Shopify terms, explained simply

A plain-English A-Z glossary of Shopify terms, features, and concepts for store owners and their teams.

New to Shopify, or just stumbled across a term you don't recognize? This glossary explains the key words and phrases you'll encounter as a Shopify store owner — in plain English, with no jargon.

Quick summary

This is a reference page. Use your browser's search (Ctrl + F on Windows, Cmd + F on Mac) to find the term you're looking for. Each entry is intentionally short — click the related links in each section for deeper explanations.

A

Abandoned cart When a customer adds items to their cart but leaves your store without completing the purchase. Shopify tracks these. You can send automated recovery emails to remind customers to come back. Some apps specialize in abandoned cart recovery.

Admin Short for "Shopify admin" — the backend area of your store that only you and your staff can access. Your customers see your storefront; you manage everything from the admin.

App A third-party add-on installed from the Shopify App Store that extends your store's functionality. Apps can add product reviews, loyalty programs, email marketing tools, and more. See Shopify apps explained.

App Store (Shopify) The marketplace at apps.shopify.com where you browse and install apps. Accessible from inside your Shopify admin under Apps.

Authorized (payment status) The customer's card has been approved for the amount, but the money has not yet been captured (taken). Some stores authorize then capture later, for example when an item ships.

B

Back in stock notification A feature (usually via an app) that lets customers sign up to be emailed when a sold-out product becomes available again.

Billing cycle How often Shopify charges you for your plan — monthly or annually. Annual billing is cheaper overall.

Bundle Selling multiple products together as a single item — for example, a kit with three products at a combined price. Bundles can be created natively in Shopify or via apps.

Buy button A Shopify feature that lets you embed a product purchase button on any external website — your blog, a WordPress site, etc. — without a full Shopify storefront. Used with the Starter plan.

C

Cart The virtual basket where customers collect items before checking out. See Understanding the Shopify cart & checkout.

Cash on delivery (COD) A payment method where the customer pays when the order is delivered, not at checkout. Available as a manual payment method.

Channel A sales channel is a place where you sell. Shopify's main channels include your Online Store, Shop, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Amazon, and Point of Sale. Each channel can be enabled or disabled per product.

Checkout The multi-step process where a customer enters their shipping address and pays for their order. Shopify hosts and controls the checkout. See Understanding the Shopify cart & checkout.

Collaborator account A special type of account for agencies and developers. It gives access to your store without using a staff account slot. See Adding & managing staff accounts.

Collection A group of products organized together, like "Summer dresses" or "Sale items." Collections appear as category pages in your store. Collections can be manual (you add products one by one) or automated (products are added based on rules you set, like a tag or price range).

Custom domain Your own web address (e.g., yourstore.com) connected to your Shopify store. Without a custom domain, your store's address is yourstore.myshopify.com.

Customer account An optional account that shoppers can create on your store to save addresses and track order history. Guest checkout is also available if you enable it.

D

Dashboard The home screen of your Shopify admin. It shows a summary of today's sales, recent orders, and quick-access links.

Discount code A code that customers enter at checkout to receive a price reduction. You create these in Discounts. Can be a percentage, fixed amount, free shipping, or buy-X-get-Y.

Draft order An order you create manually in the Shopify admin on behalf of a customer — for example, for phone orders. You can send the customer an invoice link so they can pay.

Duties Fees charged by customs authorities when goods cross international borders. Different from sales tax. Shopify can collect duties at checkout via the Duties and import taxes feature (Advanced plan and Shopify Plus).

E

Economic nexus A US tax concept. Once your sales in a state cross a threshold (usually $100,000 or 200 transactions), you may be required to collect sales tax in that state — even if your business is based elsewhere. Shopify Tax tracks your exposure. See How taxes work in Shopify.

Express checkout Fast checkout options like Shop Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay that let customers skip entering card details. These appear as buttons on product pages and the cart.

F

Fulfillment The process of preparing and shipping an order. "Fulfilled" means the order has been shipped. "Unfulfilled" means it's waiting to be shipped. See How to process & fulfill an order.

Fulfillment service A third-party warehouse or service that stores your products and ships orders for you — for example, ShipBob or Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). These integrate directly with Shopify.

G

Gift card A prepaid card that customers can buy and redeem in your store. Shopify has built-in gift card functionality on all paid plans.

