Retail Terms and Definitions

GS1 standards are a foundation for business by uniquely identifying, accurately capturing and automatically sharing information about products, locations, and assets in a uniform way.

2D symbology is a two-dimensional matrix that has a pattern of elements that carries information in two directions: vertically and horizontally. Matrix symbols can encode hundreds of times as much data as linear barcodes.

Inventory days on hand (DOH) is a business performance indicator that measures how long it takes a company to sell its inventory. Knowing this metric gives retailers a better understanding of operational performance. This data can also help retailers detect supply chain issues, improve efficiency, and predict storage costs.

Slow-moving inventory, or slob stock, is a classification for inventory whereby the current cases on hand exceed projected sales and are unlikely to be sold based on forecasts prior to the product’s expiration date. Simply put, it is excess product. For example, if a manufacturer produced 1,000 cases of a product that expire in a year, and they’ve only sold 30 cases in the first three months following production, this is slow-moving inventory.

Long tail items are slower selling items that are included in the assortment to offer variety to shoppers. They’re often specialty items available only at a specific retailer.

Generally, a freshness code indicates the sell by date or date where the food is no longer guaranteed, although it may still be edible. There are no uniform or universally accepted descriptions used on food labels for open dating in the United States. As a result, there are a wide variety of phrases used on labels to describe quality dates.

A digital shelf is the collection of diverse and rapidly evolving digital touch-points used by shoppers to engage with brands and discover, research, and purchase products online. It’s the online counterpart to a shelf in a physical store.

Slotting is the process of organizing a warehouse or shelf to maximize space and make picking more efficient. Efficient slotting can also improve inventory management processes and reduce overall warehousing costs. Slotting is often organized by SKU number, product type, or any other type of product characteristic.

A wholesale club store is a membership retail/wholesale hybrid with a varied selection and limited variety of products presented in a warehouse-type environment. These approximately 120,000 square-foot stores have 60% to 70% general merchandise (GM)/health and beauty care (HBC) and a grocery line dedicated to large sizes and bulk sales.

Introduced to the grocery industry in 1973, the Universal Product Code or UPC is a machine-readable symbol printed on or applied as a label to consumer packaging for scanning at the retail point of sale to facilitate check-out and enable associated IT processes.