Glossary: Client, Merchant, Shipper, Owner, Vendor
Why the same customer is called Client, Merchant, or Shipper in different modules — and what Owner, Vendor, and Consignee mean.
Client, Merchant, Shipper, and Company all refer to the same group of people — the customer you do business with. Each module simply uses the term its industry is used to. No matter what it is called, it is the same company, maintained once in Master Data.
- OMS (e-commerce orders), Purchase, Integration → Merchant: e-commerce industry habit.
- WMS (warehousing) → Client: 3PL industry habit.
- TMS (transportation), Last-mile → Shipper: transportation industry habit.
- CRM → Company (a prospect is called a Lead): sales industry habit.
- Master Data → Client: the neutral term, maintained here for all modules.
Owner#
Owner means who owns the inventory. By default it is the Client itself. You only set it separately in special cases — for example, when a freight forwarder is the Client but the actual brand owner is the cargo owner.
Vendor#
The company that supplies you with goods. Called Vendor consistently across the whole system.
Consignee#
The receiving party on a waybill (name, address, phone). It is not maintained in master data — just fill it in per shipment.
User vs Employee#
A User is a login account in system settings. An Employee is a person in the People module — an employee may have no login account at all.