Glossary

The commerce & AI glossary

Plain-language definitions of the commerce, AI, and AI-search terms that come up when you are building or scaling a modern store. Written to be accurate and quotable, for people and for the AI assistants they ask. Each term links to the FactoryJet service, comparison or guide that goes deeper, and 14 definitions cite the primary source they rest on.

49 terms · Updated 22 October 2026 · Sources read 22 October 2026

AI Search & Generative Engine Optimization

How content earns citations in AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring and writing content so that generative AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Gemini quote and cite it. The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Princeton, Georgia Tech, Allen AI and IIT Delhi researchers, published at KDD 2024. Unlike traditional SEO, which optimizes to rank a link, GEO optimizes to be the source an AI extracts its answer from.Read more: GEO servicesOur AI citation studySource: Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", KDD 2024 (arXiv:2311.09735)
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is optimizing content to be served as the direct answer to a question, whether in a featured snippet, a voice-assistant reply, or an AI-generated answer. It emphasizes clear question-and-answer structure, concise definitions, and FAQ schema.Read more: AI SEO servicesAIO guide
Google AI Overviews: Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries shown at the top of Google results that synthesize information from multiple pages and link to their sources. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in them beyond normal SEO best practice. Appearing as a cited source inside an AI Overview is a primary goal of generative engine optimization.Read more: How to show up in AI OverviewsAI visibility checkerSource: Google Search Central, "AI features and your website"
llms.txt: llms.txt is a Markdown file placed at a website's root that gives large language models a curated summary of the site, its key facts, and its most important URLs. Jeremy Howard proposed it in September 2024. It is cheap to publish, but an Ahrefs study of 137,000 sites found 97% of llms.txt files received no requests in May 2026, so treat it as housekeeping, not a ranking lever.Read more: What our study found on llms.txtAhrefs llms.txt study (15 Jun 2026)Source: Jeremy Howard, "The /llms.txt file" proposal (published 3 Sep 2024)
Structured data: Structured data is standardized, machine-readable markup added to a page that describes its content to search engines and AI systems. On the web it is usually expressed with the Schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD format. See Schema.org.Read more: Technical SEO servicesSource: Google Search Central, "Introduction to structured data markup"
Schema.org: Schema.org is a shared vocabulary of types and properties, such as Organization, Product, FAQPage, and Article, used to mark up web content so machines can understand it. It was founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex, and is developed through an open community process.Read more: Technical SEOSource: Schema.org, "About Schema.org"
JSON-LD: JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is a W3C standard format for structured data, and the one Google recommends where a site's setup allows it. It places a block of schema markup in a script tag, kept separate from the visible page content, and should be server-rendered so non-JavaScript crawlers can read it.Read more: GEO guideSource: W3C, "JSON-LD 1.1" Recommendation
Knowledge graph: A knowledge graph is a network of real-world entities (people, companies, places, concepts) and the relationships between them. Search and AI systems use it to disambiguate and connect information; the sameAs property links a website's entity to its profiles elsewhere to strengthen that connection.Read more: Getting ChatGPT to recommend you
Entity SEO: Entity SEO is optimizing for a clearly defined entity, such as a brand, person, or product, rather than only for keywords. It relies on consistent naming, structured data, and authoritative references so search and AI systems recognize the entity as a single trusted node.Read more: AI SEO services
E-E-A-T: E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, the qualities Google's quality raters use to judge content. Google says trust matters most and that E-E-A-T itself is not a specific ranking factor. Named authors with credentials, cited sources, and a transparent organization all strengthen it.Read more: SEO servicesSource: Google Search Central, "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content"
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is an AI technique that retrieves relevant documents from a knowledge source and feeds them to a language model, so its answer is grounded in specific, up-to-date information rather than only its training data. The term comes from a 2020 paper by researchers at Facebook AI Research, University College London and New York University.Read more: Private AI on your own dataSource: Lewis et al., "Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks", 2020 (arXiv:2005.11401)
Semantic search: Semantic search interprets the meaning and intent behind a query rather than matching keywords literally. It uses embeddings and language models to return conceptually related results, which is how most AI answer engines find their sources.Read more: LLM development

AI & Automation

The building blocks of language models, agents, and automated workflows.

