achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on web pages.
I
Impression:
Any time a particular item, ad, or image is displayed to a user.
Inbound Link:
A link from a site other than your own.
Inbound Marketing:
Incentives:
You can set up a system of incentives to bind consumers and build a loyal customer base. Incentives are also a means to attract new consumers. Think of incentives like free gifts, free shipping, free content (blogs, Whitepapers, ebooks, videos), discounts, vouchers / coupons etc.
Incumbent value:
An incumbent is a person in a certain position, think of a politician in a certain office (minister or premier). An incumbent in business is usually a market leader, or a company with a certain status. For example, Apple is an incumbent. Not because they’re the market leader, but they differentiate themselves in several ways from their competitors, which gives them an incumbent value. Their loyal customers see a certain value in Apple which is why they will by Apple and only Apple. Based on this incumbent value, a company can charge a price that their competitors can’t.
Infographics:
Infographics also called as Information Graphics are a graphical visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present data easily and in understandable format. These are widely used as they can quickly communicate messages or simplify the presentation of large amounts of data.
Integral pricing:
To up the sales of another product, you can lower the price of related, cheaper products. In our blog, we use the example of the Citroën-case. The C1-model was sold under cost price, in order to 1) sell more luxury models and 2) have more cars in maintenance to increase revenue of the garage.
Intelligent Product Recommendation Systems:
First, there was the all-knowing store owner who would know everything about the product they sold. Prices, quality, longevity. Now, there is an AI telling the customer what they might like, based on the their purchase patterns.
Interstitial Pages:
Ads that come up in between too desired pageviews.
Inventory:
J
JavaScript:
A scripting language used in the development of web pages. Refers to client side web programming.
JPG/JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group):
Image file format used widely on the web.
K
Key Performance Indicator (KPI):
It is a value that helps organizations to evaluate the success of achieving the key business objectives. There are 2 types of KPIs, high-level KPIs that focuss on the overall performance of the enterprise and low-level KPIs that look at processes in departments such as sales, marketing or a call center.
Key Phrase:
A phrase used to perform a search.
Keyword:
A word used to perform a search.
Keyword Density:
On a web page, the keywords as a percentage of indexable text on the webpage.
Keyword Research:
The search for keywords related to your website. The analysis of which words or phrases are used by visitors to locate sites similar to yours. The analysis of which keywords or phrases will yield the highest return on investment.
Keyword stuffing:
L
Landing Pages:
Lead:
Lead Nurturing:
Lifecycle Stages:
Lifecycle stages in eCommerce mainly refers to the stages a product undergoes before becoming mature. It is a course of events that brings a new product into existence by growing through the main 5 phases namely:
1) Development Phase
2) Market Introduction Phase
3) Growth Phase
4) Maturity Phase
5) Decline/Stability Phase
Link Popularity:
A measure of the quality and quantity of sites that link to your site.
Link Text:
The text (words) used to create a hyperlink.
Listing fee:
Log file:
The files that maintain a record of the requests for resources on your website.
Logistics:
Long Tail Keywords:
Long-Tail Variations:
Long-Tail Traffic:
Loss leader:
The loss leader strategy is in essence the same as the integral pricing strategy. You sell an item under its cost value to stimulate sales of other items. With integral pricing, you finetune it more on specific, related products. A loss leader is more focussed on attracting customers in general. Think of a supermarket that sells filtered coffee under cost price, but locates it next to an expensive brand of cookies.
Luhn Algorithm:
An algorithm used for credit card number generation and validation.
M
Magento:
Marketing:
Marketing Automation:
Market-oriented pricing:
This is very much the same as the competition based strategy. A product is compared to the same products or substitutes the competition offers and is either made better or sold at a lower rate.
Manufacturer:
Manufacturer’s suggested retail price MSRP:
The manufacturer of a product also recommends at what rate it should be sold. This is to standardize pricing and help resellers. In case of franchising, it may even be mandatory to use these prices as part of a larger, domestic strategy or to prevent competition between companies of the same franchise.
Margin (or profit margin):
M-commerce (Mobile commerce):
Merchant Account:
Merchant account provider:
Merchant Identification Number:
META tags:
Tags that describe various aspects of a web page. META Keywords, META Title, META Description are the most commonly used.
Micropayment:
The transfer of a very small amount of funds (cents) so that small transactions can occur.
Microsite:
Microsite is referred to as a web page or a small cluster of pages that acts as a supplement to the primary website. It is a specific content site which is designed to live outside of the company parent website and has a separate URL than its homepage.
