Shop Talk: Terms to Know

Posted by David Zyla | Filed under News and Updates

To assist you in the year-round quest to find the perfect items for your closet, here is your shopping vocabulary list courtesy of 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 Thanksgiving, 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.

Presale: 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.