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.

Abandoned cart

When a customer adds items to their cart but leaves your store without completing the purchase. Shopify tracks abandoned checkouts (where the customer started checking out and entered their email address) under Orders → Abandoned checkouts, and can automatically email them a link back to their cart. Some apps specialize in abandoned cart recovery.

Admin

Short for "Shopify admin" — the backend area of your store that only you and the people you give access to (staff and collaborators) can use. Your customers see your storefront; you manage everything from the admin.

App

An add-on, usually made by a third-party developer, installed from the Shopify App Store to extend 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. You can also search for apps by clicking Apps in your Shopify admin.

Authorized (payment status)

The payment provider has approved the customer's payment, but the money has not yet been captured (taken). You only see this status if you've chosen to capture payments manually, so you can take the money later. Capture the payment before the authorization expires.

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. You can create bundles with Shopify Bundles, a free app made by Shopify, or with third-party apps.

Buy button

A Shopify sales channel that lets you embed a product purchase button on an external website or blog — a WordPress site, for example. Customers check out through Shopify's checkout. The Buy Button channel is included in all Shopify plans.

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. You choose which channels each product is published to in the product's Publishing section.

Checkout

The step where a customer enters their shipping and payment details and places their order. By default, Shopify's checkout is a single page (a three-page layout is optional). How much you can customize it depends on your plan. 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. You can add products yourself, or set conditions (like a tag or price range) so matching products are added automatically. On older setups these are called manual and smart collections (smart collections used to be called automated); Shopify is rolling out a newer collections model that combines both approaches.

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 account shoppers can sign in to on your store to see their orders and manage their details, such as shipping addresses. Customers can still check out as guests unless you require them to sign in.

Dashboard

The home screen of your Shopify admin, which Shopify calls Home. It shows daily tasks, next steps for your orders, recent sales activity, and key metrics (by default for the last 30 days).

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 estimate and collect duties and import taxes at checkout. Shopify's pricing page lists this on all plans, and your store must meet some requirements, such as adding HS (customs) codes to products.

Economic nexus

A US tax concept. Once your sales in a state cross that state's threshold (each state sets its own), you may be required to collect sales tax in that state — even if your business is based elsewhere. Shopify Tax gives you insights into where you might owe tax. See How taxes work in Shopify.

Express checkout

Fast checkout options like Shop Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay (Shopify calls them accelerated checkouts). They save a returning customer's payment and shipping details so they don't have to type them again. Some can appear as buttons on product pages, next to Add to cart.

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 warehouse or service that stores your products and ships orders for you. Shopify has its own (Shopify Fulfillment Network), and third-party services usually connect to Shopify through an app.

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 signing in to a customer account. Shopify allows this by default, unless you turn on the setting that requires customers to sign in before checkout.

Handle

A unique, URL-friendly identifier Shopify generates from the title of a product, collection, or page (e.g., blue-cotton-t-shirt). Used in URLs. Changing a handle changes the URL; Shopify offers to create a redirect from the old address when you do.

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.

Liquid

The template language Shopify created and 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.

Metafield

Extra custom data you can store on products, customers, orders, and other parts of your store — 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 gets a free address in the format yourstore.myshopify.com, unique to that store. You can change the name part only once. You connect your own domain (e.g., yourstore.com) so customers see your branded address instead.

Online Store

The sales channel in your Shopify admin where you manage your storefront — themes, pages, blog posts, and store preferences. (Menus now live under Content → Menus.)

Order

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

Payment gateway

The service that processes credit and debit card payments. Examples include Shopify Payments and third-party providers such as Authorize.net. Shopify supports over 100 card payment providers, and which ones you can use depends on your country. See Payment providers (Shopify Payments, PayPal, etc.).

Payout

The transfer of your sales proceeds from Shopify to your bank account. With Shopify Payments, you can choose a daily, weekly, or monthly payout schedule, though some countries limit these options. How long funds take to arrive depends on your country and your bank.

POS (Point of Sale)

Shopify POS is the app (for iOS and Android) for selling in person — at a market stall, a pop-up shop, or a retail store. It uses the same inventory as 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.

Refund

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

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. Customers save their payment and shipping details once, then check out faster on any store that offers Shop Pay. It's part of Shopify Payments, though stores in Australia, France, and the US can also offer it with some third-party payment gateways.

Shopify Payments

Shopify's built-in payment processor, available in certain countries. Payments through it don't carry Shopify's third-party 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, up to 9 expansion stores, priority 24/7 support, and the lowest third-party transaction fee rate.

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

An optional code you assign to a product or variant for inventory tracking and sales reporting. Each SKU should be unique. It's mainly for your own business use.

Slug

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

Tag

A label you add to products, orders, customers, blog posts, and more to organize and filter them. Some themes show product tags to customers, for example in filter menus. For example, tagging products with "summer" or "sale."

Tax-inclusive pricing

When the price shown to customers already includes tax. Nothing extra is added at checkout; the included tax is shown next to the total. Customers in places such as the UK expect prices to include VAT.

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

Shopify calls this a third-party transaction fee: a percentage Shopify charges on sales paid through a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments. The rate depends on your plan (see shopify.com/pricing for current rates), and it doesn't apply to payments through Shopify Payments.

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Shopify terms, explained simply

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