Middle of the Funnel:
Minimum advertised price MAP:
This resembles the manufacturer’s suggested retail price closely, but is slightly different. Instead of suggesting a price, the manufacturer has a policy where it is resellers are not allowed to offer the product under a certain price.
Minimum Order Size:
Mobile Marketing:
Synonymous to wireless marketing is a form of marketing which uses modern mobile technology to promote personalized goods or services to a user via mobile devices like smart phones, tablets or PDAs. Push notifications are a prime example of mobile marketing.
Mobile Optimization:
It is a practice of ensuring that your visitors who are accessing the website through mobile devices have a brilliant user experience, both practically and visually. This is achieved by optimizing the website content in such a manner that the visitors can accomplish what they want to do on their mobile devices.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR):
Multi-Channel Retailing:
Multi Store:
Multistore is a facility in many eCommerce platforms where store merchants can manage their manage multiple stores from one platform. This unifies their database of different stores and provides the data without the need of logging in and out to access different stores,
Multi Vendor:
N
Nash equilibrium:
The Nash equilibrium is actually a really complicated concept that covers a lot more than just price. It tries to predict behaviour in the market when certain changes occur. The Nash equilibrium tries to establish optimal conditions where every provider has a commensurate market share. It goes much further than basic pricing strategies.
Native Advertising:
Navigation:
Net Profit:
Net Promoter Score (NPS):
Network Effects:
News Feed:
News Feed also called as Web Feed is a service by which users are provided with frequent transmission of data consisting of news updates. These are received by subscribers in XML format as summaries or links of updates about those people who are in your friend’s list as well as the odd advertisement.
Niche:
No-Follow Link:
No-Follow link attribute is an element that instructs the search engines bots not to follow the link. This means its a notification to search engines saying ‘Do not count this link’ so that they will not crawl the link and pass any link juice to it.
O
Odd-even pricing:
This is the same as charm pricing or psychological pricing. Instead of using even prices like €50,00 or €125,00, odd prices are used like €49,95 or €124,99.
Off-Page Optimization:
Off-Page Optimization refers to all the measures taken external to the actual website in order to improve its position in search rankings. Off-Page Optimization is a long-term process and includes acquiring many high-quality backlinks (incoming links) to your page from the authority sites.
Olark:
An industry leading IM chat support client with analytics functions, useful in increasing conversion rates and providing more comprehensive support to customers and leads on a real-time basis.
Omni-channel Management:
While some basics of marketing strategies have not changed as we move to a digital world, one aspect definitely has. It’s the presence of your store across platforms, which may or may not have the same customers.
On-Page Optimization:
On-Page Optimization refers to all the measures taken within the website in order to improve the web page listing or position in search rankings. It is one of the very first step of SEO that can help you increase your overall CTR (Click-Through-Rate) ratio.
Open rate:
Optional product pricing:
There is a core product that the consumer wants. Once the consumer ‘starts’ buying, you’ll offer optional products. Think about booking an plane ticket. You just want to get from A to B. During the process, you’re offered insurance for your luggage, extra leg space, a premium meal option etc. All of these cost extra, increasing the overall price of the one product you wanted.
Opt-in Email:
A process for allowing people to request email from you.
Opt-out Email:
A process for allowing people to request that you stop sending email.
Organic:
Organic Search Results:
Order Fulfillment:
It is a process that every organization undergoes for delivering goods to end users. Order fulfillment refers to the steps involved in this process from the point of sale until delivery of the order.
Order Tracking:
Outsource:
Overhead:
Overpricing:
Overpricing is usually done at market entry. At that moment, it’s hard to determine at what point a company will break even, so the company plays safe. It can always adjust the price downward, while increasing the price is never well received by consumers. This way, the company prevents never breaking even at all. It’s the opposite of the penetration pricing strategy.
P
Page Rank (PR)
Measures where a page is ranking with Google or another search engine. Higher ranked pages are closer to the number one spot.
Pageviews:
The total number of times a page on your site is loaded.
Partial shipment:
Patent:
Path length:
Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance:
Payment Gateway:
Payment Processors or Payment Gateways:
Payment service provider:
Payment Threshold:
PayPal:
Pay Per Click (PPC):
Penetration pricing:
In order to enter the market, you initially ask a very low price to attract clients and create brand awareness. Later on, the price can be increased. The low price has the sole function to penetrate the market by creating brand awareness and a customer base. It has an overlap with the underpricing strategy.
Perceived value:
This is the value a consumer perceives in a product, compared to other products. This is basically the outcome of a research where consumers consider the benefits of one product against other, related products and how much they are willing to pay for it. The perceived value is then the difference between the costs and what the consumer would pay.
