Retail Terminology Defined
By Tamara Lipori
Loss-Also called shrinkage and refers to any product that cannot be sold because it has been stolen or damaged.
Margins-Another way of saying markup.
Markup-Keystone markup is 100% (bought for $1 and sold for $2). Unfortunately, you can't keystone most products and stay in business. You need to sell that $1 item for $2.25 or more to be profitable.
Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)-Every different item in a store has a different SKU. If you carry 200 Jolee's designs, you have 200 SKUs of Jolee's.
Turns- The number of times per year or season that you replace the entire inventory of your store. A minimum of three turns per year is ideal- more is better.
