Essential terms you should know

Available-to-Promise (ATP) is the calculation that determines whether and when an ordered item can actually be delivered to a customer.

B2B and B2C describe two fundamentally different business models, selling to other companies versus selling to private consumers, each with distinct buying processes, fulfillment requirements, and customer expectations.

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A backorder allows customers to purchase an out-of-stock item with a committed delivery date once it's restocked, instead of losing the sale entirely.

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CEP stands for courier, express, and parcel services: the logistics providers that move low-volume, low-weight shipments, ranging from same-day bike couriers to standard parcel delivery.

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Click & Collect lets customers buy and pay for products online and pick them up in-store, skipping both shipping costs and delivery wait times.

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Click & Meet lets customers book a fixed appointment for in-store shopping with dedicated staff support, rather than just showing up unannounced.

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Click & Reserve lets customers reserve an item online for free and pay only when they pick it up in store, with no upfront commitment.

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Dropshipping lets retailers sell products without holding any inventory themselves. The manufacturer or wholesaler ships directly to the customer.

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Endless Aisle lets store staff and customers order out-of-stock or store-exclusive items digitally in-store, effectively extending a physical store's assortment beyond its shelf space.

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ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) centralizes a company's core business data — finance, HR, procurement, logistics — but it isn't built to manage the real-time complexity of order fulfillment across channels.

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Fulfillment covers everything that happens between a completed sale and the product reaching the customer — from order acceptance to picking, packing, and returns.

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In-store returns let customers return online purchases at a physical store instead of mailing them back, giving retailers a faster and often cheaper way to process the return.

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Inventory management tracks stock from arrival to departure, aiming to keep the right products in the right place while minimizing tied-up capital and avoiding stockouts.

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Logistics plans and controls the flow of goods and information across the entire value chain, from procurement to distribution, with the goal of getting the right product to the right place at the right cost.

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MACH is an architecture principle — Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless — that lets companies combine best-of-breed tools instead of being locked into one monolithic platform.

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Micro hubs are small, city-center logistics points where parcels are temporarily stored before last-mile delivery by bike couriers or electric vehicles, easing urban traffic and emissions.

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Microservices break an application into small, independently deployable services, so a failure or update in one doesn't bring down the rest of the system.

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Same-day delivery means an order is delivered to the customer on the same calendar day it was placed. Next-day delivery means the order arrives within 24 hours, typically the following business day.

Omnichannel connects all of a retailer's sales and communication channels so customers get a consistent experience and information no matter where they shop.

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Omnichannel fulfillment services are the specific operational capabilities — inventory sync, order processing, shipping, and returns — that make an omnichannel strategy actually deliverable, not just a concept.

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An online shop is a website where retailers sell goods or services directly to customers, handling everything from product presentation to checkout digitally.

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An Order Management System (OMS) processes and manages customer orders across sales channels — from inventory and orchestration to shipping — regardless of where or how the order came in.

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Packing is the step after picking where an order is prepared for shipment, choosing the right materials and cushioning so it arrives safely and undamaged.

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Picking is the process of collecting a customer's ordered items from warehouse or store shelves, the step directly before packing and shipping.

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Replenishment is the process of reordering stock before it runs out, keeping inventory levels balanced between meeting demand and tying up too much capital.

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Ship-from-store lets retailers fulfill online orders directly from a nearby store instead of routing everything through a central warehouse.

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