Glossary

This glossary defines some concepts and best practices to help you understand Elastic Path Commerce Cloud, including Commerce Manager.

An API Gateway is a type of security software that filters API traffic.

Typically, an API gateway provides the following services:

• Access control and integration with Identity Management Systems
• Coordination and communication between services
• Security protection from Denial of Service and brute force attacks
• Traffic shaping
• Rate limiting
• Analytics
• Logging

Files used by Elastic Path Commerce Cloud. Files include product images, product documents, and any other product-related files.

Also referred to as Authentication Server. A server, usually external, which authenticates users for single sign-on.

• OpenID Connect
• Single Sign-on

The purchasable state of an item in the storefront. Availability determines whether the shopper can add a product to their cart, even if the product is not in stock. The possible availability states are:

• Manage Inventory
• Do Not Manage Inventory
• Always Available (through front-end configuration)

• Inventory

The brand of the product being sold.

A discount applied to a SKU or item in a shopper’s shopping cart.

• Shopping cart promotion

A collection of products.

A navigation entity that contains products or sub-categories that are used to organize a catalog’s contents.

After the shopper has added the items to purchase in the shopping cart, checkout is the point when the shopper is ready to complete the purchase. At this point, the storefront prompts the shopper to provide the information required to complete the transaction, including:

• Shipping and billing address
• Mode of shipment
• Payment information, such as a credit card, PayPal account, or another supported online payment method

• Order
• Shopping cart

Commerce Manager is a web application used to create and manage Elastic Path Commerce Cloud stores, including store catalogs, orders, users, and so on.

For a promotion, a type of promotion rule that determines in what circumstances the promotion applies.

For example, a condition can be used to specify that a shopping cart promotion only applies when the cart subtotal is above a certain amount. That is, to receive the discount, the total value of all items in the shopping cart must be equal to or greater than the amount specified in the condition.

• Promotion
• Promotion rule

A code entitling the bearer to a shopping cart promotion. The value of the coupon code is set on the associated promotion. Coupon codes are usually manually entered by the shopper on the shopping cart page or during the checkout process. Coupon codes can also be automatically applied through a referring link or email campaign.

See Flows.

An individual who has previously purchased from a store or has created a registered customer account.

A set of fields associated with a customer that can be populated either by the customer themselves or by a business user using the Dashboard or API.

A type of product that you can download from the storefront.

A 13-digit number associated with a barcode in all countries except the United States and Canada. A barcode uniquely identifies a product worldwide.

• Universal Product Code (UPC)

Flows extend an existing resource (such as products, customers, and orders) or create a new resource (such as wishlists, blogs, or reviews by customers). Flows that extend an existing resource are called core flows. Flows that create a new resource are non-core or custom flows.

Flows consist of custom data fields. An entry is a specific instance of a flow, such as a product entry. Use entries for custom flows (non-core) only. For core flows, these are managed for you.

All Fields have a type such as string, integer, boolean, date, or relationship. Fields also have a default value and an optional set of validation rules.

The supported upload file type formats are:

• .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .mov
• .mpg .mp4, .mp3, .aac
• .vrml, .vr
• .doc(x), ppt(x), xls(x), pdf

Tax that is included in the base price of the product. Value Added Tax (VAT) countries, such as the UK and France, include the VAT tax in the price of the goods sold.

Connect Commerce Cloud to external third-party services and systems. To create an integration, you use webhooks and observable events.

The quantity of a SKU currently in the warehouse.

Commerce Cloud defines the following inventory statuses:

• In Stock: The total amount of the SKU currently in the warehouse.
• Available: The amount currently in the warehouse that can be used to fulfill new orders.

The general formula for calculating inventory is: available = on hand - (allocated + reserved).

A series of numbers and/or letters that uniquely identifies a part or product. The MPN is created by the manufacturer and the MPN associates the part or product with that manufacturer.

See Variation.

OpenID Connect is an open specification for identity authentication and single sign-on. OpenID Connect allows websites, applications, and authentication services to exchange security information in a standardized way. Elastic Path Commerce Cloud uses the OpenID Connect protocol when single sign-on is enabled.

For more information, see What is OpenID?.

• Authentication Provider
• Single Sign-on

The list of items and their quantities that a shopper intends to purchase.

A service that processes and authorizes payments made from a customer to a retailer. It encrypts sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, and ensures that it is transferred securely.

