A field glossary
The retail terms behind the work, defined in plain language, from the buyer’s side of the table. If a word here shows up in a proposal or a conversation, this is what it means and why it matters.
Market access
The work of getting a brand’s products onto the right shelves and marketplaces: which retailers and channels to pursue, how to reach the buyer, and how to be ready to supply once the answer is yes. Distribution treated as strategy, not luck.
Retail buying
The function of deciding what a store or marketplace will sell: choosing brands and products, negotiating terms, and owning the inventory bet. Buyers weigh risk, margin, and how fast an item will sell before they commit shelf space to it.
Merchandising
Planning how product is assorted, priced, and presented so it sells: the mix on the shelf, the story it tells, and the flow of inventory behind it. Good merchandising turns a pile of products into a reason to buy.
Assortment strategy
The deliberate choice of which products to carry, how many, and how deep. A tight assortment concentrates demand on the winners and protects margin; a broad one spreads bets thin. The strategy decides which. See also full price is a strategy, not a hope.
Category strategy
The plan for how a whole product category earns its place and grows: the role it plays, the price tiers it spans, and the brands that anchor it. Strong category strategy defines the shelf rather than reacting to it.
Full-price sell-through
Selling inventory at its intended price, without leaning on markdowns to move it. High full-price sell-through is the clearest proof that demand, assortment, and pricing are aligned, and it’s what protects both brand and margin.
MAP policy (Minimum Advertised Price)
A brand’s rule setting the lowest price a retailer may advertise a product for. MAP protects a brand from a race to the bottom, keeps pricing consistent across sellers, and makes full-price selling possible at scale. Full guide to MAP pricing →
Replenishment
The system that keeps proven items in stock as they sell, restocking on real demand instead of one big opening order. A never-out-of-stock replenishment program is how a winning product keeps compounding instead of stalling.
Line review
A retailer’s scheduled process for deciding what stays, what goes, and what’s new in a category’s assortment, usually held annually or seasonally. Getting a brand into a line review is often the real milestone; the shelf placement follows from there.
Vendor onboarding
The operational setup a retailer requires before a new brand can actually ship product: EDI compliance, routing guides, insurance, packaging specs, and the paperwork behind all of it. Winning the pitch and clearing onboarding are two different jobs.
Opening order
The first order a retailer places when bringing on a new brand or item, before there’s any sell-through history to plan against. A well-sized opening order leaves room to chase demand once real data comes in, instead of locking in a guess. See also full price is a strategy, not a hope.
Open-to-buy
The dollar amount a buyer has left to spend on new inventory in a given period, calculated from planned sales, current stock on hand, and orders already committed. Open-to-buy is the budget that keeps buying disciplined instead of reactive, and it is the number a buyer checks before saying yes to a new item.
Brand roster
The set of brands a retailer or distributor carries within a category, curated so each one plays a distinct role rather than competing head-on. Designing a brand roster is a category-strategy decision: which brands anchor the category, which fill a gap, and which don’t belong on the shelf together.
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