Retail planning glossary
This is the index. Every term below has its own page with a plain-English definition and the arithmetic where there is any; the longer entries go further — how the term differs from the ones it gets confused with, and where the arithmetic breaks down — so follow the link to the term rather than reading the summary here.
Where a term has one, the entry links out to the calculator that runs the number, and most link to the guide that works it through end to end.
The eight terms most planning conversations turn on
- Open-to-buy (OTB) — The receipt budget still available in a period
- WSSI — Weekly sales, stock and intake, traded week by week
- Initial markup (IMU) — The markup the first ticket carries, and what erodes it
- Average unit retail (AUR) — What a unit actually sold for, not what it was ticketed at
- Merchandise plan — The financial plan a season’s open-to-buy derives from
- Merchandise allocation — Splitting a committed buy across doors, channels and sizes
- GMROI — Gross margin earned per dollar of inventory held at cost
- Sell-through rate — The chase-or-markdown signal, read off units received
A
Available to Sell (ATS) →
Available to sell (ATS) is the inventory a brand can still commit to new orders — on-hand stock plus confirmed incoming receipts, less whatever is already allocated, reserved or sold. It is a position at a date rather than a single number: the ATS for a given ship date counts only the receipts that land before it and the commitments that ship before it, and dropping the date is what produces an oversell.
Average Unit Retail (AUR) →
Average unit retail (AUR) is the average price a unit actually sold for over a period — net sales dollars divided by units sold. Because net sales are recorded after markdowns and promotional reductions, AUR sits below the average ticket price of the same units by exactly the markdown and promotional dollars per unit sold.
B
Beginning of Period / End of Period (BOP/EOP) →
Beginning-of-period (BOP) and end-of-period (EOP) inventory are the stock positions that open and close each period of a merchandise plan, linked by the identity EOP = BOP + intake − sales − markdowns. Each period’s EOP is the next period’s BOP, which chains every period in the season to the ones before it.
Bill of Materials (BOM) →
A bill of materials (BOM) is the full list of components that go into a style — fabrics, trims, labels, and packaging, with quantities and suppliers. It is the basis for costing a garment and for instructing the factory what to use.
C
Color Story →
A color story is the planned palette for a season or delivery — the coordinated set of colors styles are offered in, designed so the range merchandises together and a customer can build outfits across it.
Comparable Sales (Comps) →
Comparable (comp) sales — also called like-for-like sales — are the sales from doors and channels that were trading in both of the periods being compared, so growth reflects the performance of the existing business rather than the addition of new locations.
F
Forecast Accuracy →
Forecast accuracy is the measured gap between a frozen forecast and the demand that actually occurred, expressed through an error metric — MAPE, WAPE (weighted MAPE, or WMAPE) or bias — at a stated level of the product hierarchy and a stated horizon. A figure quoted without its metric, level and horizon cannot be compared with any other.
Forward Cover →
Forward cover is closing stock expressed as the number of weeks of planned forward sales it will fund — stock divided by the sales forecast for the coming weeks, not the trailing rate. Six weeks of forward cover means stock runs out in six weeks if the forecast holds and nothing else lands.
G
Gross Margin →
Gross margin is the profit left after the cost of goods — net sales minus COGS, usually shown as a percentage of sales. It is the headline profitability number a merchandising plan is built to protect.
Gross Margin Return on Inventory (GMROI) →
GMROI (gross margin return on inventory) is the gross-margin dollars earned per dollar of average inventory at cost — gross margin ($) ÷ average inventory at cost. A result above 1.0× means margin exceeds the inventory investment.
I
Initial Markup (IMU) →
Initial markup (IMU) is the difference between the first ticketed retail price and the cost of goods, as a percentage of retail — (retail − cost) ÷ retail. It is the margin a style starts with, before any markdown, allowance or shrink erodes it, and it is set so that what survives those reductions is still the maintained markup the plan needs.
Intake →
Intake is the inventory flowing into stock in a period — the receipts and deliveries that arrive and become sellable. It is the third line of the WSSI, alongside sales and stock: closing stock = opening stock + intake − sales.
Inventory Turnover (Turns) →
Inventory turnover (turns) is how many times inventory sells through and is replaced in a year — cost of goods sold ÷ average inventory at cost. Higher turns mean the same capital generates more sales.
L
Lab Dip →
A lab dip is a small fabric swatch the mill dyes to a target color for the brand to approve before bulk dyeing. Approving lab dips on time is a common critical-path milestone — a late approval delays the whole production timeline.
Landed Cost →
Landed cost is the total cost of getting a unit into your warehouse — first cost (ex-factory) plus freight, duties, insurance, and handling. It is the true cost basis for margin, not the quoted first cost alone.
