# Shopify inventory glossary > Plain-English definitions of the stockroom words Shopify uses, from GTIN to shrinkage, written by people who have done the job. - Source: https://storestandards.com/glossary/ - Entries: 60 - [3PL](https://storestandards.com/glossary/third-party-logistics/): A 3PL is a company that stores your stock and ships your orders, so you do not run a warehouse yourself. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/third-party-logistics.md - [Admin API](https://storestandards.com/glossary/admin-api/): The Admin API is how apps read and change things in your Shopify store, including the stock levels a scanner updates. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/admin-api.md - [Advance shipping notice](https://storestandards.com/glossary/advance-shipping-notice/): An advance shipping notice is a message from a supplier saying what they have dispatched and when it should reach you. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/advance-shipping-notice.md - [Available inventory](https://storestandards.com/glossary/available-inventory/): Available inventory is the stock a customer can still buy. It is what you hold on hand, minus what is already promised to other orders. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/available-inventory.md - [Backorder](https://storestandards.com/glossary/backorder/): A backorder is an order for something you do not have in stock yet, taken on the promise that it is coming. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/backorder.md - [Barcode field](https://storestandards.com/glossary/barcode-field/): The barcode field is the box on a Shopify variant that holds the number printed under the bars on the product. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/barcode-field.md - [Bin location](https://storestandards.com/glossary/bin-location/): A bin location is the address of a place in your stockroom, so anyone can be told where to find a product without being shown. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/bin-location.md - [Built for Shopify](https://storestandards.com/glossary/built-for-shopify/): Built for Shopify is a badge Shopify gives apps that meet its quality bar for speed, design and support. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/built-for-shopify.md - [Bundle](https://storestandards.com/glossary/bundle/): A bundle is several products sold together as one line, either kept as its own stock or drawn from the parts. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/bundle.md - [Check digit](https://storestandards.com/glossary/check-digit/): A check digit is the last number in a barcode. It is calculated from the others, so a scanner can tell when a digit has been read wrong. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/check-digit.md - [Code 128](https://storestandards.com/glossary/code-128/): Code 128 is a barcode you generate and print yourself. It holds letters as well as numbers, and it is any length you want. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/code-128.md - [Cost per item](https://storestandards.com/glossary/cost-per-item/): Cost per item is what you paid for one unit, stored on the variant so Shopify can work out margin and stock value. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/cost-per-item.md - [CSV import](https://storestandards.com/glossary/csv-import/): A CSV import is a spreadsheet of products or stock uploaded to Shopify in one go, matched to existing records by handle. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/csv-import.md - [Cycle counting](https://storestandards.com/glossary/cycle-counting/): Cycle counting is counting a few products often, on a rota, instead of counting everything once a year. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/cycle-counting.md - [Dead stock](https://storestandards.com/glossary/dead-stock/): Dead stock is inventory that is not selling and is not going to, tying up money and shelf space you need for something else. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/dead-stock.md - [Draft order](https://storestandards.com/glossary/draft-order/): A draft order is an order you create yourself in the Shopify admin, usually to invoice a customer who cannot check out normally. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/draft-order.md - [EAN](https://storestandards.com/glossary/ean/): An EAN is the thirteen-digit retail barcode used across Europe and most of the world outside North America. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/ean.md - [Fulfillment](https://storestandards.com/glossary/fulfillment/): Fulfillment is the step where you tell Shopify an order has been picked, packed and sent, which closes it and releases the stock. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/fulfillment.md - [Fulfillment service](https://storestandards.com/glossary/fulfillment-service/): A fulfillment service is a third party connected to Shopify that holds your stock and ships your orders automatically. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/fulfillment-service.md - [Goods received note](https://storestandards.com/glossary/goods-received-note/): A goods received note is your own record of what a delivery actually contained, written by the person who counted it. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/goods-received-note.md - [GS1 company prefix](https://storestandards.com/glossary/gs1-company-prefix/): A GS1 company prefix is the block of barcode numbers a business rents from GS1 so its products can be identified worldwide. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/gs1-company-prefix.md - [GTIN](https://storestandards.com/glossary/gtin/): A GTIN is the number that identifies a product worldwide. The barcode on the box is just a way of printing it. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/gtin.md - [Handle](https://storestandards.com/glossary/handle/): A handle is the readable part of a Shopify URL, generated from the title and used to identify a product, collection or page. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/handle.md - [Inventory adjustment](https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-adjustment/): An inventory adjustment is a manual change to a stock number, made when what the system says does not match the shelf. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-adjustment.md - [Inventory history](https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-history/): Inventory history is Shopify's log of every stock change on a variant, with the time, the reason and who or what made it. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-history.md - [Inventory item](https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-item/): An inventory item is the countable half of a variant. Stock levels attach to it, one per location, not to the variant itself. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-item.md - [Inventory policy](https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-policy/): Inventory policy is the setting that decides whether a Shopify variant stops selling at zero or keeps going. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-policy.md - [Inventory tracking](https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-tracking/): Inventory tracking is the setting that tells Shopify to count a variant. With it off, Shopify holds no quantity at all. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-tracking.md - [Inventory turnover](https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-turnover/): Inventory turnover is how many times you sell and replace your stock in a year. Higher means your money is working harder. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-turnover.md - [Landed cost](https://storestandards.com/glossary/landed-cost/): Landed cost is what a unit of stock cost by the time it reached your shelf, including freight, duty and handling. