B2B Commerce Glossary

The terms B2B manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers run into when they sell online: ordering, pricing, procurement, EDI, ERP and freight. Each entry gives a short definition first, then how it works and how it is handled on Shopify.

A

Agentic commerce (full guide): An approach to buying and selling in which AI agents act on behalf of buyers or businesses to research, negotiate and complete transactions, often without human input at every step.

B

B2B portal: A B2B portal is an online ordering site where a supplier's business buyers browse products, place and track orders, manage invoices and get their own pricing, with bulk ordering, multi-user accounts and PO workflows.
Backorder: A backorder is a business order, or part of an order, for an item that is out of stock and still awaiting fulfillment. The in-stock items can ship first and the backordered quantity follows once new stock arrives.

C

Case pack: The number of identical units packed into one standard shipping case. When a supplier sells full cases only, orders come in multiples of the case pack.
Composable commerce (full guide): A modular approach in which each business capability, such as checkout, catalog, search, pricing or order management, is an independent component connected via APIs and assembled into a custom stack.
Contract pricing (full guide): Prices agreed with a specific business customer, usually for a set period, that override the standard price list for that account.
CPQ (configure, price, quote): Software that helps sellers quote complex, configurable products. Its configure step combines components and parts into a viable product, with a configuration engine to manage the complexity.
cXML: cXML (commerce eXtensible Markup Language) is an open, XML-based protocol that procurement applications and suppliers use to exchange PunchOut sessions, purchase orders, confirmations, ship notices and invoices.

D

Dealer portal (full guide): A private ordering portal for a manufacturer's dealer network. On Shopify it can be configured from B2B company accounts, price lists, scoped catalogs and terms, with a product layer for the dealer-facing experience.
Draft order (full guide): An order a sales rep or admin builds on the customer's behalf in Shopify, then sends as an invoice or converts to an order.

E

EDI (electronic data interchange): EDI (electronic data interchange) is the computer-to-computer exchange of strictly formatted business documents, such as purchase orders, ship notices and invoices, that trading partners' systems process automatically.
EDI 810 (Invoice): An EDI 810 is the X12 Invoice transaction set: the document a seller sends to bill a buyer for goods or services. At a minimum it carries a purchase order reference and the total invoice amount.
EDI 820 (Payment Order/Remittance Advice): An EDI 820 is the X12 Payment Order/Remittance Advice transaction set. A buyer uses it to order a payment through a financial institution, to tell the seller which invoices a payment covers, or both at once.
EDI 846 (Inventory Inquiry/Advice): An EDI 846 is the X12 Inventory Inquiry/Advice transaction set. A seller uses it to share inventory information with a prospective buyer, with no obligation to purchase. It can also carry an inquiry about availability.
EDI 850: An EDI 850 is the X12 Purchase Order transaction set: the electronic document a buyer's system sends to a supplier to place an order, with the PO number, parties, items, quantities, prices and delivery details.
EDI 855 (Purchase Order Acknowledgment): An EDI 855 is the X12 Purchase Order Acknowledgment: the document a seller sends back after processing a buyer's 850 purchase order, affirming the order or indicating changes line by line.
EDI 856 (Ship Notice/Manifest): An EDI 856 is the X12 Ship Notice/Manifest transaction set, also called an advance ship notice (ASN). A supplier sends it to describe a shipment: its orders, items, quantities, packaging, markings and carrier.
EDI 860 (Purchase Order Change Request): An EDI 860 is the X12 Purchase Order Change Request (Buyer Initiated). A buyer sends it to change a purchase order already submitted, or to confirm a change the seller started. The seller can answer with an 865.
EDI 940 (Warehouse Shipping Order): An EDI 940 is the X12 Warehouse Shipping Order transaction set. The depositor sends it to advise a warehouse to make a shipment, confirm one, or modify or cancel a shipping order it sent earlier.
EDI 945 (Warehouse Shipping Advice): An EDI 945 is the X12 Warehouse Shipping Advice transaction set. A warehouse sends it to advise the depositor that a shipment was made, and it is used to reconcile order quantities with shipment quantities.
EDI 997 (Functional Acknowledgment): An EDI 997 is the X12 Functional Acknowledgment: the receipt a trading partner's system returns to report whether the EDI documents it received were accepted, accepted with errors, or rejected on syntax.
ERP integration (full guide): A connection that keeps an ecommerce store and an ERP system in sync on products, pricing, inventory, customers and orders.

F

Freight class: A number from 50 to 500 that the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) gives a commodity for less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping, based on density, handling, stowability and liability.

G

GS1-128 label (GS1 Logistic Label): A GS1-128 label, called the GS1 Logistic Label in GS1 standards, identifies a carton, pallet or other logistic unit with a Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) encoded in a GS1-128 barcode.
GTIN (Global Trade Item Number): A GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the GS1 number printed under a product's barcode. It identifies a trade item, from a single unit to a case, with the same number at every retailer, distributor and marketplace.

H

Headless commerce (full guide): Headless commerce decouples the front end, or head, of an ecommerce site from its back-end technology, using API calls between a presentation layer and an application layer so content can reach any screen or device.

I

iPaaS (integration platform as a service): Integration platform as a service: a suite of cloud services for building, running and governing integration flows between separate applications, such as an online store and an ERP.

L

Landed cost: The full cost of acquiring a product: the purchase price plus every expense incurred in acquiring it, usually freight, insurance, import duties and other charges.
Lead time: The time between starting a process and finishing it. In supply chain management, conventionally the time from when a customer places an order to when the goods are ready for delivery.
List price: The published price of an item in a catalog or price list before any discounts. In B2B, it is the base that account discounts and volume pricing reduce to the net price a buyer actually pays.

