Drowning in industry jargon? We get it. With an industry so large, you’re bound to find an equally large amount of industry terms.
When running a business, the last thing you want is to waste time trying to make sense of different terminology. We wanted to simplify things for you by creating a go-to guide for industry jargon.
In our fulfilment glossary, you’ll find all of the most commonly used terms and what they mean.
Let’s dive in…
- 3PL- Third Party Logistics. 3PLs are can be used by eCommerce sellers/businesses to help handle their distribution, warehousing, and fulfilment services.
- 4PL– Fourth Party Logistics- Refers to an operational model in which a business outsources its entire supply chain management and logistics to one external service provider.
A
- Advanced Shipping Notice– a pending piece of delivery documentation that displays information about the products, quantities, and the nature of the shipment.
- API– An abbreviation meaning ‘application programming interface’, this is a software intermediary which allows two or more platforms to communicate with each other through the sharing of data and other information.
- ATA– An abbreviation standing for ‘Actual Time of Arrival’ which is when the vessel/ship/plane, either importing or exporting orders is determined to arrive at its destination.
- ATD- An abbreviation standing for ‘Actual Time of Departure’ which represents the actual time a shipment of orders has been dispatched from the point of origin.
B
- Barcode- Consisting of unique bars and spaces, a barcode is used to identify items and orders whenever it is scanned.
- Bundling- An event in which 2 or more products are combined into one transaction for a single price.
C
- Carrier- An organisation or an individual who can legally transport goods by land, water, or air, and they typically work with shippers to ship goods from one place to another
- Carrier Liability- A carrier that is responsible for all shipment loss, damage, and delay that comes with exceptions
- Chargeable weight- Used to refer to the Actual Gross Weight or the Volumetric weight of the shipment- whichever is greater will be the overall chargeable weight.
- Commodity Code- a code that describes a commodity (product/raw material) or a group of commodities that deals with standard classifications of goods. It could be a carrier tariff or regulating in nature.
D
- Dashboard– A virtual board that summarizes KPIs, and can also be used as a monitoring system for eCommerce businesses.
- DDP– Delivery Duty Paid are fees/taxes or duty charges that are paid by the person/company shipping the order
- DDU– Delivery Duty Unpaid are taxes or duty charges that must be paid for/by the recipient of the shipment delivery
- Dispatch– The process of sending off a shipment of orders to a customer or specific location
- Dunnage- The durable padding material that is used to protect goods during shipping.
E
- Emergency Stock- A certain amount of inventory that is to be used in an emergency situation
- End Item- When a product is sold/item is complete
- EORI Number- Stands for Economic Operators Registration and Identification number. It is a registration/identification number for businesses which undertake the import or export of goods both in and out of the EU.
- Export- The act of shipping an order to an international end customer
- Expediting- Shifting orders via regular channels at a faster rate.
F
- Fulfilment- The process of preparing orders and delivering them to end customers
- Fulfilment Service Provider- A third party company that provides order fulfilment services for eCommerce businesses (as an example)
H
- Hazardous Materials- A material that has the capacity to pose a risk to health, safety, and/or property whenever it is transported through the process of commerce.
- Holding Cost- The cost required to hold a unit of stock/item for a certain amount of time
- Handling Cost- The cost involved in moving, transferring, and generally handling inventory.
- Hundredweight- a pricing unit that is used within transportation (it is equal to 100 pounds)
I
- In Bound- Goods that are held or transported in-bound under customs control, import duties, and charges are paid.
- Inbound logistics- The management that commences from supplier and vendors, then into the production process to storage facilities.
- Inventory- the overall stock or quantity of products that you currently have
- Import- The act of shipping an item/order from one country into the another.
L
- Logistics- Refers to the overall process of managing how resources are acquired, stored, and transported to their final destination.
- Logistics Data Interchange (LDI)- An automatic system that electronically transmits logistics information
- Last Mile- The last step in the delivery process whereby the carrier/courier is responsible for the final handover of goods/order to the customer
N
- Net-Weight- How much an order weighs before the container or packaging is factored into the equation.
- Non-Stock Inventory- This relates to the inventory that is not tracked within your inventory system, meaning there is no SKU or barcode for the product
O
- Order Fulfilment- The process of receiving goods and orders, and then processing and delivering those goods to customers.
- Outsourcing- The act of utilizing a third party in order to provide services that you cannot perform yourself but would otherwise be performed in-house.
P
- Pick- The process of selecting goods for specific orders (e.g, from their storage location within a fulfilment warehouse) that are to be dispatched and sent off to the end-consumer.
- Pack- The process of packing goods for specific orders, which will then be sent off and received by the end-consumer.
S
- Supply Chain- A network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a specific product to the final buyer
- Shipping- The transport of goods by sea, air, or some other means from one location to the next
- Safety Stock- Also referred to as ‘emergency stock’, this is a level of extra added inventory that is kept to one side in order to help prevent things like stockouts.
- SKU- Abbreviation for ‘Stock Keeping Unit’ which refers to a scannable barcode that is used to help track and identify stock. Labels are usually on the product.
T
- Tariff- A tax that is assessed by a government on goods entering, or leaving a country
- Tracking Shipment- The process of localising shipping containers or parcel posts at any time during production, storing, and delivering
V
- VAT- Abbreviation for ‘Value Added Tax’ and refers to incrementally assessed tax that is levied on goods and services based on the price at each stage of production, distribution, etc.
- Value Added- The increased value of goods or services
- Vendor- The manufacturer or distributor of an item or product line
And that’s it. That concludes our go-to guide for industry jargon.
Here at TSP, these are terms that we are extremely familiar with due to our teams’ years and years’ worth of experience in the industry. Want us to work with our fulfilment and industry experts? Get in contact with one of our fulfilment experts today!