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/landed-cost.md - [Lead time](https://storestandards.com/glossary/lead-time/): Lead time is how long it takes for stock to arrive after you place the order, measured from your side of the transaction. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/lead-time.md - [Location](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-location/): A location is a place Shopify holds stock, such as a shop, a stockroom, a warehouse or a third party who ships for you. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-location.md - [Metafield](https://storestandards.com/glossary/metafield/): A metafield is an extra field you add to a Shopify record to store something the built-in fields have no box for. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/metafield.md - [Multi-location inventory](https://storestandards.com/glossary/multi-location-inventory/): Multi-location inventory means Shopify holds a separate stock number for every location, and no single total behind them. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/multi-location-inventory.md - [Part delivery](https://storestandards.com/glossary/part-delivery/): A part delivery is when a supplier sends some of an order now and the rest later, against the same purchase order. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/part-delivery.md - [Partial fulfillment](https://storestandards.com/glossary/partial-fulfillment/): Partial fulfillment is sending some line items of an order now and the rest later, leaving the order open in between. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/partial-fulfillment.md - [Pick list](https://storestandards.com/glossary/pick-list/): A pick list is the sheet or screen that tells someone which products to collect for an order, and where each one is. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/pick-list.md - [Preorder](https://storestandards.com/glossary/preorder/): A preorder is a sale for stock that has not arrived yet, taken against a date you have told the customer. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/preorder.md - [Product option](https://storestandards.com/glossary/product-option/): A product option is one axis a customer chooses along, such as size or colour. Shopify allows three, and their combinations make the variants. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/product-option.md - [Purchase order](https://storestandards.com/glossary/purchase-order/): A purchase order is the document you send a supplier to order stock. It lists what you want, how many, and what you agreed to pay. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/purchase-order.md - [Putaway](https://storestandards.com/glossary/putaway/): Putaway is moving stock from the receiving area onto the shelf it will be picked from, and recording where it went. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/putaway.md - [Receiving](https://storestandards.com/glossary/receiving/): Receiving is checking a delivery against what you ordered, then telling your system what actually arrived. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/receiving.md - [Reorder point](https://storestandards.com/glossary/reorder-point/): A reorder point is the stock level that tells you to order more, set so the delivery lands before you run out. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/reorder-point.md - [Safety stock](https://storestandards.com/glossary/safety-stock/): Safety stock is the extra you hold to cover the weeks when sales run high or a delivery runs late. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/safety-stock.md - [Sales channel](https://storestandards.com/glossary/sales-channel/): A sales channel is somewhere your Shopify products are on sale, such as your website, a marketplace, or a till in a shop. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/sales-channel.md - [Shopify Flow](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-flow/): Shopify Flow is Shopify's own automation tool. It watches for something happening in your store and runs an action when it does. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-flow.md - [Shopify Markets](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-markets/): Shopify Markets is how one Shopify store sells into several countries, with local pricing, currency, duties and domains. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-markets.md - [Shopify Plus](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-plus/): Shopify Plus is the enterprise tier, with higher limits, more locations and staff, and control over parts of checkout the other plans cannot touch. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-plus.md - [Shopify POS](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-pos/): Shopify POS is Shopify's till app for selling in person, sharing one product catalogue and one stock count with the online store. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/shopify-pos.md - [Shrinkage](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shrinkage/): Shrinkage is stock you paid for that is gone without being sold, through theft, damage or errors nobody recorded. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/shrinkage.md - [SKU](https://storestandards.com/glossary/sku/): A SKU is your own code for one exact thing you sell, down to the size and colour. You invent it, and only your shop uses it. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/sku.md - [Stock accuracy](https://storestandards.com/glossary/stock-accuracy/): Stock accuracy is how often the number on screen matches the number on the shelf, counted line by line rather than in total. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/stock-accuracy.md - [Stockout](https://storestandards.com/glossary/stockout/): A stockout is running out of something a customer wanted to buy. The lost sale is usually the smallest part of the cost. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/stockout.md - [Stocktake](https://storestandards.com/glossary/stocktake/): A stocktake is counting every product you hold and correcting the system to match what is really on the shelves. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/stocktake.md - [Stocky](https://storestandards.com/glossary/stocky/): Stocky is Shopify's own inventory and purchasing app, included with Shopify POS Pro at no extra cost. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/stocky.md - [Transfer](https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-transfer/): A transfer is a record of stock moving from one Shopify location to another, open until the receiving end confirms what arrived. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-transfer.md - [Unfulfilled order](https://storestandards.com/glossary/unfulfilled-order/): An unfulfilled order is one that has been paid for but not yet sent. Its stock is committed and cannot be sold to anyone else. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/unfulfilled-order.md - [UPC](https://storestandards.com/glossary/upc/): A UPC is the twelve-digit retail barcode used in the United States and Canada. It is the North American cousin of the EAN. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/upc.md - [Variant](https://storestandards.com/glossary/variant/): A variant is one buyable version of a Shopify product, such as the blue medium. Stock, price and barcode all live on the variant. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/variant.md - [Webhook](https://storestandards.com/glossary/webhook/): A webhook is a message Shopify sends to an app the moment something happens in your store, so the app does not have to keep asking. Markdown: https://storestandards.com/glossary/webhook.md