Glossary

This glossary defines common terms used throughout the FluentCart documentation to help you understand key features and concepts.

A

• Abandoned Cart: A shopping cart where a customer has added products but has not completed the checkout process. FluentCart can track these for recovery and remarketing campaigns.

• Activation Limit: The maximum number of times a License Key can be used to activate a software product. This is set per Variation (e.g., a "Single Site" license has an activation limit of 1).

• Add-on: An optional extension that adds new features and capabilities to FluentCart Pro, such as Subscriptions or advanced licensing.

• Advanced Filters: A set of powerful tools in the admin dashboard for searching and segmenting records like orders or customers based on specific, detailed criteria.

• Applied Coupon: A record that tracks the use of a specific Coupon on an order, detailing the discount amount that was applied.

• AWS S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service): A secure cloud storage service used by FluentCart for delivering digital products. This ensures that large files are delivered quickly and that access is controlled and secure.

B

• Billing Address: The address associated with a customer's payment method. It is used for payment verification and generating invoices.

C

• Checkout: The final stage of a purchase where customers provide payment information, shipping details, and confirm their order.

• Checkout Action: An automation that triggers during the checkout process. It is used to connect FluentCart to other services, such as adding a customer to a specific list in FluentCRM. Also referred to as a Feed.

• Compare at price: An optional, higher price shown with a strikethrough next to the actual selling price. This is used to visually indicate a sale or discount.

• Coupon: A promotional code that customers can enter at checkout to receive a discount, such as a fixed amount or a percentage off their order total.

• Currency Settings: The global settings that define the store's primary currency, symbol, formatting, and decimal precision for all product prices and reports.

• Customer: An individual who has made a purchase from your store. FluentCart creates and maintains a profile for each customer, tracking their contact information and order history.

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): A key metric available in FluentCart's analytics that shows the total revenue a business can reasonably expect from a single customer account throughout their entire relationship with your store.

D

• Digital Product: Any item sold as a downloadable file, such as an e-book, software, or template.

E

• Email Credit Link: A unique URL that can be embedded in emails. When a customer clicks this link, a specific credit or discount is automatically applied to their next purchase or added to their account.

• Email Notification: Automated emails sent from your store to customers or administrators to confirm actions like order placement, payment, or refunds.

F

• Feed In the context of Checkout Actions:, a feed is a single, configured automation that sends data from FluentCart to another service (like FluentCRM).

G

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): A comprehensive data privacy regulation. FluentCart is built to be GDPR-compliant, ensuring that your customers' personal data is handled securely and with their consent.

H

• Headless Commerce: An e-commerce architecture where the front-end storefront (the "head") is decoupled from the back-end commerce engine (FluentCart). This allows for highly custom websites, mobile apps, or other front-ends to be built using the REST API.

• Hybrid Product: A single product listing that offers multiple types of the same item. For example, offering a book as a physical hardcover, a digital e-book, and a subscription to related content, all from one product page.

I

• Inventory Management: The process of tracking stock levels for Physical Products, including available quantities, units on hold for pending orders, and fulfilled units.

L

• Labels: Custom markers or tags that can be applied to orders or customers for internal organization. Labels help you filter and manage records efficiently (e.g., "VIP," "Follow-up Required").

• License Activations: The count of how many times a specific License Key has been used to activate a product. This is tracked against the Activation Limit.

• License Key: A unique code generated and sold with a Licensed Product to verify a customer's purchase and control its usage according to the Activation Limit and validity period.

• Licensed Product: A type of Digital Product (usually software or a plugin) that requires a License Key for activation and use.

• Logs: A system-generated record of important actions, events, and errors within FluentCart. Logs are essential for troubleshooting and debugging issues.

M

• Manual Order: An order created directly from the admin dashboard by a store administrator on behalf of a customer.

O

• Order: A formal record of a customer's transaction. It includes all details of the purchase, such as products, pricing, customer information, and payment status.

• Order Status: The current stage of an Order in the fulfillment process (e.g., Pending, Completed, Refunded). Statuses can be updated manually or automatically by payment events.

P

• Payment Gateway: A third-party service that processes customer payment information to authorize and complete transactions. FluentCart includes built-in integrations for major gateways like Stripe and PayPal, and allows for custom integrations via Webhooks.

• Physical Product: A tangible item that must be physically shipped to a customer. Requires inventory tracking and shipping settings.

• Product: Any item, service, or download that you offer for sale in your store.

• Product Category: A method for organizing similar products into public-facing groups to help customers browse your store (e.g., "Men's Clothing," "Software," "Home Decor").

• Product Status: The current visibility and availability of a product in your store's backend.

  • Draft: The product is not visible to the public and is still being worked on.
  • Published: The product is live and available for purchase on your storefront.
  • Archived: (Coming Soon) A planned status to hide a product from the main store view without deleting it.

• Product Type: A flexible, custom classification system you create to group and manage products for your own internal needs (e.g., "Polo Shirts," "Limited Edition," "Brand Collabs").

• Purchases: A record of a completed transaction where a customer has successfully bought one or more products from your store.

R

• Receipt Template: A customizable layout for the email receipts sent to customers after a purchase. You can modify its structure and content to match your brand.

• Refund: The action of returning a partial or full payment amount to a customer. Refunds are processed directly from the Order details page.

• Renewals: The process by which a customer extends their subscription or license for another term, either manually or through an automatic recurring payment.

• REST API (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface): An interface that allows developers to interact with your store's data (like products, orders, and customers) programmatically. It is the core technology that enables Headless Commerce and custom integrations.

• Roles & Permissions: Settings within WordPress that control which user roles (e.g., Administrator, Shop Manager) have access to view or manage specific FluentCart features and data.

S

• Shipping Address: The physical address where a customer's order will be delivered. This is only required for Physical Products.

• Shipping Class: A way to group products with similar shipping characteristics (e.g., "Heavy Items," "Fragile") in order to apply specific shipping cost adjustments.

• Shipping Method: The specific service used to deliver physical products, such as Flat Rate, Free Shipping, or Local Pickup. Methods are applied to different Shipping Zones.

• Shipping Zone: A specific geographic region (e.g., a country, state, or group of zip codes) to which a unique set of Shipping Methods and rates apply.

• Shortcode: A small placeholder, enclosed in curly braces (e.g., {order.id}), used in email and document templates. FluentCart automatically replaces it with the corresponding dynamic information, such as a customer's name or order number.

• Simple Pricing: A pricing method used for products that have only one version and a single price. To learn more, read the price configuring documentation.

• Simple Variations: A pricing method for products that come in multiple versions. This allows each Variation to have its own unique price, image, stock level, or license rules. To learn more, read the price configuring documentation.

• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): A unique alphanumeric code assigned to a product or a specific Variation to track inventory.