eCommerce Glossary

Abandoned browse / Browse Abandonment

Abandoned browse or browse abandonment happens when someone visits your website or app and surf on it but ends up buying nothing. They usually see the pricing, offers, discounts, availability of the product to decide the purchase. An ecommerce CDP will detect browse abandonment if the casual browser is registered on your site or otherwise identifiable. Then, either manually or automatically, send an email with the products viewed in an attempt to convert the person.

Abandoned Cart / Cart Abandonment

An online shopping cart is called an "abandoned cart" when a customer adds items to it, but then leaves the process without completing the purchase. When a site or app visitor puts items or services in their online cart but doesn't check out, this is called "abandoning the shopping cart.”

ACH payment

An ACH transfer is an electronic bank transfer that happens through the Automated Clearing House and typically takes three to four business days to complete. In order to complete an ACH transfer, you’ll need your routing number (nine digit, different for every bank)  and account numbers, account type and the transaction amount. ACH transfers include anything from bill payments to direct deposits or personal payments.
Content links - https://tipalti.com/what-is-needed-for-an-ach-transfer/

Accrued revenue

Accrued revenue is revenue that has been earned by providing a good or service, but for which no cash has been received. Accrued revenues are recorded as receivables on the balance sheet to reflect the amount of money that customers owe the business for the goods or services they purchased."
It comes from accrual accounting and the revenue recognition principle, which says that revenue transactions should be recorded in the same accounting period in which they are earned, not in the period in which payment is received. Accrued income is common in SaaS.
Accrued revenue, unearned/deferred revenue, and accrued expenses
In contrast to accrued revenue, realized revenue and recognized revenue both refer to revenue that has been paid for. Meanwhile, unearned revenue and deferred revenue are terms used to describe revenue for which payment has been received but goods or services have yet to be delivered. An accrued expense is one that has been incurred or recognized but has yet to be paid.
Content link : investopedia-accured revenue definition

Acquisition Marketing

Users who are aware of your brand are the ones you want to target with acquisition marketing. An acquisition marketing strategy offers a product to consumers in the contemplation sales funnel.How can direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses and marketers build long-term relationships with potential customers? The only way to fully succeed in reaching this aim is to adopt tactics and approaches that target the touchpoints that occur following the awareness stage.

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications.

Add to cart

To improve the buying behavior of the customers there is a special element that you can add to a product page or within a Collection list connected to the products category is the Add to cart element. This element consists of 2 buttons allowing users to either add a product to their shopping cart, or go immediately to checkout.
Content link: Strikingly : add to cart blog

Advertising

E-commerce advertising is the practice of creating brand awareness, typically through paid ad campaigns on social media or search engine results. This is a popular route to increasing site traffic, click-through-rate and conversions, though now becoming increasingly expensive. Popular ecommerce advertising platforms include -

1. Google
2. Gmail
3. Facebook
4. Instagram
5. Snapchat
6. Tik Tok

‍

Annual recurring revenue (ARR)

Annual Recurring Revenue is a metric that shows the amount of money a contracted subscription is generating during a one year period. It can be calculated by dividing Recurring revenue (monthly) by 12.Tracking the Annual Recurring Revenue metric is important in showing the real-time run rate of a subscription business.

Annual Subscription

A customer agrees to pay a yearly recurring fee to a business in exchange for items or services in an annual subscription. It is common for yearly membership fees to fall under the subscription model, in which customers are charged for access to gated content, products, and services. Examples include an annual plan for state park entrance, a supermarket delivery service subscription, SaaS price, or a magazine subscription with an annual contract.

AOV (Average Order Value)

Average Order Value (AOV) refers to the average amount of money spent when a customer places an order on a website, mobile app, or in-store. Four ways in which AOV can impact your business are:

• Buying patterns and trends - Average Order Value shows you the time of year you need to pay the most attention to. In other words, which season(s) most resonate with your highest value customers?
• Conversion costs - If you have a high conversion cost but low AOV, you’re literally losing revenue. Say, if you pay $100 to acquire one customer, but earn $100 (or even less) in AOV, then you’re in the red.
• Ad spending - You're back in the red line if you're spending equal to or more than your AOV to attract a customer. You must review your margins even if you are spending less to acquire a consumer than your AOV.
• Pricing strategy - Most brands are terrified of raising their prices because they believe it would lower their conversion rate and turn off customers. However, you can adjust your pricing depending on how you present your firm, whether it's a luxury or an economy. If you're in the middle, it might be difficult and cause you to be concerned about your margins.