Guest checkout Checking out without creating a customer account. Shopify supports this by default. Enabling guest checkout typically increases conversions.

H

Handle A unique, URL-friendly identifier Shopify generates for products, collections, and pages (e.g., blue-cotton-t-shirt). Used in URLs. Changing a handle changes the product's URL.

I

Inventory The stock of physical products you have available to sell. Shopify tracks inventory counts per product variant, per location.

Inventory location A place (warehouse, shop, etc.) where you store stock. Shopify supports multiple locations and routes orders to the right one.

L

Liquid The programming language Shopify uses for themes. You will likely never need to edit Liquid yourself — we handle that. If you hear a developer mention Liquid, they are talking about your theme's code.

M

Metafield Extra custom data you can store on products, customers, orders, or collections — things Shopify doesn't have a standard field for. For example, a custom "ingredients" field on a food product. Metafields can be displayed in your theme by a developer.

myshopify.com Every Shopify store has a permanent URL in the format yourstore.myshopify.com. This is your store's internal address. You connect your own domain (e.g., yourstore.com) on top of it. The myshopify.com address always remains active behind the scenes.

O

Online Store The part of your Shopify admin where you manage your storefront — themes, pages, blog posts, navigation, and store preferences.

Order A completed purchase made by a customer. Orders have a payment status and a fulfillment status. See Understanding orders in Shopify.

P

Payment gateway The service that processes credit and debit card payments. Examples include Shopify Payments, Stripe, and Authorize.net. See Payment providers (Shopify Payments, PayPal, etc.).

Payout The transfer of your sales proceeds from Shopify to your bank account. With Shopify Payments, payouts happen on a regular schedule (typically 1–3 business days).

POS (Point of Sale) Shopify POS is the app and hardware system for selling in person — at a market stall, a pop-up shop, or a retail store. It syncs inventory with your online store.

Product variant A specific version of a product with different options — for example, a T-shirt in size Large, color Blue. Each variant can have its own price, SKU, and inventory count.

R

Refund Returning money to a customer for a purchase. See How to refund an order in Shopify.

S

Sales channel Any place where you sell products through Shopify. Channels include your Online Store, Shop app, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Amazon, and more.

Shipping profile A set of shipping zones and rates applied to a group of products. Your store has a default "General" profile. You can create extra profiles for products that need different shipping rules.

Shipping zone A geographic area (set of countries or regions) with its own shipping rates. See Setting up shipping zones & rates.

Shop Pay Shopify's express checkout service. It saves a customer's details across all Shopify stores, so returning shoppers can check out with one tap. Only available when Shopify Payments is enabled.

Shopify Payments Shopify's built-in payment processor. Using it removes Shopify's per-transaction fee. See Payment providers (Shopify Payments, PayPal, etc.).

Shopify Plus Shopify's enterprise plan for high-volume merchants. It includes full checkout customization, unlimited staff, multiple storefronts, and lower transaction fees.

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) A unique code you assign to a product or variant for inventory tracking purposes. It is internal to your business and customers don't see it.

Slug The last part of a URL that identifies a page — for example, /products/blue-t-shirt. In Shopify, this is sometimes called the "handle."

Staff account An account you create for an employee or team member, giving them access to your Shopify admin with specific permissions. See Adding & managing staff accounts.

T

Tag A label you add to products, orders, customers, or blog posts to organize and filter them. For example, tagging products with "summer" or "sale."

Tax-inclusive pricing When the price shown to customers already includes tax. No tax is added at checkout. Common in the UK, EU, and Australia.

Theme The design template that controls how your store looks. Shopify's theme editor lets you customize it without code. See Using the Shopify theme editor.

Transaction fee A percentage charged by Shopify on each sale when you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments. Ranges from 0.5% to 2% depending on your plan. Eliminated entirely by using Shopify Payments.

Tracking number A number provided by your shipping carrier that lets the customer (and you) see where their parcel is. You add this when fulfilling an order.

V

Variant See Product variant.

VAT (Value Added Tax) A tax applied to goods and services in the UK, EU, and many other countries. Different from US sales tax. You register for VAT, collect it from customers, and remit it to the government. See How taxes work in Shopify.

W

Webhook An automatic notification Shopify sends to another system when something happens — for example, "a new order was placed." Used by developers and app integrations. You don't need to manage these directly.

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Shopify terms, explained simply

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