Glossary

Plain definitions of the retail and POS terms that decide how a purchase order lands in your catalog.

• Variant group

  A variant group is one product record that holds every version of a single style. The parent carries the style; the children carry each combination of attributes such as color and size. One boardshort in three colors and five sizes is one variant group with fifteen children.

• Product variant

  A product variant is one sellable version of a style: a specific combination of attributes such as Black and Medium. It carries its own barcode, cost, price and stock count, and it is the thing that is actually counted, sold and reordered.

• Colorway

  A colorway is one color execution of a style. It is not simply a color: it names the full combination the vendor sells, so Black/White is a single colorway rather than two colors, and it usually carries its own code on the vendor's documents.

• Duplicate SKU

  A duplicate SKU is a second catalog record for something you already carry: the same style in the same color and size, existing twice. Stock, sales history and cost then split across both records, and neither one tells the truth.

• Standalone product

  A standalone product is a catalog record with exactly one sellable version and no attribute variation beneath it. A wax comb, a single-size tool, a book. It carries its own barcode and stock count directly, with no parent above it and no children below.

• Manufacturer SKU

  A manufacturer SKU is the identifier the brand assigns to a product, printed on their invoices and line sheets. It belongs to the vendor, not to you, and it is the strongest single signal for matching a document line to something already in your catalog.

• Custom SKU

  A custom SKU is the identifier you assign to a product, as opposed to the one the manufacturer assigns. It is yours to design, which makes it the field where a consistent convention pays off and an inconsistent one quietly costs you.

• Attribute set

  An attribute set defines which properties a variant group varies on, and in what order. A boardshort might use Color and Size; a wetsuit might use Color, Size and Thickness. The set is chosen when the group is created and is awkward to change afterwards.

• Size run

  A size run is the set of sizes a style is offered in, and the quantities ordered against each. On a vendor document it usually appears as a grid: sizes across the top, quantities beneath, one row per colorway.

• Catalog bloat

  Catalog bloat is the accumulation of records that should not exist: duplicates, orphaned variants, and styles split across several products. It grows quietly at receiving, and its cost is that the numbers you buy from stop describing what you actually sell.

• Open-to-buy

  Open-to-buy is the amount you can still commit to spend on merchandise in a period without exceeding your inventory plan. It is what the plan leaves you, after the sales you expect, the stock you want to end with, and the orders you have already placed.

• Sell-through rate

  Sell-through rate is the share of the stock you took in that you have sold, over a stated period. Units sold divided by units available, as a percentage. It only means something with the period and the starting point both stated.

• Weeks of supply

  Weeks of supply is how long your current stock will last at the rate it is currently selling. Units on hand divided by average weekly unit sales. It converts a stock level into a length of time, which is the form a buying decision actually needs.

• Stock-to-sales ratio

  Stock-to-sales ratio is how much inventory you held at the start of a month compared with what you sold during it. Beginning-of-month stock divided by that month's sales, both at retail value. A ratio of 3.0 means you began the month with three times what you went on to sell.

• Reorder point

  A reorder point is the stock level at which you place the next order, set so the delivery arrives before you run out. Average daily sales multiplied by the lead time in days, plus whatever safety stock the variability of both justifies.

• GMROI

  GMROI is gross margin return on inventory investment: the gross margin dollars you earn for every dollar of inventory you hold. Gross margin divided by average inventory at cost. A GMROI of 2.5 means each dollar tied up in stock returned $2.50 of gross margin.