‍

Attribution

Attribution in marketing refers to the identification of touchpoints in a customer journey that lead to certain behaviors or expected outcomes. Example - Majority sales generated from a promotional campaign may be attributed to ads on a social media platform such as facebook.

Automatic Payments

An automated payment is essentially what it sounds like: a payment that’s automatically sent to one of your billers from your bank account or credit card account. You can authorize an automatic bill payment to be made using your debit card, credit card, checking account, savings account or money market account. The amount due for the payment is collected automatically by the biller according to your payment schedule.
How Does Automatic Bill Payment Work?
Customers must first select a payment method, such as a bank account, credit card, or debit card, before they may set up automatic payments. As a last step, customers must provide their payment information, which may include a checking account or routing number, a credit card number, or other information. To take funds from a customer's account on a regular basis, the corporation needs explicit approval from the customer. You can set up an automatic bill payment to charge the same amount at regular intervals (such as for digital streaming services) or to charge different amounts over the course of a given length of time (for example, a utility bill that changes in pricing month-to-month depending on usage).

Automated Reorder Campaign

Using an email or series of emails, a company can notify consumers who have purchased consumables that their product supply is running low and prompt them to place a new order. One of the main goals of a replenishment campaign is to ensure that customers place their next order with you rather than the retailer closest to their home. "Subscribe-and-save" is the term for this type of agreement. Here are four things you need to keep in mind when creating a replenishment campaign:

1. Make Reordering Easy
2. Use Data to Time Your Campaign
3. Get Your Subject Lines Right
4. Drive Your Customers to Subscription Sign-Up

Behavior Segmentation

Behavioral segmentation looks at how and when a consumer decides to spend their money on a product or service. It focuses on consumers’ shopping behavior, how they make their decisions, why they choose one product over the other, and how they feel about a product, company, or service. Some examples of behavior segmentation:

• ordered a certain product
• converted from a particular email campaign
• ordered more than 3 times in the last month and hasn't used a coupon
• spent over the average customer lifetime value
• read a blog article and ordered for the first time
• viewed a particular product but didn't buy
• gave you a very negative feedback score
• has shopped a lot in the past, but not in the last 2 months

‍

Below the fold

The term "below the fold" refers to the portion of a webpage that visitors must scroll to view. The term "below the fold" refers to the portion of a page's content that is visible after the hero picture or primary header. In many cases, this is where you may go into greater detail about what drew a visitor in the first place.

Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving in the United States is referred to as "Black Friday" because of the heavy sales that occur. Given the massive discounts offered by many brands during this time, it's now one of the most important shopping occasions of the year for many people.

Bottom line

Bottom line is a term used to describe a merchant's net profit after all costs have been removed from total revenue. As an alternative to net income, you may have heard it referred to as net profits.

Bounce rate

The percentage of website visitors who leave a page without taking any action, such as filling out a form, navigating to a new page, or clicking a link, is known as the bounce rate. It is usually calculated by dividing the total number of sessions by the number of single-page sessions on-site.
The average ecommerce bounce rate is **between 20% and 45 percent **, with bounce rates less than 20% considered exceptional.

Brick-and-mortar

The term "brick-and-mortar" refers to a traditional street-side business that offers products and services to its customers face-to-face in an office or store that the business owns or rents.

Bundling

Bundling is the act of grouping similar or related products together (combos) and selling them at a discounted price. This introduces customers to new products and makes existing products more appealing by providing added value.

B2C

B2C, or business-to-consumer, is used to describe a commerce transaction between a business and an end consumer. Traditionally, the term referred to the process of selling products directly to consumers, including shopping in-store or eating in a restaurant. Today it describes transactions between online retailers and their customers.
Business-to-consumer vs business-to-business vs direct-to-consumer - Direct-to-consumer (DTC) and B2C (business-to-consumer) are sometimes used interchangeably, however DTC is actually a subtype of the B2C business model. B2B (business-to-business) commerce, in which organizations sell directly to other businesses—for example, SaaS companies—should not be confused with B2C (business-to-consumer) commerce.

BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later)

"Pay Later," also known as "Buy Now, Pay Later," is a point-of-sale financing option. Customers can choose a financing plan and pay in installments instead of having to pay the entire cost up front when retailers and DTC brands offer a Pay Later solution:

• Pay later in full after 30 days
• Pay later in installments into three or four equal, interest-free payments
• Finance it, spreading the cost of larger purchases over as many monthly payments as possible. There may be interest charges.

Call To Action (CTA)

A call to action (CTA) is a marketing term that refers to the next step a marketer wants its audience or reader to take. The CTA can have a direct link to sales. For example, it can instruct the reader to click the buy button to complete a sale, or it can simply move the audience further along towards becoming a consumer of that company's goods or services. The CTA can suggest that the reader subscribes to a newsletter that contains product updates, for example. To be effective, a CTA should be obvious and should immediately follow the marketing message.

Campaign Measurement

It is simply the evaluation of your marketing/advertising campaigns using various methods and metrics. A marketing campaign is only as effective as its measurement strategy.
Let's divide the measurement plan setup into a few key components:

Determining your objectives & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Pay later in full after 30 days
• Pay later in installments into three or four equal, interest-free payments

Identifying data sources

• Tangible, direct leads
• Software metrics
• Studies

Choosing a measurement approach

• Direct measurement (against benchmarks)
• AB testing
• Control and exposed
• Surveys

Pulling it all together

• Designing a cohesive plan

‍

Canceled Orders Rate

The rate of canceled orders as a percentage of total orders is an important ecommerce metric to monitor. Of course, a small percentage is normal. However, too many cancellations may indicate that your products have a poor reputation, which becomes apparent when customers conduct additional research online; or that a competitor offers a lower price; or that shipping costs and delivery times cause customers to regret their purchase.It's a good idea to tag people, who cancel orders in your ecommerce CRM and see if they do it frequently - this could be a sign of fraud.

Cart abandonment

Cart abandonment is the process of customers leaving products in their shopping carts. Many customers add items to their shopping carts but do not complete their purchases. In fact, the rate of cart abandonment in ecommerce is extremely high - around 60-70 percent - leaving merchants with the difficult task of enticing customers back.

CDP (Customer Data Platform)

A customer data platform (CDP) is a pre-built technology that marketers and customer experience professionals use to understand their brand's customers and scale hyper-personalized experiences across marketing, sales, and service channels.
Customer information is frequently fragmented and siloed across multiple systems. Even if it is unified, non-technical teams will struggle to get what they need, make sense of it, and use it to create tailored experiences without learning programming languages or relying on IT and data science teams for assistance.

In short, DTC brands need technology that:

• Unifies all customer data
• Provides an easy-to-use interface for managing data
• Segments audiences
• Generates predictive insights
• Orchestrates seamless experiences across all marketing, sales, and customer service channels

‍

This technology is called a CDP.
A CDP collects more data types (behavioral and transactional in real time, structured and unstructured) and provides value across the entire customer lifecycle, not just one stage.

Why should your DTC brand use a CDP

CDPs enable business users, modern marketers, and data analysts to make the most of all available data and insights in order to make every customer interaction count.

CDPs:

• Consolidate data silos
• Create a 360-degree customer view
• Democratize access to customer data for personalization across marketing, sales, and customer support channels

‍

Finally, by consolidating data silos and automating authentic customer interactions across multiple touchpoints and channels, CDP data enables modern marketers and CX professionals at DTC brands to provide a real-time hyper-personalized experience to their customers.
A delightful customer experience is critical for acquiring, retaining, and developing long-term relationships with customers. The foundation of exceptional CX is hyper-personalization, which is impossible to achieve without unified customer data.

Cohort Analysis

Cohort analysis is the process of tracking and analyzing the behavior of a customer cohort over time. It is an important component of retention analysis, in which you can see how different customer groups behave and how their loyalty develops.
Cohort analysis is typically presented in the form of a matrix table, in which all orders from the customer cohort are recorded. As a result, you can see when people shop, how the average time between orders works in practice, and when each group is ready to re-engage.

