Retail analytics glossary: plain-English definitions

What's the difference between a void and an out-of-stock, or velocity and volume? This retail analytics glossary defines the terms that come up most often, in plain English and alphabetical order, with no jargon required to understand the jargon. Keep it open beside your next data review; that's what it's for.

Why do definitions matter in analytics?

Because many arguments about conclusions are really disagreements about terms. Two teams can look at the same report and talk past each other for an hour if one hears "sales" as dollars and the other hears units. Shared definitions are cheap insurance; most cross-functional friction around data starts with vocabulary, not mathematics.

A through L

• AUR (average unit retail): the average selling price of an item, calculated as dollars divided by units sold.
• Basket: everything a shopper buys in one transaction.
• Basket size: the number of items, or the dollar value, of a single transaction.
• Category: a group of products meeting a similar need, such as salty snacks or energy drinks.
• Channel: a class of stores, such as independent convenience or chain grocery, treated as a unit of analysis.
• CPG (consumer packaged goods): the everyday products sold on store shelves, and shorthand for the companies that make them.
• Distribution: the set of stores that carry a given product.
• DSD (direct store delivery): a supply model in which vendors deliver products straight to stores rather than through a retailer's warehouse.
• EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer): the card system through which government food benefits are spent at authorized retailers.
• Everyday price: an item's regular shelf price, as distinct from a temporary promotional price.
• Facing: one front-of-shelf position for a product; more facings mean more visibility.
• Independent channel: stores owned and operated independently rather than by chains, including bodegas, convenience stores, and neighborhood grocers.

M through Z

• Market basket analysis: the study of which items are purchased together in the same transaction.
• Out-of-stock: a store that normally carries a product has none available to sell.
• Panel data: purchase data reported by a recruited group of shoppers, in contrast to data captured at store registers.
• Planogram: the diagram specifying where products should be placed on a shelf.
• POS (point of sale): the register system that prices and records each transaction; the source of scan data.
• Promotion lift: the additional sales during a promotion, measured against a comparable non-promoted period.
• Same-store sales: a comparison across time periods using only stores active in both, so changes in store count don't distort the read.
• Scan data: item-level sales records captured at the register as products are rung up.
• Share of shelf: the portion of a category's shelf space held by one brand.
• SKU (stock-keeping unit): the identifier for one specific product variant, down to flavor and size.
• Syndicated data: standardized retail data collected once and sold to many subscribers.
• Trade promotion: manufacturer spending that funds retailer deals, displays, and price reductions.
• UPT (units per transaction): the average number of items in each purchase.
• Velocity: how quickly a product sells, usually expressed per store, per period.
• Void: a store where a product could reasonably sell but isn't stocked at all, as distinct from an out-of-stock.

Which terms cause the most confusion?

In my experience, three pairs account for most of it. Velocity and volume: volume is total units sold, while velocity is the rate per store, and a product can post big volume with weak velocity simply by being everywhere. Void and out-of-stock: a void never had the product; an out-of-stock ran out. And same-store sales versus total sales: total growth can come merely from more stores reporting, which is exactly what same-store methodology filters out.

You'll see most of these terms working in any edition of the monthly same-store sales report, which is a fine way to move them from vocabulary to fluency. The archive offers plenty of practice material.