E-Comm & Digital Shopping Lingo: Explain It So A Kid Could Understand

First, there was a town crier, followed by posters, newspapers, and eventually Yellow Pages. Shopping has always been led by awareness and advertising. Today, thanks to companies like Amazon and e-comm beasts like Shopify, digital shopping has become mainstream. Now, digital shopping 🛍 isn’t new. We’ve been using our fingers to browse the net for years. With the click of a mouse or the tap of a trackpad, the magic happens. We get one step closer to buying the thing. Of course, the Thing is different for each shopper, but the steps we take towards becoming a customer are the exact same steps with each and every new shopping experience.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Recently, I was chatting with a group of owners who are building online businesses and I made a discovery. While they all knew their businesses, only 1 of them understood the marketing lingo and jargon we toss around online every day. Lingo we assume everyone knows… but they don’t.

The truth is many marketers don’t want to admit they don’t understand something, instead, they nod their heads and just smile. Remember the movie Madagascar? Just smile and wave boys!

OK, so let us demystify some of the lingo and all get on the same page, K?

When shopping — either online or in a physical store — we take the same steps. So, let’s tie those steps together to make this explanation kid-friendly.

Traffic: Ads, Word of Mouth, and Referrals

We discover a store has the thing we want. (Sometimes we see an ad that brings us this information, other times it’s word of mouth.) In the digital space, this is an ad or a referral source. Referral sources can be other businesses or individuals but is a non-advertised way of driving traffic to your store. When you look at your Google Analytics, look at your referral sources. That’s how some people discover you.

Let’s Go Shopping: Window Shoppers, Browsers, and Almost Buyers

There are Window Shoppers, and there are those Deep Browsers who go up and down every aisle or visit every page of your website. These are Casual Shoppers or page views, and the ones who go to every page or read every post on your blog, are Multi-Page Visitors or High-Intent Shoppers. I like to call them Almost Buyers.

Grab And Go

After searching high and low, you’ve finally found the elusive item! (It was staring you in the face the entire time, but that happens to all of us, so you get a hall pass.) Realizing it’s the last one on the shelf, you grab it and toss it in the shopping cart.

Congrats, shopper! You’ve achieved Goal 1 🏆 in the process, Add To Cart or ATC for you lingo nerds.

I Forgot About The Parking Meter

A moment after you loaded the coveted item in your cart, a bead of sweat breaks on your brow. You forgot to put money in the parking meter. Surely a ticket awaits you. You grab your bag, leave the cart, and make a mad dash for the door.

You Abandoned Cart in mid-aisle.

…And We’re Back

After feeding the meter you head back inside, delighted to discover your cart is right where you left it. Let’s go!

You’ve Made It To The Register

With the potential ticket excitement behind you, the cashier asks for your loyalty number and you give it to them. He starts scanning your haul, item, by item, while you ignore the endless text messages pinging your phone. (Hey, it happens to me every time I am in line to get something. )

As the last item scans, your phone rings. It’s your son’s school nurse. Your kid broke his arm during recess! You apologize and again, bolt for the door.

Congrats, shopper! You’ve achieved Goal 2 🏆 in the process, Initiate Checkout or IC, but… you still haven’t become a purchaser.

Baby Come Back

Thankfully you gave the cashier your loyalty info and the manager put everything back in your cart for you. How nice, right? They even sent you a reminder via email to let you know they saved your stuff! What’s more, they wanted to offer you a discount to come back in and get everything.

This Abandoned Cart Recovery Email or ACR, worked and you came back to the store. There are easy-to-use tools for this, we use Mailchimp and have some built-in wizardry that does this automagically.

Finish What You Started

You waltz in the store and are greeted by a magnificent sight, your cart, full of everything you grabbed, bagged for your convenience. All you have to do is swipe your card and leave. With the swift and agile movements of a gazelle, you finish shopping.

Congrats, shopper! You’ve achieved Goal 3 🏆 in the process, Purchase Complete.

Bring On The Haters

I know, some of you will crap on this blog. After all, it’s basic stuff we all should know, right? Yeah, but… not everyone is where you are and sometimes we just need to explain it so a kid could understand.