CRM

CRM, or customer relationship management system, is a data processing tool that tracks and makes available customer data for outreach, engagement, and relationship building. A CRM allows for continuous contact with the customer, tracking their customer journey and aligning it with business objectives.
Customer insights from a CRM aid in the development of a mutually beneficial relationship in which the customer enjoys dealing with your brand and you benefit from their loyalty.

Some CRM applications in ecommerce include:

• Tag customers based on their interest in a specific product or category and send tailored offers to those customers.
• Follow up with customers who return a product or cancel an order to learn more and try to keep them with a voucher for the next order.
• Monitor how feedback relates to the products ordered to find bad ones that tarnish your brand image.
• Investigate the purchasing habits of your most loyal customers to try to replicate it for others.
• Investigate people's shopping habits to see if there are any bottlenecks in your funnels that need to be fixed - for example, people frequently stop and search for a sizing chart because such information is missing on product pages.

‍

A CRM allows you to see how visitors interact with your website, whether they shop or not. You can improve your experience and connect with them by learning from their behavior.

An ecommerce CRM will typically include a direct method of communication with them, such as email, so that all segmentation and insights can be used directly for marketing.

Customer Retention

Customer retention is the process of continuously engaging customers and encouraging repeat orders. Data is used in customer retention marketing to personalize and guide the customer journey, build a deeper relationship with the customer, and win their loyalty and repeat business.
When acquiring new customers is expensive, the market is small, the niche is too narrow, or there is too much competition, customer retention helps ecommerce brands grow. Retention basically solves the majority of the problems that a brand would face when attempting to increase revenue. As a result, we believe that any ecommerce company should prioritize a customer retention strategy.

The benefits of customer retention

• Lower marketing costs because selling to existing customers is free and there is no CAC.
• Every order a customer places increases the profit margin.
• You don't have to constantly acquire new customers to keep selling; returning customers keep the business going.
• Because great products and customer service are required to earn loyalty, people become fans and spread the word about the brand.
• Better marketing ROI puts you in a better position to invest in new products or expand.

‍

Customer segment

A customer segment is a group of customers who exhibit similar behaviors or characteristics and are filtered for marketing purposes. For maximum results, the idea is to engage the various segments in a more relevant, tailored manner. Some customer segments most ecommerce stores identify are:

• VIPs
• Sale shoppers/deal hunters
• One-timers
• Cart abandoners
• Blog readers
• Customer, who referred a friend
• Heavy coupon users
• Segments by location/need/preference/category they shop

‍

LTV:CAC ratio

The LTV/CAC ratio compares a customer's lifetime value to the cost of acquisition. The ideal LTV/CAC ratio is 3:1, which means you should make three times the money you spent on customer acquisition.

Chargebacks

A chargeback is a charge that is returned to a payment card after a customer successfully disputes an item on their account statement or transactions report. A chargeback may occur on debit cards (and the underlying bank account) or on credit cards. Chargebacks can be granted to a cardholder for a variety of reasons.A high volume of chargebacks can be harmful to a merchant's bottom line.

Checkout

The checkout is where a customer pays for their online purchases. They must select a payment method, enter their details, and confirm their purchase/place their order.

Cash Flow

The availability of cash in the business at any given time is referred to as cash flow in ecommerce. A positive cash flow indicates that you have the funds to pay expenses right away whereas a negative cash flow indicates that you must wait for revenue before you can pay suppliers and so on.
It is critical to monitor your cash flow because it changes on a daily basis and can stymie your entire operation. For example, you may run out of cash right before a large shipment of stock because you decided to purchase new office furniture.
A balanced cash flow, on the other hand, allows you to invest in expansion and growth even if you aren't making a lot of money. Ecommerce businesses can maintain a positive cash flow by improving customer retention, inventory management, and increasing AOV.

Click rate

Also known as click-through rate, the click rate is the percentage of links clicked out of all opened emails. According to Oberlo, the average eCommerce CTR is 2.07%. The click rate is an indicator of the health of your email campaign performance.

Source: https://www.oberlo.in/ecommerce-wiki/click-through-rate-ctr

CLV, LTV, or CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value)

Customer lifetime value is the total revenue earned from a single customer over their entire lifetime as your brand’s customer.