Large Language Model (LLM): A large language model (LLM) is an AI model trained on vast amounts of text to understand and generate human language. Models such as Claude, GPT, and Gemini power chatbots, AI search, and agentic systems.Read more: LLM development
AI agent: An AI agent is a software system that uses a language model to pursue a goal by planning, calling tools or APIs, and taking actions with limited or no human intervention, rather than only answering a single prompt. See Agentic AI.Read more: AI agent developmentWhat an AI agent costs to build
Agentic AI: Agentic AI refers to AI systems that act autonomously toward goals, making decisions, using tools, and completing multi-step tasks. It contrasts with a passive assistant that only responds to direct instructions.Read more: What is agentic AIAgentic AI vs AI agents
Multi-agent system: A multi-agent system coordinates several specialized AI agents that each handle part of a task and communicate to reach an outcome no single agent would complete alone, for example separate agents for research, drafting, and review.Read more: Multi-agent workflowsn8n vs LangChain vs CrewAI
Model Context Protocol (MCP): The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open-source standard that lets AI applications such as Claude or ChatGPT connect to external tools, data sources, and services through a consistent interface. It standardizes how an agent reads context and takes actions across systems.Read more: Custom MCP servers for ERP and CRMSource: Model Context Protocol, "What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?"
Workflow automation: Workflow automation uses software to run multi-step business processes with little manual effort. AI automation adds language models to tools like n8n, Zapier, and Make so workflows can interpret content and make decisions as well as move data between apps.Read more: AI automationn8n automationn8n vs LangChain vs CrewAI
AI chatbot: An AI chatbot is a conversational interface powered by a language model that answers questions and completes tasks in natural language. On a business site it can handle support, qualify leads, or guide product discovery.Read more: AI chatbot developmentChatbots vs agents
Prompt engineering: Prompt engineering is the practice of writing and structuring instructions to get reliable, accurate output from a language model. It includes providing context, examples, constraints, and a clear task definition.Read more: AI consulting
Fine-tuning: Fine-tuning adapts a pre-trained language model to a specific domain or task by training it further on a curated dataset, improving accuracy and tone for that use case.Read more: LLM development
Embeddings: Embeddings are numerical representations of text or other data that capture meaning, so similar items sit close together in a mathematical space. They power semantic search, recommendations, and retrieval for AI systems.Read more: Private AI on your own data
Vector database: A vector database stores embeddings and retrieves the items most semantically similar to a query. It is a core component of retrieval-augmented generation and semantic search.Read more: AI development

Commerce

The platforms, models, and metrics behind modern DTC and B2B commerce.

