Welcome to the heatmap Glossary

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules that allows software applications to communicate with each other.

Average session duration is the average amount of time visitors spend on your site during a single visit. It signals how engaging your content is and whether shoppers are exploring or bouncing. Longer is not always better, but very short can flag relevance issues.

Average order value (AOV) is the average amount a customer spends each time they place an order. It’s calculated by dividing total revenue by total number of orders in a given period.

Add-to-cart rate is the percentage of sessions where at least one product is added to the shopping cart. It measures the effectiveness of your product pages and merchandising in generating buying intent.

A/B testing compares two versions of a webpage, ad, email, or other asset to determine which performs better against a defined goal. It’s a method for making data-driven decisions.

An attribution model is a method for assigning credit for a sale to the various marketing channels, campaigns, and touchpoints a customer engages with before purchasing. In ecommerce, it answers the question: “Which parts of our marketing actually influence conversions?”

An assisted conversion is a sale in which a channel or campaign played a role before the final interaction that drove the purchase. It measures supporting contributions in the conversion path.

Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that start and end on the same page with no further interaction. It reflects whether the initial experience met the visitor’s expectations. Lower bounce rates create more chances to convert.

‍CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the language used to control the look and layout of web pages.

A call-to-action (CTA) is a direct instruction that prompts your audience to take a specific action, such as “Add to Cart,” “Sign Up,” or “Shop Now.” In ecommerce, CTAs are the link between attention and conversion, moving shoppers from interest to action. They appear across ads, landing pages, emails, and product pages, and are essential for guiding customer behavior toward business goals.

Conversion rate (CR) is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, most commonly a purchase in ecommerce. It shows how effectively your website and marketing turn traffic into paying customers.

Cart abandonment rate is the percentage of shopping carts created that do not result in a completed purchase. It shows how often customers start the purchase process but leave before checking out.

Checkout completion rate is the percentage of customers who start the checkout process and finish it with a completed purchase. It reflects how well your final purchase steps are optimized.

Customer retention rate (CRR) measures the percentage of customers who remain active and continue buying from your brand over a specific period. It reflects your ability to keep customers engaged and loyal.

Click-to-open rate (CTOR) is the percentage of email recipients who clicked a link after opening the email. It shows how effective the content inside the email is at driving engagement once you’ve won the open. CTOR isolates content performance from open performance, giving you a clearer view of message relevance.

Cost per click (CPC) is the amount you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. It’s a key efficiency metric for paid traffic campaigns, especially in PPC search and social advertising.

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) is the amount you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is shown. It’s commonly used in display, social, and video advertising to measure brand awareness and cost efficiency.

‍‍Cost per acquisition (CPA) is the amount you spend on marketing to acquire one paying customer. It’s a key metric for understanding the efficiency and profitability of your paid campaigns in ecommerce.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) measures the total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing, sales, and related expenses. It’s a broader metric than CPA, accounting for all acquisition-related spending.

Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV) is the total revenue you can expect from a customer over the entire duration of their relationship with your brand. It predicts how valuable a customer is beyond their first purchase.

Coupon usage rate is the percentage of orders where customers applied a coupon or discount code. It tracks how often promotions are used in checkout.

‍Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on a link, ad, or call-to-action after viewing it. It measures how effectively you capture interest and drive engagement.

Discount redemption rate measures the percentage of distributed discount offers that customers actually redeem. It’s a campaign effectiveness metric.

An entry page is the first page a visitor accesses in a session, regardless of source. It is the technical analytics term, while landing page is the marketing term. Entry-page analysis shows where journeys truly begin across channels.

An exit page is the last page a visitor views before leaving your site. It marks the end of the session and highlights where journeys stop. Exit analysis helps you find friction and dead ends.

Email open rate is the percentage of recipients who open your email campaigns. It’s a primary measure of subject line effectiveness, audience engagement, and deliverability.

Engagement rate measures how actively your audience interacts with your social media content. It includes actions like likes, comments, shares, and saves relative to your audience size or impressions.

First-time buyer rate measures the percentage of total customers in a period who are making their first-ever purchase with your brand. It’s a key acquisition indicator.

Funnel drop-off rate measures the percentage of users who exit at each stage of your conversion funnel without moving to the next step.

Gross merchandise value is the total value of merchandise sold through a marketplace or ecommerce platform in a specific time frame, before deductions like returns, discounts, or fees.

Gross profit is revenue minus the cost of goods sold (COGS). It represents the money remaining after covering the direct costs of producing or sourcing products.

Gross profit margin is the percentage of revenue left after subtracting the cost of goods sold (COGS). It measures how efficiently you produce or source products.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard language used to structure content on the web.