It can be tracked as it happens, if you have ecommerce analytics tracking in place:

CLTV = Order 1 + Order 2 + Order 3 ……

Or, it can be estimated with these formulas:

CLV = Total Revenue / Total Number of Customers

CLTV = AOV x Average number of orders per customer

CLV =  AOV x order frequency per month x lifespan

Customer lifetime value is significant because the higher it is, the higher the return on marketing investment. Every subsequent order compensates for the initial acquisition cost.

A high CLTV also indicates that people like your products and buy from you frequently. So you don't have to constantly go out and find new customers to generate sales. Working for CLTV entails boosting customer retention.
Complementary Products - Complementary products are related products that are frequently used together, so selling them together makes sense. Coffee beans and coffee filters, shoes and footwear-cleaning products, dog food and food bowls are examples of complementary products.
If none of your products are clearly complementary to others, conduct a related products analysis to determine what people typically buy together and cross-sell that combination.

Contacts

The term is used in reference to customers who have visited your online store and whose contact details are available in your customer data platform.

Content Drip

Content drip is a type of email campaign that consists of a series of emails containing blog articles and other content. It's the closest thing ecommerce brands can come to a newsletter. The content drip campaign's goal is to engage, inform, entertain, and educate people in between orders. It is a post-purchase retention strategy that allows you to stay top-of-mind without being too pushy with promotional emails and calls to action.
It can be tailored to the customer's interests as demonstrated by their purchasing behavior - different content drips can be set up for different segments.

Content management system (CMS)

A content management system, often abbreviated as CMS, is software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge. In simpler language, a content management system is a tool that helps you build a website without needing to write all the code from scratch (or even know how to code at all).WordPress and Magento are popular examples, but popular ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify, also have a CMS component.

Conversion funnel

A conversion funnel is a way to comprehend the flow of potential prospects into paying customers. Just as a funnel guides liquid or powder into a small opening, so too does a conversion funnel guide customers to complete the last step or final, desired action (a purchase or a conversion event).

Conversion rate

The percentage of website visitors who complete a desired goal out of the total number of visitors is referred to as the conversion rate. This could include subscribing to your newsletter, purchasing a product, or contacting your team.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

Conversion rate optimization is the process of increasing the number of conversions by implementing various tactics. These could include changing the page's design, adding a CTA, or changing the copy and visuals.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

Cost of Goods Sold is the direct costs incurred by a company while selling its goods/services.

Cost of Goods Sold = Opening Stock + Purchases (in current period) - Closing Stock

Coupons

Coupons or coupon codes are the key to unlocking a discount. The customer gains access to a specific discount by using a coupon. When you advertise a 50 percent discount, for example, you provide people with a 50OFFNOW code to use to receive the discount.

Different coupons can apply the same discount, but some may work better than others - people simply respond better to an offer presented in a specific way. That is why it is critical to monitor the performance of your coupon codes.

CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association)

CTIA is a trade association in the United States that represents the wireless communications industry. The organization was founded in 1984 and is based in Washington, D.C. It is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership organization that represents wireless carriers and suppliers, as well as wireless product and service manufacturers and providers.
CTIA runs wireless industry certification programs and publishes wireless industry surveys. It has also supported a number of public service wireless initiatives.
Until 2004, it was known as the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, and then as the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. Since then, the organization has only used its initials, but has been known as CTIA – The Wireless Association until 2015.

CTR (Click Through Rate)

The click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of the number of people who clicked on a specific link or call to action (also known as CTA, such as the 'Learn More' text at the bottom of an email marketing campaign) to the number of times the link was exposed to them (aka the number of impressions).

Here’s a simple click-through rate formula:

💡 CTR = (click-throughs / impressions) x 100

For example, if 100 people see an online ad and 5 click to learn more about the product, the ad has a CTR of 5%.

CTR can be used to assess the success of pay-per-click (PPC) search results (such as those generated by Google AdWords or other search engines), CTAs on a landing page, or hyperlinks in blog posts and email campaigns.

Why is CTR important?

CTR is an important metric because it helps you understand your customers; it tells you what works (and what doesn't) when attempting to reach your target audience. A low CTR could indicate that you're targeting the wrong people or that you're not speaking their language convincingly enough to get them to click.

