How to Win at Shopping: Shop Talk!

Posted by David Zyla | Filed under News and Updates

To aid you in your mastering of the Art of Shopping, here is the vocabulary list of the most common terms used in the retail industry, from How to Win at Shopping!

Brick-and-mortar store: A store that has a physical presence; a traditional store.

Cyber Monday: The online counterpart to Black Friday. Cyber Monday happens the Monday after anksgiving, and is an extremely busy day for online shopping.

Final sale: A sale item that cannot be returned or exchanged.

Flash sale: A sale with a high discount for a very limited amount of time.

Layaway: A purchasing method in which the customer can put an item on hold and pay for it in installments over time.

Markdown: The amount of money reduced from the price of an item.

Markup: The amount of money added to the price of an item that covers the retailer’s overhead and profit.

Pop-up store: A store that opens and closes in a short amount of time, from a day to a few weeks or months.resale: A sale that occurs before items are available to the public.

Price adjustment: If an item is bought at full price and then goes on sale within a short period of time (typically one to two weeks), the retailer may give the customer a price adjustment, or refund the difference.

Private label: A product for sale under the name of a retailer.

Sample sale: A sale of a designer’s samples that were previously used to show new collections to retail buyers and fashion editors.

Shopworn clothes: Items with wear and tear from being displayed or handled in a store.

SKU: Short for Stock Keeping Unit, the SKU is a store’s product and service identification code. Each style of clothing at every company has its own SKU.