E-commerce Dictionary

A SKU is a unique alphanumeric code used by retailers to identify and track products and their variants within their inventory systems.

A sales channel is any route through which a business sells to customers, such as a webshop, marketplace, physical store, wholesaler or sales team.

Semantic PIM leverages semantic web technologies to understand the meaning and relationships between product data, enabling richer search, recommendations, and automation.

Semantic search is a search method that matches the meaning and intent of a query, not only its exact words, so shoppers find relevant products even with different wording.

Sentiment analysis is the use of language technology to detect whether text such as a review or comment expresses a positive, negative or neutral opinion.

A single source of truth (SSOT) is the one agreed system where a type of data is maintained, so every team and channel uses the same version.

Social commerce integration connects your product catalog to social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest so shoppers can find and buy products there.

Stock availability means whether a product is in stock and ready to sell now, and how many units you can promise after reservations and damaged stock are taken out.

Structured content is content stored as separate, labeled fields instead of free text, so it can be reused, filtered and published to many channels.

Substitute products are products a customer can buy instead of another because they meet the same need, such as tea instead of coffee or another brand of the same item.

A super-SKU is a parent code that groups the variants of one product, such as sizes and colors, and holds the data they share. You sell the variants, not the super-SKU.

Supplier data integration is the process of bringing product data from suppliers into your own system and mapping it to one consistent product model.

Supplier information management (SIM) is the practice and software for collecting, checking and maintaining data about your suppliers, such as company details, certificates, contracts and performance.

Supplier data onboarding is the process of collecting product data from suppliers, mapping it to your own structure, checking it and making it ready to sell.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) oversees the entire flow of goods and services, from raw materials to final delivery to the consumer. It integrates all activities to optimize efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Sustainability attributes are product data fields that describe environmental and social properties, such as materials, recycled content, certifications, origin and repairability.

Synthetic product imagery is product visuals made with 3D rendering or generative AI instead of a camera, used for packshots, variants and lifestyle scenes.