Consider a paid search ad campaign that directs visitors to your website, e-commerce store, or landing page.The CTR of an online advertisement indicates how effective the ad is at attracting potential customers; you can then compare ad copy, ad position, and CTAs to determine which has the highest CTR.

Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition is the process of acquiring new customers for business or converting existing prospects into new customers. The importance of customer acquisition varies according to the specific business situation of an organization. This process is specifically concerned with issues like acquiring customers at less cost, acquiring as many customers as possible, acquiring customers who are indigenous and business oriented, acquiring customers who utilize newer business channels etc.It can be free, as in organic search or social media presence, or paid, as in PPC, affiliate marketing, events, and so on.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the marketing expense incurred when acquiring a new customer. In ecommerce, the first order is usually a loss because most brands rely heavily on advertising and influencer campaigns to acquire customers.
In general, if your CAC is too high, you're in a bad financial situation because you're not making enough profit on each sale. Long-term profitability is determined by balancing CAC and CLTV. For healthy margins, CAC should be kept below 30% of CLTV. This way, you'll be able to reinvest, grow, and even pay more for acquisitions if necessary.
CAC should be tracked by marketing channels to optimize ROI and avoid wasting money on ineffective channels.

Customer Churn

Customer churn (also known as customer attrition) occurs when customers discontinue using a brand's products or services over time.
Reduced churn and improved customer retention rates boost revenue and customer lifetime value for ecommerce and direct-to-consumer brands.
Conducting churn analysis is critical for understanding the causes of customer churn, determining where churn occurs in the customer journey, and developing solutions to improve customer retention.

Customer Cohort

A customer cohort is a group of customers who have something in common, which is usually the product, campaign, coupon, or source of their first order in ecommerce. Such segmentation is useful for tracking how these factors affect customers' shopping behavior and loyalty over time.

As a result, customer cohorts serve as the foundation for cohort analysis. It compares different cohorts to determine which products, marketing channels, offers, and so on convert the best leads into the most loyal customers. As a result, you can adjust your marketing and improve your retention rate and other retention metrics.

Other advantages of tracking customer cohorts include:

• Monitor the development of special cohorts (e.g., holiday shoppers) and plan accordingly for the following year.
• Fight churn before it happens - Discover new opportunities you didn't know existed such as a cohort shopping primarily at certain times of the year
• Understand when people are more likely to convert again so you don't push them too hard before they're ready.

‍

Customer Database

A customer database is an organized record of all your customer data - contact information, orders, communication, on-site activity, and so on.
It automatically tracks and processes customer behavior to make it marketable. Individual customer behavior can be investigated in a customer database, preferably session by session.
It also allows you to target customers based on their characteristics and actions. An ecommerce CRM allows you to contact them directly from the same platform.
‍

Customer Experience (CX)

The ecommerce customer experience is the sum total of impressions created and perceptions formed or changed during interactions with your brand at various touchpoints in the customer journey. It comprises both online and offline interactions with your brand - From viewing display ads, to the look and feel of your digital storefront, the quality of support offered during shopping on your website to receiving timely post-purchase notifications.

Data Enrichment

The process of combining first-party data from internal sources with disparate data from other internal systems or third-party data from external sources is known as data enrichment.

Data that has been enriched is a valuable asset for any organization because it becomes more useful and insightful.

Regardless of the source, whether site traffic, social media, or email lists, customer data begins in raw form. Customer data is collected and stored in a central data store, where it is largely useless. Raw data is cleaned and structured before being supplemented with external data to add more useful information.

Data enrichment improves the utility of data by adding value to it. It assists brands in better understanding their customers and delving deeper into their lives.

Data Ingestion

The process by which a CDP allows you to collect data from every channel and platform where customers interact with your brand is known as data ingestion. This includes platforms that you own, such as your website and mobile app. Your advertising channels, as well as your email, CRM, and payment systems, are all included.

Additionally, the CDP allows you to collect customer data from your servers for increased reliability and accuracy.

Simply put, a CDP is most useful when it allows you to collect complete customer data from wherever your customers interact with your brand.

Data Integration

Customer data integration is the process by which CDPs make your first-party data useful to you. Customer data integration (CDI) is the process of combining and organizing customer data from various databases into a single, more usable and accessible format to improve analytical capabilities.