E-commerce: E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services online, including a brand's own store, online marketplaces, and B2B ordering portals.Read more: Ecommerce developmentBest ecommerce platforms
Direct-to-consumer (DTC): Direct-to-consumer (DTC) is a model in which a brand sells straight to shoppers through its own channels, bypassing wholesalers and retailers to own the customer relationship and data.Read more: DTC ecommerce agency
B2B commerce: B2B commerce is the online sale of products or services between businesses. It typically involves account-specific pricing, bulk ordering, approval workflows, and purchase-order payment, alongside or instead of a consumer storefront.Read more: B2B ecommerceFaire wholesale
Omnichannel commerce: Omnichannel commerce gives customers a consistent, connected experience across every channel, a brand's website, marketplaces, social shops, and physical stores, with inventory, orders, and customer data kept in sync. See Unified commerce.Read more: Omnichannel commerceOmnichannel vs multichannel
Unified commerce: Unified commerce runs every sales channel on a single real-time platform and data source rather than stitching separate systems together, so inventory, orders, pricing, and customers stay consistent across store, marketplaces, and B2B at once.Read more: Omnichannel vs multichannel
Headless commerce: Headless commerce separates the storefront that shoppers see from the commerce engine behind it, connecting them through APIs. This lets teams build a fast, custom front end while keeping a proven backend for catalog, cart, and checkout. See Composable commerce.Read more: Headless commerceHeadless vs monolithic
Composable commerce: Composable commerce builds a store from independent, best-of-breed components (search, checkout, CMS, payments) connected by APIs, so each piece can be swapped or upgraded without replatforming the whole system.Read more: Shopify Plus vs custom headless
Marketplace: A marketplace is an online platform such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, or TikTok Shop where many third-party sellers list products to a shared audience. Selling on marketplaces alongside an owned store is a common multichannel strategy.Read more: Marketplace managementMarketplace fee calculatorTarget PlusWayfair
Shopify Plus: Shopify Plus is the enterprise tier of Shopify, aimed at high-volume and complex merchants. It adds higher API limits, checkout customization, multi-store management, and automation tools on top of standard Shopify.Read more: Shopify Plus agencyShopify Plus vs Magento
Adobe Commerce (Magento): Adobe Commerce, formerly Magento, is an open-source-based commerce platform known for deep customization and strong B2B features. It suits merchants with complex catalogs and workflows that need extensive control.Read more: Magento developmentMagento to Shopify
BigCommerce: BigCommerce is a SaaS commerce platform with strong native and headless capabilities, known for flexible APIs and no added transaction fees. It is often chosen by mid-market and B2B merchants.Read more: BigCommerce developmentShopify Plus vs BigCommerce
WooCommerce: WooCommerce is an open-source commerce plugin for WordPress that turns a WordPress site into an online store, offering wide flexibility through themes and plugins and full control of hosting and code.Read more: WooCommerce developmentShopify vs WooCommerceWooCommerce to Shopify
Point of sale (POS): A point-of-sale (POS) system is the hardware and software a business uses to take in-person payments and record sales. In unified commerce it shares inventory and customer data with the online store in real time.Read more: ERP and POS integration
Replatforming: Replatforming, or migration, is moving a store from one commerce platform to another, transferring catalog, customers, orders, content, and URLs while preserving SEO and minimizing downtime.Read more: ReplatformingReplatforming cost calculatorReplatforming without losing SEO
Average order value (AOV): Average order value (AOV) is the average amount a customer spends per order, calculated as total revenue divided by number of orders. Raising AOV through bundling, upsells, and free-shipping thresholds is a common growth lever.Read more: Ecommerce CRO
Conversion rate optimization (CRO): Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the practice of increasing the share of visitors who take a desired action, such as buying or submitting a lead, by testing and improving design, copy, and flow.Read more: Ecommerce CROEcommerce speed calculator
Commerce AI operator: A commerce AI operator is software that does the operating work of running a store, beyond reporting on it. It reads live data from your channels, flags problems such as low stock or a price gap between channels, proposes the fix, and carries it out once a person approves. Commerceflo by FactoryJet is an example.Read more: CommercefloEcommerce AI agents

Web & Development

The rendering, performance, and technical-SEO concepts behind a fast, discoverable site.

Next.js: Next.js is a React framework for building fast, production-grade websites and web apps. It supports server-side rendering and static generation, which deliver complete HTML that search engines and AI crawlers can read without executing JavaScript.Read more: Shopify Plus vs custom Next.jsWeb app development
Server-side rendering (SSR): Server-side rendering (SSR) generates a page's full HTML on the server for each request, so browsers, search engines, and AI crawlers receive complete content immediately rather than a blank shell filled in later by JavaScript.Read more: Headless Shopify development
Static site generation (SSG): Static site generation (SSG) builds every page's HTML ahead of time at build and serves the pre-rendered files from a CDN. It is fast, reliable, and fully readable by crawlers.Read more: Web design
Core Web Vitals: Core Web Vitals are Google's user-experience metrics for loading (Largest Contentful Paint), interactivity (Interaction to Next Paint), and visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift). Google's threshold for a good LCP is 2.5 seconds or less. They feed into search ranking and reflect real-world speed.Read more: Core Web Vitals optimizationEcommerce speed calculatorSource: web.dev, "Web Vitals"
Lighthouse: Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool from Google that audits a page's performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO, scoring each out of 100. It can run on any public page or one behind a login.Read more: Ecommerce speed calculatorSource: Chrome for Developers, "Introduction to Lighthouse"
Progressive Web App (PWA): A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a website that behaves like a native app: it can work offline, load instantly, and be installed on a device, while still being reached through a normal URL.Read more: Ecommerce app development
Canonical URL: A canonical URL tells search engines which version of a page is the primary one when similar or duplicate content exists at multiple addresses. It consolidates ranking signals and prevents duplicate-content dilution.Read more: Technical SEO servicesSource: Google Search Central, "How to specify a canonical URL"
hreflang: hreflang is an HTML annotation that tells search engines which language and region a page targets, so the right version is shown to the right audience. It is essential for sites serving multiple countries.Read more: Technical SEOSource: Google Search Central, "Tell Google about localized versions of your page"
Web accessibility (WCAG): Web accessibility is designing sites so people with disabilities can use them, guided by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It covers keyboard navigation, color contrast, screen-reader support, and clear structure.Read more: Accessible medical websitesWeb designSource: W3C, "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2"

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