7 min readQuanify
The Shopify Glossary: Terms Every New Merchant Should Know
Your first time inside Shopify Admin, you'll run into unfamiliar terms: Variant, Fulfillment, Metafield... This glossary is your cheat sheet.
Series
Shopify BasicsPart 2 of 8
- 1What Is Shopify? Why Should You Use It to Sell Online?
- 2The Shopify Glossary: Terms Every New Merchant Should Know
- 3How to Register and Set Up Your Shopify Store from Scratch
- 4Choosing a Theme & Customizing Your Shopify Storefront
- 5How to Add Products & Organize Collections on Shopify
- 6Setting Up Payments & Shipping on Shopify
- 7Custom Domain, SSL & Going Live on Shopify
- 8Processing Your First Order & Basic Shopify Operations
One of the biggest reasons new merchants feel overwhelmed when starting with Shopify isn't that the platform is too complicated — it's that it throws a lot of unfamiliar terminology at you without explanation. You open the Admin, see words like Metafield, Fulfillment, SKU, Liquid... and you don't know where to begin.
This article is your Shopify dictionary. No fluff, no jargon — each term is explained in plain language with real-world examples. Bookmark it and come back whenever you need it.
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Image 1 — Shopify Admin Interface
Screenshot of the actual Shopify Admin — left sidebar with menu items: Orders, Products, Customers, Content, Analytics, Marketing, Discounts, Apps. Each item annotated with a short description.
💡 Reading tip: You don't need to memorize everything right now. Skim through once to get the lay of the land. When you encounter a term in a later article or inside your Admin, come back here to look it up.
Group 1 — Products & Collections
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Image 2 — Storefront vs Admin
Side-by-side illustration: left = what customers see (Storefront — product page), right = the corresponding Admin view (where the merchant manages that product). Connected by an arrow to show the relationship.
🛍️ Products & Collections
Store / Storefront
Your overall online shop. The Storefront specifically is the customer-facing side — your homepage, product pages, cart, and checkout. This is what shoppers see.
Example: "Does my storefront look professional?" = asking about the customer-facing website design.
Product
An item you're selling. Each product includes a title, description, images, price, SKU, and inventory count. A single product can have multiple Variants.
Example: "Classic T-Shirt" is one Product, even if it comes in multiple colors and sizes.
Variant
Different versions of the same product. Shopify lets you create variants across up to 3 options (e.g., Color, Size, Material). Each variant has its own price, SKU, and inventory.
Example: T-Shirt / Red / Size M is one variant; T-Shirt / Blue / Size L is another.
Collection
A group of products organized by theme or category. Two types: Manual (you handpick each product) and Automated (Shopify adds products automatically based on conditions you set, like a specific tag).
Example: "Summer 2025 Collection", "Sale Items", "New Arrivals".
Tags
Keywords attached to products for filtering and categorization. Tags power Automated Collections, filter views inside Admin, and can support SEO.
Example: A product might have tags: "t-shirt", "cotton", "unisex", "sale".
SKU
Stock Keeping Unit — an internal code you assign to each product variant for inventory management. SKUs are never shown to customers.
Example: "TSH-CLASSIC-RED-M" = Classic T-Shirt / Red / Size M.
Metafield
Custom data fields you can add to products, pages, or blog posts beyond the standard fields. Useful when you need to store specific information like "Ingredients", "Care Instructions", or detailed dimensions.
Example: Adding a "Fabric Composition" metafield to display on product pages for clothing.
Group 2 — Orders & Operations
📦 Orders & Operations
Order
A purchase transaction from a customer. Each order has its own status: Pending, Confirmed, Fulfilled, Completed, or Cancelled. You manage all orders from Admin → Orders.
Fulfillment
The entire process from receiving an order to delivering it to the customer — packing, printing shipping labels, handing off to a carrier, and updating tracking. "Mark as fulfilled" means you've completed this process.
Checkout
The final steps a customer takes to complete a purchase: entering shipping address, selecting a shipping method, and paying. Shopify controls the checkout flow — deep customization requires a Shopify Plus plan.
Abandoned Checkout
When a customer adds products to their cart and begins checkout but doesn't complete the payment. This is "lost revenue" — Shopify can automatically send reminder emails to bring them back.
Customer
A customer profile in your Admin: includes name, email, address, order history, and your internal notes. You can tag customers (VIP, wholesale, etc.) for segmentation.
Refund / Return
Refund = returning money to the customer (full or partial). Return = the customer sends merchandise back. Shopify has a built-in process for both inside the Admin.
Group 3 — Technical & Storefront
🎨 Technical & Storefront
Admin / Dashboard
Your merchant back office — where you add products, view orders, and configure your store. Accessed at
yourstore.myshopify.com/admin. Customers never see this area.
Theme
Your store's design template — covers layout, colors, fonts, and how products are displayed. Shopify's Theme Store has free and paid options ($150–$400). Article CB-04 covers this in detail.
Online Store 2.0
Shopify's latest theme architecture — allows drag-and-drop sections on every page (not just the homepage). When choosing a theme, prioritize OS 2.0-compatible ones.
Sections & Blocks
The building blocks of your pages in Theme Editor. A Section is a major area (e.g., hero banner, featured collection). A Block is a smaller element inside a section (e.g., a heading, button, or image within that banner).
Liquid
Shopify's proprietary templating language used to build and customize themes. You don't need to know Liquid for basic Shopify use — only when you want to edit theme code directly. Covered in the Advanced Series.
Example:
{"{{ product.title }}"} displays the product name on a page.App
Plugins from the Shopify App Store that add features to your store. Available in free and paid versions. Note: installing too many apps can slow down your page speed — only install what you genuinely need.
Group 4 — Finance & Payments
💳 Finance & Payments
Payment Gateway
The service that connects your store to banks and digital wallets to process payments. Shopify supports many gateways: Stripe, PayPal, and various local providers. Each has its own transaction fees.
Transaction Fee
An additional fee Shopify charges (on top of the gateway's own fees) when you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments. Ranges from 0.5% to 2% depending on your plan.
Example: Basic plan + PayPal → Shopify adds a 2% transaction fee per order on top of PayPal's own fees.
Shopify Payments
Shopify's built-in payment gateway. If you use it, transaction fees are waived. Currently available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and other markets — check if it's available in your country at checkout.
COD
Cash on Delivery — the customer pays in cash upon receiving the package. The most common payment method in many emerging markets. Easy to set up in Shopify under "Manual payment methods".
Shopify Plan
Your monthly subscription tier: Basic ($29), Shopify ($79), Advanced ($299), Plus (custom pricing for enterprise). Higher plans offer lower transaction fees and more advanced features.
📌 Note on Shipping terms: Terms like Shipping Zone, Shipping Rate, and Carrier will be explained in detail in article CB-06 when you actually need to configure them — it'll be much easier to understand in that practical context.
Putting It All Together
If you had to sum up how all these concepts relate to each other in one sentence:
You (the Merchant) use the Admin to manage Products (with their Variants and SKUs), organize them into Collections, and display them on the Storefront (styled by a Theme). When a Customer completes Checkout through a Payment Gateway, you receive an Order and handle Fulfillment. Shopify charges a Transaction Fee if you use a third-party gateway. Apps fill feature gaps, and Liquid is the language for deeper customization.
That's the entire Shopify framework. Everything in the articles that follow builds on these concepts. Now that you have the vocabulary, let's start building.
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Next up: [CB-03] How to Register and Set Up Your Shopify Store from Scratch →
Save this page and come back whenever you need to look up a term.