The CDP is the technology layer that connects your digital properties to customer data tools. This means that a CDP allows you to collect a master set of customer data and then activate that data in the tools on which your team relies.

The ability to easily route data to the tools you use is a core competency of a CDP. Once configured, your CDP allows you to easily turn on and off new integrations – consider your CDP to be the last integration you'll ever need to do.

When there is a barrier between two or more sets of data, this is referred to as a data silo. It keeps you from getting a complete picture and making accurate decisions based on your data.

To summarize, a CDP ingests and consolidates all raw data from offline and online sources, including cross-channel data.

Why is customer data integration required?

A CDP's ability to integrate customer data is critical. It enables more informed decision-making, improves business intelligence, provides a comprehensive view of your customer's journey, and enhances the customer experience.

A CDP will integrate with the software that your company uses to run its operations, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce, AWS, Zendesk, Google Analytics, and so on.

The data is then aggregated and collated within all of these software/tools to provide value to your brand through unified data profiles of specific customers and customer types.

Data Orchestration

A CDP facilitates the orchestration, testing, and measurement of customer experiences across all touchpoints.

This includes orchestrating ad-hoc, triggered, and journey-based experiences in real time across all marketing, sales, and customer service channels, as well as configuring tests across any channel and measuring performance with customizable business metrics or machine learning algorithms that automate experience optimization.

In layman's terms, real-time data orchestration means that the CDP enables data optimization and analytics and sends only the relevant customer data required to achieve business goals to the appropriate touchpoints.

What is the purpose of data orchestration?

An orchestration-enabled CDP can connect to multiple interactions across any channel in real time by combining offline and online data to form unique customer journeys.

This customer journey mapping feature allows you to visualize individual customer journeys across multiple channels while learning about their interaction preferences and the context of their actions.

All of this is done at scale, regardless of where your customers are in their journey, and provides detailed insights into how you can further personalize it.

Data orchestration is the process of dismantling data silos so that your data is not fragmented and can be accessed quickly.

Using automated triggers, you can decide what action to take based on the customer's real-time behavior. For example, you can set up an automated trigger to send an email and/or SMS to a customer if they abandon their shopping cart using any third-party tool.

D2C/DTC ( Direct - to - consumer)

What is DTC (direct to consumer)?

D2C (direct to consumer; also written as DTC) is an ecommerce business model in which a merchant manufactures and sells their own products or services to consumers. This differs from other business models that allow for the use of third-party retailers or wholesalers. Direct-to-consumer brands typically have more control over their customer journey than traditional retailers because they have a direct line to customers with the DTC model, resulting in a more seamless and cohesive customer experience. The direct-to-consumer (DTC) model is becoming increasingly popular among online retailers looking to increase brand loyalty and customer retention.

Benefits of direct-to-consumer brands

DTC brands have complete control over the customer experience with this business model, including brand positioning, brand identity, product design, digital marketing, supply chain and shipping logistics, and more. Furthermore, they have direct access to customer data and feedback, allowing them to track product performance, customer satisfaction, and key metrics more effectively over time. As a result, DTC brands have the potential to outperform traditional brands in terms of customer experience because they have complete control over their entire process and can easily shift and adjust their offerings to suit their target audience.

Decoupled CMS

A decoupled CMS is a content management system architecture that separates or decouples the backend and frontend systems. In other words, there is one system for backend content creation and storage layer (or "body") and a separate system for frontend content delivery/presentation layer (or "head"). APIs (application programming interfaces) then connect these two elements to deliver and present the content across various devices and channels.

Headless CMS vs. decoupled CMS

The frontend and backend components of a traditional content management system, such as WordPress, are intertwined (or "coupled"). These elements are separated in a headless or decoupled CMS architecture, and content is delivered via APIs or a web service. However, a frontend component exists in a decoupled CMS, whereas there is no frontend component or presentation element in a headless CMS.

Which architecture is best for my company?

Each of these CMS solutions has advantages and disadvantages, so selecting the best one is entirely dependent on your company's needs and resources. A decoupled system, for example, typically necessitates more frontend developer work than a headless system. However, because the content creation layer and presentation layer are separated in a decoupled CMS, content editors can continue producing work while site redesigns or upgrades are taking place. While headless and decoupled content management systems can be more flexible and scalable for businesses, they can also be more expensive to build than a traditional CMS.