Performance Marketing:
Permission Marketing:
Per-Order Fee:
Phishing:
PNG (Portable Network Graphics):
A raster graphics file format that supports lossless data compression. It was created to improve upon the GIF format and is the most used lossles image compression format on the Internet.
Pocket price:
The pocket price is the netto price. To calculate the pocket price, you deduct all additional costs to a product from its gross price. Think of shipping costs, rebates, payment costs, even some taxes etc.
Point-of-sale (POS) system:
Pop-up-ad:
An ad that automatically opens a new browser window.
Privacy Seal Programs:
Independent organizations that verify if an online companies privacy statement is verifiable and accurate.
Product Affinity:
Products that are usually purchased together.
Product Relationship:
Products that are viewed frequently by the same user.
Profit Margin:
Predatory pricing:
With this strategy, you ask prices so low, your competitors will not be able to compete with you and are forced to leave the market.
Premium pricing:
With premium prices, a high and fixed price is generally used for a product or service. The competition is always low and the product is unique. Think of Apple products, luxury car brands like Lamborghini, perfumes like Chanèl etc. This pricing strategy is strongly linked to the status of a brand.
Price benchmarking:
Price benchmarking is close related to competitive pricing. With price benchmarking you select certain competitors you want to use as beacons. You basically choose a pricing strategy and select competitors that resemble that strategy. You close follow what they do and adopt it to your own business. If they raise their price, you do too. If they offer a special Christmas deal, you do too. These companies will serve as you benchmarks to confirm your strategy and effectively adopt it, assuming those companies know what they’re doing. Price benchmarking is in its essence exactly copying the behaviour and best practices of your successful competitors, or if you want to differentiate, you use this data to adopt a strategy that suits the position you believe your company is in.
Price lining:
Price lining is all about psychology. By asking different prices for products in the same category or product group, the products with a higher price will be perceived as being of a higher quality.
Price skimming:
Price skimming is a great strategy when initially the break even point, cost price or other indications aren’t clear. By price skimming, you initially ask a high price and, once you’ve gathered more data, you periodically lower the price to finally reach a balance between costs and revenue. This is a safe method to find out the right price when calculating doesn’t work.
This strategy is also often used of new products. A company will ask a high price as long as it’s the only one marketing the product, until competition also enters the market.
Product price elasticity:
Price elasticity is the room you have to ‘play’ with your price. If the demand is ‘inelastic’, an increase in price should generate more revenue, because consumers will buy anyway. If the demand is very elastic, a change in price has a huge impact on how much you’ll sell. The formula is:
Price elasticity(%) = Change in demand(%) / Change in price (%)
Promo Code (or Discount Code):
Short, alphanumerical values which allow a user to access an otherwise hidden discount.
Psychological pricing:
Many companies use psychological prices, even though you often do not notice this as a consumer. This is precisely the intention! Psychological prices are prices that feel like a good deal or purchase, making it easier for the customer to purchase. The most common form are the discussed charm prices or odd-even prices.
PurePlay Business:
Business completely designed for online, had no physical presence.
Q
QR Code:
Qualified Lead:
Quantitative Metrics:
Qualitative Metrics:
R
ReCAPTCHA:
Reciprocal links:
Recommended retail price:
Recurring payment:
Recurring Transaction:
Reseller:
Responsive:
Responsive Theme:
Responsive Web Design:
Retailer:
Return on Investment (ROI):
Rich Snippets:
Robots.txt:
RSS feed:
S
SaaS:
Scarcity pricing:
Scarcity pricing is a method to put pressure on a potential buyer. If your browsing for a product, a notification may appear such as: ‘only 1 item in stock’. Or: ‘there is one other user looking at this room, be fast’. The potential buyer would feel there is a time-limit and if he/she wants to have this product/service, he/she has to decide now!
Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Search Engine Results Page (SERP):
Service Level Agreement (SLA):
It is an official contract signed between the service provider and the customer that documents the services expected from the provider and defines the performance standards that is required to be met.
Shipping:
Shipping Method:
Shopify:
Shopping cart:
Single Sign-on:
SKU:
S-marketing:
Smarketing is a process in which sales and marketing teams are aligned to have a common integrated approach towards achieving the business goal. This kind of integration between the two teams is created through frequent and direct communication between the two.
Social Media:
Social Media Marketing (SMM):
Social Proof:
It is a psychological phenomenon in which positive influence is created where people assume the actions and attitudes of people have the correct behavior for a given situation.