Postman is a collaboration platform for API development, which is often used for API testing and maintenance.

The amount of money in a given currency that the shopper is expected to pay for a product. Prices are often subject to a variety of adjustments, including taxes, promotions, and sales.

A catalog entity that can be browsed by shoppers. It is a container for one or more SKU’s, which refer to the actual items that can be sold.

A price incentive offered to shoppers to promote a purchase when certain conditions have been satisfied. Also known as a discount.

• Shopping cart promotion

A condition or action associated with a promotion.

• Promotion

A refund of money that occurs after the completion of the sale. Refunds can be given to the customer for a variety of reasons and can range in amount up to a maximum of the original order. Refunds are generally credited back to the original payment source, such as the customerʼs credit card.

A visitor to a store. A shopper can also be a customer if they have previously purchased from the store or created a registered customer account.

A place in a store where shoppers can accumulate a list of items for purchase, described metaphorically as "placing items in the shopping cart". Items in a cart can be purchased, resulting in an order.

A type of promotion applied to a shopper’s shopping cart.

Single sign-on is an authentication process. When single sign-on is enabled, customers of a store can authenticate with Elastic Path Commerce Cloud by using an external authentication provider. Single sign-on can simplify the experience for customers because they don’t need to remember another password.

• Authentication Provider
• OpenID Connect

A human-readable, unique identifier that is used to identify a resource, such as a product. It is often easier to use a slug to refer to an item rather than a SKU or an alphanumeric identifier used by a computer.

In Commerce Manager, products have a Status attribute. Set the Status to post a product live to the front-end store or save it as a draft. After you set the Status to live, the product is visible to all site visitors.

It is best practice to work in draft mode until you are ready to post your work.

A SKU represents the exact variant of an item being sold in the store. It is linked directly to available inventory.

In Elastic Path Commerce Cloud, a store represents an organization that sells items to consumers. A store has a catalog containing the products that it makes available to shoppers. Stores use strategies to attract shoppers and encourage them to make purchases, such as merchandizing associations and promotions.

The terms store and storefront are sometimes used interchangeably but their meanings are slightly different.

• Storefront

In eCommerce, the storefront is the interface through which shoppers interact with a store, such as a website or mobile application. A storefront usually provides shoppers with the ability to browse or search product catalogs, view current promotions, and make purchases. Most storefronts include some form of shopping cart, which keeps track of the items that the shopper intends to purchase. The shopper then proceeds to checkout, where the storefront collects the information required to place the order.

• Checkout
• Order
• Shopper
• Shopping cart
• Store

Taxes are charged on top of the price for purchased products. Tax rates are set by a government body. The retailer charges the customer the tax at the point of purchase and transfers the collected amounts to the appropriate government department.

• Inclusive tax
• Tax code
• Tax jurisdiction

Identifies the type of tax applicable to a product. Tax codes are used to group tax categories.

• Tax
• Tax jurisdiction

A region that is entitled to impose taxes.

• Tax
• Tax code

A 12-digit number associated with a barcode in the United States and Canada. A barcode uniquely identifies a product worldwide.

• European Article Number (EAN)

A person who uses the Commerce Manager to manage a store. Users should not be confused with shoppers or customers, who generally interact with Elastic Path Commerce exclusively through a storefront.

Variations are attributes that you define once and associate with multiple products. For example, size and color are two variations. Each variation has defined variation options. For example, size might have the options small, medium, large, and extra large.

Using variations, you can create all possible combinations of the products. For example, if you associate the size and color variations with a t-shirt product, you can offer the t-shirt in all combinations of size and color.

Variations are re-usable and can be attached to different products. When variations augment a product, you can decide how to change the products with variations (sometimes called the child products); this is called a product modifier, which can create different descriptions for each variant, for example.

Offers different pricing on different quantities of items that customers purchase. For example, if a shopper buys five of an item, the price is $10. If the shopper purchases 10 of that same item, the price drops to $9.50.

Webhooks are defined HTTP callbacks that are triggered by some event on a web page, such as hitting the checkout button. When that event occurs, the source site makes an HTTP request to the URL configured for the webhook. Users can configure webhooks to cause events on one site to invoke behavior on another site. For example, a discount code or order confirmation email can be sent after an order has been fulfilled.

With a webhook, you can attach custom code that performs actions outside of the Commerce Cloud ecosystem.