Destination events 

Destination events are events or workflows triggered in a third party application from the CDP. 

Digital shopping cart abandonment

Digital shopping cart abandonment is when a potential customer starts a check out process after adding at least one item in the shopping cart for an online order but drops out of the process before completing the purchase. Any item that is added to the shopping cart but never made it through the buying process is considered to be “abandoned” by the shopper.

Content link - Wordstream blog cart abandonment

Direct-to-consumer advertising

Direct-to-consumer advertising (also referred to as DTC advertising) is the marketing of products or services directly to potential customers. Typically, direct-to-consumer advertising refers to marketing efforts made in industries where a middleman is involved. However, with the growing direct-to-consumer e-commerce movement, this term is sometimes used more broadly to describe the marketing and advertising efforts of any brand that is directly enticing consumers to purchase.

Examples of DTC advertising

In the traditional sense of the term, one of the most common examples of direct-to-consumer advertising is in the pharmaceutical industry, where drug manufacturers try to reach consumers with prescription drug advertising. With these prescription drug ads, the goal for pharmaceutical companies is to use their direct-to-consumer ads to educate consumers about their products and start a conversation between patients and their physicians, since a prescription from a physician is required to make the sale. Other examples of DTC advertising include diagnostic tests and financial services, or ads that aim to target consumers directly, rather than big-box retailers who purchase, then sell the products themselves.

Discount code

Discount codes are personalized or publicly-released codes offered to customers as a purchasing incentive that reduces the price of an order. Discount codes can be an effective means for ecommerce stores to attract shoppers and encourage repeat customers.

How to Build an Effective Discount Program?

A link can be placed at the point of checkout for the consumer to click and receive a discount code to apply to purchase, or a link to click which will send the consumer to a discounted section. There can also be a link for the consumer to print a coupon offering an additional savings. To achieve maximum results from your discount program, spread the word about it via your company's website and social media accounts. In addition, make sure to reference discount code availability in any SEM campaigns you run.

‍

Disintermediation

Disintermediation is the process of cutting out one or more middlemen from a transaction, supply chain, or decision-making process.

Example - Cryptocurrencies are disintermediating the financial sector and government from monetary transactions.

Domain key 

Domain keys are encrypted domain-level authentication standards designed to validate an email and its contents. They are used for the verification of the domain used in the ‘from’ or ‘sender’ header.

Drop shipping

Dropshipping is an order fulfillment option that allows ecommerce businesses to outsource procuring, storing, and shipping products to a third party—typically a supplier.

Example - Shopify, Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba,etc use drop shipping.

DMARC 

DMARC stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance”. It is an email authentication, policy, and reporting protocol. DMARC helps maintain the integrity of your website and domain by keeping it from malicious hacker activity such as spoofing and phishing.  

DTC ecommerce

DTC ecommerce (direct-to-consumer ecommerce; also referred to as D2C ecommerce) is a business model where merchants sell their products and services online, directly to their end customers, rather than involving third-parties like wholesalers, distributors, and large online marketplaces. 

Dunning

Dunning refers to the communication a company sends out to remind its customers to update their payment details when a credit or debit card payment is declined. Dunning is used as a tool to help reduce involuntary customer churn, thus increasing customer lifetime value. It is a particularly useful tool for subscription ecommerce stores, where customers are not entering payment information with every charge—this runs the risk of the recurring payment details becoming out of date over time. This collection process involves escalating degrees of intensity, typically involving the following iterative steps:

• Phone calls made to customers, gently reminding them of payments due
• Formal letters requesting payment
• In-person visits demanding payment
• Hiring third-party collections agencies to lean on delinquent customers
• Threatening legal action
• Executing litigation

‍

DMP (Data Management Platform)

A DMP, or data management platform, is a software tool used primarily in advertising and marketing to build profiles of anonymous individuals, store summary data about each individual, and share their data with advertising systems.

A DMP can be a useful tool to have when building your marketing strategy. It’s certainly a good first step to becoming a more data-driven marketer. But it works better as part of an ecosystem, not as a stand-alone solution. Let’s compare with a similar-sounding platform that is often equated to a DMP: the Customer Data Platform, or CDP.