A heatmap is a visual representation of how visitors interact with your site, showing clicks, taps, movement, and scroll patterns. Colors represent activity levels, with warmer colors showing higher engagement.

A hero image is the large, prominent image or series of images displayed at the top of a webpage. In ecommerce, it is a highly visible element that communicates the main message, product, or promotion to visitors. It sets the tone for the page and is often the first impression customers have of your store.

An impression is counted each time an ad, post, or piece of content is displayed to a user. In ecommerce marketing, impressions measure exposure, how often your message is shown, regardless of whether it is clicked.

JavaScript is a programming language used for creating interactive web pages.

A landing page is the first page a visitor sees in a session. It sets the first impression and should match the intent created by the traffic source. In campaigns, landing pages are often designed specifically for the audience and offer.

Loyalty program participation rate is the percentage of your total customers who are active members of your loyalty or rewards program. It measures how effective you are at enrolling customers into initiatives designed to encourage repeat purchases and long-term brand engagement.

Last-click attribution assigns 100% of the credit for a conversion to the final marketing touchpoint before purchase.

Multi-touch attribution is an approach to measuring marketing performance that assigns conversion credit to multiple touchpoints in the customer journey, rather than a single one.

A multi-step form breaks a long form into smaller, sequential sections. In ecommerce, it is often used for account creation, customization, or checkout processes.

Mobile navigation optimization is the process of designing and refining site navigation specifically for mobile devices to ensure ease of use, fast access to key sections, and a smooth browsing experience.

Order frequency is the average number of orders a customer places within a set period. It measures how often customers return to buy again.

On-site search queries are the words or phrases visitors type into your ecommerce store’s internal search bar. They reveal exactly what shoppers are looking for after they’ve arrived on your site.

A pageview is recorded each time a page on your site loads or reloads in a browser. It measures how often content is viewed, not how many people visit. Pageviews help reveal navigation paths and content interest.

Pages per session is the average number of pages viewed during a single visit. It indicates browsing depth and the ease or difficulty of finding products. The goal is the right number of pages that lead to confident purchases.

Page layout hierarchy refers to the arrangement of elements on a webpage in order of importance.

A product page, also called a product detail page (PDP), is a webpage dedicated to a single product, providing detailed information, images, and purchase options.

Revenue per visitor (RPV) measures the average revenue generated for every person who visits your site. It combines the effects of conversion rate and average order value into a single number, giving you a direct view of how efficiently you monetize your traffic.

Revenue is the total income generated from sales before any costs or expenses are subtracted. In ecommerce, it includes all completed transactions within a given period.

Repeat purchase rate (RPR) is the percentage of customers who make more than one purchase from your store over a given time period. It measures customer loyalty and the ability of your brand to generate recurring sales from the same buyers.‍

Return on ad spend (ROAS) measures the revenue earned for every dollar spent on advertising. It’s a direct indicator of paid media efficiency.

Refund rate is the percentage of orders that are returned by customers and refunded. It’s a key measure of product satisfaction, fulfillment accuracy, and return policy effectiveness.

A session is a single visit to your website that begins when a visitor arrives and ends after a period of inactivity, at midnight, or when they leave. It includes all pageviews, clicks, and events during that visit. Sessions measure traffic volume rather than unique people, which makes them a core foundation for ecommerce analytics.

Scroll depth measures how far down a page visitors scroll, usually in milestones such as 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, and 100 percent. It shows whether users reach critical content like price, reviews, and calls to action. This data helps teams place content where it will be seen.

Subscriber growth rate measures the pace at which your email or SMS marketing list grows over time. It reflects your ability to attract and retain engaged marketing contacts.

Search conversion rate measures the percentage of sessions that include a site search and result in a purchase. It’s a direct indicator of your internal search function’s effectiveness.

Social proof is the use of reviews, testimonials, user-generated content, and other indicators of customer behavior to build trust and influence purchase decisions. In ecommerce, it reassures shoppers that others have purchased and enjoyed the product.

Traffic quality score is an internal metric used to evaluate how well incoming visitors match your target audience and convert.

UX design, short for User Experience design, is the practice of creating products and websites that are easy, intuitive, and enjoyable to use.

A unique visitor is a distinct person who visits your site during a chosen time period, counted once even if they return many times. It measures audience reach rather than visit volume. Most analytics tools label this as users or unique users.

Unsubscribe rate is the percentage of email or SMS subscribers who opt out of your marketing list after receiving a message. It measures how well you’re maintaining audience interest and relevance over time.

‍A view-through conversion is a sale that happens after a customer saw (but didn’t click) an ad, then later visited your site and purchased. It’s common in display, video, and social advertising where exposure influences awareness without immediate clicks.