Lead Time →
Lead time is the elapsed time between committing to an order and having the goods available to sell — for planning, the calendar days from the date a purchase order is issued to the date the units are received, checked and sellable. A lead time is only comparable with another measured between the same two events, so the start and end events are part of the figure.
Line Board →
A line board (or visual line plan) is the visual layout of a season’s styles — arranged by category, delivery, and price — that lets a design and merchandising team see the whole range at once and balance it before it is finalized.
Linesheet →
A linesheet is the sales document that presents a season’s assortment to wholesale buyers — each style with its image, colorways, sizing, wholesale and retail price, minimums, and delivery window. It is the core selling tool of a wholesale season.
M
Maintained Markup (MMU) →
Maintained markup (MMU) is the margin actually realized after markdowns, allowances, and shrink — the gap between net sales and cost of goods, as a percentage of net sales. It is what survives of the initial markup once the season has played out.
Markdown →
A markdown is a permanent reduction in an item’s retail price to clear inventory. Markdown % — markdown dollars as a share of sales — is a core margin metric: every point of markdown is a point of gross margin given up.
Merchandise Allocation →
Merchandise allocation is the decision of how to split a buy across doors, channels and sizes — which locations receive each style, in what depth, and in which sizes. It is three decisions multiplied together, and it happens after the buy is committed, so it can only move units between places, never change how many there are.
Merchandise Plan →
A merchandise plan is the financial plan for a season’s inventory: planned sales, markdowns, receipts and beginning- and end-of-period stock, by period and by category or channel, tied together by the inventory identity. Also called a merchandise financial plan (MFP), it is the budget from which open-to-buy is derived.
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) →
A minimum order quantity (MOQ) is the smallest quantity a factory or mill will accept on an order line — quoted per style, per style-color, sometimes per size within a color, and per fabric color at the mill. Below it the order is refused or carries a surcharge, so the MOQ sets a floor under the depth of every option in the buy.
O
On-Time Delivery (OTD) →
On-time delivery (OTD) is the share of orders that arrive by their committed date. In apparel it is measured to the floor-set or in-store date — and to wholesale accounts, to the cancel date on the order.
Open-to-Buy (OTB) →
Open-to-buy (OTB) is the amount of inventory, in retail dollars, a buyer can still receive in a period without exceeding the plan. It is calculated as planned end-of-month stock + planned sales + planned markdowns − beginning stock − merchandise on order.
R
Reforecast →
A reforecast is the in-season re-projection of a season’s remaining periods from actuals to date: closed periods are restated with actual sales, markdowns and receipts, the balance of the season is re-forecast by category, closing stock targets are rebuilt from the revised sales, and required receipts and open-to-buy are re-derived from the inventory identity.
Replenishment →
Replenishment is the automatic reordering of continuity (core, never-out) products to a target stock level as they sell — distinct from the seasonal buy of fashion styles. It keeps basics in stock against steady demand using a model stock or min/max.
S
Sell-In →
Sell-in is the volume a brand books into its wholesale accounts for a season — the orders written at market, before any consumer buys. It is distinct from sell-through, which measures how that product then sells to the end consumer.
Sell-Through Rate →
Sell-through rate is the share of the units available to sell that have sold over a period — units sold ÷ (opening stock + receipts) × 100, or equivalently net units sold ÷ (net units sold + ending on hand). It signals how fast a style is selling and whether it needs a reorder or a markdown.
Size Curve →
A size curve is the percentage distribution of a buy across sizes for a style — what share of units go to each size, whether an S–XL apparel run or a full footwear size run. Buying and replenishing to the right curve is what keeps core sizes in stock through the season.
Stock-to-Sales Ratio →
The stock-to-sales ratio is beginning-of-period inventory divided by the sales planned or achieved in that period, both at retail value. A ratio of 2.0 means the period opens with twice the stock it is expected to sell; planners apply the ratio to a phased sales plan to set each period’s opening-stock target.
T
Tech Pack →
A tech pack is the specification document a brand hands a factory to make a style — construction details, measurements (the spec/graded measurements), bill of materials, trims, labels, and tolerances. It is the source of truth for what gets produced.
Time & Action Calendar (T&A) →
A time & action (T&A) calendar maps every apparel production milestone backward from the in-store date, with an owner and a lead time on each step and a buffer at the end — so a slip surfaces the moment a milestone moves.
W
Weekly Sales, Stock & Intake (WSSI) →
A WSSI (Weekly Sales, Stock & Intake) is a weekly retail plan that tracks the flow of stock through a season. Its core identity is closing stock = opening stock + intake − sales, with each week’s closing becoming the next week’s opening.
Work in Progress (WIP) →
In apparel, work-in-progress (WIP) is the set of orders currently in production — between the placed PO and the received delivery. Tracking WIP by style and milestone shows where each order sits and whether it is on track for the in-store date.