Social Signals:
Sole Proprietorship:
A type of business entity that is owned and run by one person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business. It is not a legal entity. It simply refers to a person who owns the business and is personally responsible for its debts.
Spiders:
Software used by search engines to locate new Web pages for their document databases.
Split Testing (A/B testing):
Secure Socket Layer (SSL):
Stripe:
Surge pricing:
With complicated algorithms, advanced software and thorough market-monitoring, businesses adjust prices according to the circumstances in the market, like the demand pricing strategy.
Supply Chain:
T
Tax:
Third-party payment processor:
Time lag:
Time pricing:
Time pricing has the same principle as scarcity pricing. Instead of putting pressure on scarcity, you give a time limit such as: ‘you still have 9 hours, 3 minutes and 5 seconds to score this deal’. The consumer knows that if it wants the discount, he/she will have to buy within the set time limit. Other forms are discount codes with an end date, such as Sovendus.
Tiered pricing:
Tiered pricing is a strategy to increase bulk buying for a set product. For example: 1 items costs $1. 5 items cost $4 and 20 items cost $16. The more of the same product you buy, the less you pay per unit.
Top of the Funnel:
Traffic:
Transaction:
Transparent Pricing:
Transparant pricing is a relatively young strategy. With transparent pricing, the overall price is accounted for. For example, an item costs $10. In the advertisement or product information, the supplier explains that resources cost $1, man-hours cost $2, a fair price for a farmer in Cambodia was paid, which raised the costs another $1 etc. This appeals to the consumer and makes the product seem a responsible purchase.
Trends (Traffic):
The fluctuation of traffic or a specific period. Trends can be based on many factors such as season, time of day, or relevancy of product based on fads.
Turnkey:
U
UI (User Interface):
Underpricing:
Underpricing is basically another term for the penetration pricing strategy. To penetrate the market, you ask a price under cost price in order to be the cheapest. Once you’ve gained popularity and constituency, you can raise the price again. It also often occurs in the stock market on the first public offering of a certain stock.
Unique Users:
In web marketing, a unique user is an individual that has visited a website for a given period of time or have received specific content like ads, emails or newsletters. Marketers and website owners track unique users to determine how many people see their content within a given period of time.
Up-selling:
Uptime:
URL (universal resource location):
Usability:
UX (User Experience):
V
Value pricing:
Instead of focussing on the costs of a product, the price is determined according to the perceived value of the consumer. Usually this perceived value is measured by asking for reviews and conducting surveys with ultimately the question: ‘What are you willing to pay for it?’
Velocity pricing:
Instead of focussing on costs or value, the velocity of sales of a certain products is the parameter for its price. If a product has a high velocity the price can be either decreased or increased to see if the overall revenue will ultimately increase. The same goes for products with a low velocity.
Vertical:
Viral Content:
This is referred to as a media material like articles, images or videos that spread rapidly online through website links and social sharing channels. It is basically a kind of online content that appeals the users to share it or something that gets a lot of views, reads, clicks etc.
Void:
W
Walk-away pricing:
Walk-away pricing is a strategy where you go just low enough before consumers lose interest in buying. That is, low enough from the sellers point of view. This is a common practice in the automobile market. A car seller will try to ask the highest price possible, before a consumer walks away.
Web analytics:
Web Browser:
A software application that allows you to view resources (primarily HTML web pages) on the Internet. (e.g. Google Chrome, Internet Explorer)
Web Design:
The creation and coordination of information on a website.
Web Hosting:
Web Resource:
Any HTML file, image or other computer file that can be reached through a URL.
Website Traffic:
The number of visitors and visits to your website. Can be measured in hits, page hits, or unique visitors.
Wholesale:
Wishlist:
WooCommerce:
WordPress:
WordPress is a free, open source blogging platform, used as a basis for creating ecCmmerce stores and a series of other websites. WordPress ties up with WooCommerce and others to provide ecommerce functionality through the WordPress platform.
WP Engine:
The best hosting solution for those running eCommerce stores on WordPress, WooCommerce is robust, fast and scalable to meet the needs of your business as it grows.
X
XML Sitemap:
Conclusion:
If you, after reading all this, still have no idea what to do, you may have more luck with our blogs. This long list was purely meant as an explanation too many terms and jargon. On our blog, we discuss many pricing strategies and best practices for web stores and how to implement it successfully.Need a good, complete strategy for your webstore? Download our free whitepaper where we provide a lot of information and tips to set up a complete strategy for your webstore. Do you have questions about a term that’s not in the list? Let us know and we’ll add it!