Style and Statistics

Glossary

Aggregation

The sum or collection of data. Often “aggregation” is used to summarize sales at various levels of the merchandise, location, and time hierarchy.

Allocation

The process of distributing inventory to retail locations and fulfillment centers in an effort to fulfill future customer demand, whether it is in-store or online.

Assortment

Term used to describe the product offerings carried by a retailer. These product offerings vary based on location clusters and whether for e-commerce or brick-and-mortar sites.

Assortment planning

The curation of the array of merchandise assortment that is offered to the customer, along with planning key performance indicators, such as planned demand and inventory productivity. Typically assortment plans are created at the location cluster level in order to localize and create customer-centric assortments.

Attribute

A characteristic of a hierarchical level. Attributes are used to describe levels of the merchandise and location hierarchy.

Beacon technology

A form of the Internet of Things. Beacon technology consists of small chips that utilize Bluetooth low energy signals to communicate with other devices. iBeacon is a specific beacon technology for Apple products.

Big data

Large sets of data that are leveraged to make better business decisions. Retail data can be sales, product inventory, e-mail offers, customer information, competitor pricing, product descriptions, social media, and much more.

Brick and mortar

Term used to describe ...