Glossary
Order Clerk Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential order clerk terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key order clerk vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in order clerk training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Backorder
- Item not in stock.
- Data entry
- Typing information into systems.
- Drop ship
- Shipped by supplier.
- Freight terms
- Who pays shipping.
- Lead time
- Time to ship.
- Order confirmation
- Customer receipt of order.
- Order entry
- Recording orders.
- Order status
- Where an order is.
- Partial shipment
- Shipping part of an order.
- Price list
- Approved prices.
- Queue
- List of tasks waiting.
- RMA
- Return merchandise authorization.
- SKU
- Stock keeping unit.
- Tracking number
- Shipment ID.
- Workflow
- Steps to complete work.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Order Clerk practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Order Clerk training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.