M

MAP pricing: MAP pricing (minimum advertised price) is a supplier's floor on the price resellers may advertise for its products. The FTC discusses it as a term of cooperative advertising programs.
Middleware: Software that sits between applications and enables communication and data management between them. In B2B commerce, integration middleware can connect a storefront such as Shopify to an ERP or accounting system.
MOQ (minimum order quantity): The smallest quantity a supplier will accept in a single wholesale order, set as a number of units or a total order value.

N

Net 30: A B2B payment term that gives a business buyer 30 days to pay the full amount on an invoice. It is a form of trade credit, and net 60 works the same way with 60 days.

O

Order management system (OMS): An order management system (OMS) tracks sales, orders, inventory and fulfillment across channels, from receipt of an order to delivery, routing each order to the best fulfillment location and handling returns.
Order to cash: The B2B process that runs from the moment a customer places an order, through fulfillment and invoicing, until the customer pays for it.

P

Payment terms (full guide): The agreed conditions for when and how a business buyer pays an invoice, such as due on receipt, Net 30 or Net 60.
PIM (product information management): PIM (product information management) is the system that centralizes product data, such as titles, specs, SKUs, images and translations, so teams can enrich and approve it before it reaches every sales channel.
Price list (full guide): A set of prices assigned to a customer, customer group or market, so different buyers see the prices agreed with them.
Punchout (full guide): A procurement connection that lets a buyer open a supplier's online catalog from inside their purchasing system, fill a cart, and send it back as a requisition for approval.
Purchase order: A purchase order (PO) is the document a business buyer sends a supplier listing the products, prices and quantities it wants to order. Its PO number then ties together the acknowledgment, shipment and invoice.

Q

Quote to cash (full guide): The B2B process that runs from a buyer's quote request through pricing, approval, order, invoice and payment.

R

RFQ (request for quote): A request a buyer sends to one or more suppliers asking for a price on specific products or services, used when price is the main factor in choosing a supplier.

S

Shopify B2B (full guide): Shopify's native business-to-business features, now on every paid plan: company profiles, customer permissions, price lists, quantity rules, payment terms and B2B checkout.
Shopify Functions: Shopify Functions are custom code, shipped inside apps, that changes Shopify's backend logic for discounts, delivery and payment options, order routing and checkout validation. They replace Shopify Scripts, now deprecated.
Shopify Plus (full guide): Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month on a 3-year contract or $2,500 per month on a 1-year contract. Shopify B2B runs on every paid plan, and Plus adds unlimited catalogs, deposits and partial payments.
SKU (stock keeping unit): A SKU (stock keeping unit) is the internal code a business creates for each product and variant it stocks. Unlike a GTIN or UPC, it is not shared: two sellers can stock the same item under different SKUs.
System of record: The information system that holds the authoritative version of a given piece of data, such as a contract price or stock level, so other systems link to it or extract data from it.

T

Tax exemption certificate: A tax exemption certificate is the form a buyer gives a seller to claim exemption from sales tax on otherwise taxable purchases. The seller keeps it on file. A resale certificate is one kind, used for goods bought to resell.
Tiered pricing: A pricing strategy that sets different price rates by quantity purchased or service level. Set by quantity, each higher tier carries a lower per-unit price.
Total cost of ownership: Total cost of ownership (TCO) is the full cost of an option: implementation and operating costs plus related costs such as overhead, salaries, upgrades, support and maintenance, estimated the same way for every alternative.
Trade credit: Credit one business extends to another by letting it buy goods or services on account and pay later, on agreed terms such as net 30 or net 60.

U

Unified commerce (full guide): Unified commerce puts inventory, orders and customer data in one place across in-store, online, wholesale and marketplaces, so every channel works from one source of truth.
UPC (Universal Product Code): A UPC (Universal Product Code) is the 12-digit GS1 product number, also called a GTIN-12, and the UPC-A barcode that carries it. Retailers scan it at checkout to identify the item and look up its price.

W

Warehouse management system (WMS): A warehouse management system (WMS) is software built to support and optimize warehouse and distribution operations: it tracks stock movements in real time and supports receiving, putaway, picking, packing and shipping.
Webhook: A webhook is an HTTP request one system sends to another when an event happens, such as an order being created. The receiver registers a URL for the events it wants, instead of polling an API for changes.

Browse by topic

ERP and Integration ERP integration, iPaaS (integration platform as a service), Middleware, Order management system (OMS), System of record, Webhook
Inventory and Freight Backorder, Freight class, GS1-128 label (GS1 Logistic Label), Landed cost, Lead time, Warehouse management system (WMS)
Ordering and Pricing Case pack, Contract pricing, CPQ (configure, price, quote), Draft order, List price, MAP pricing, MOQ (minimum order quantity), Price list, Purchase order, RFQ (request for quote), Tiered pricing
Payments and Credit Net 30, Order to cash, Payment terms, Quote to cash, Tax exemption certificate, Trade credit
Platforms and Commerce Models Agentic commerce, B2B portal, Composable commerce, Dealer portal, Headless commerce, Shopify B2B, Shopify Functions, Shopify Plus, Total cost of ownership, Unified commerce
Procurement and EDI cXML, EDI (electronic data interchange), EDI 810 (Invoice), EDI 820 (Payment Order/Remittance Advice), EDI 846 (Inventory Inquiry/Advice), EDI 850, EDI 855 (Purchase Order Acknowledgment), EDI 856 (Ship Notice/Manifest), EDI 860 (Purchase Order Change Request), EDI 940 (Warehouse Shipping Order), EDI 945 (Warehouse Shipping Advice), EDI 997 (Functional Acknowledgment), Punchout
Product Data and Identifiers GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), PIM (product information management), SKU (stock keeping unit), UPC (Universal Product Code)

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