Loading…
Plain-English definitions of the wholesale and fashion merchandising terms that brands and buyers use every season. Each entry gives the definition first, then a worked example, how it works in practice and the mistakes to avoid.
Assortment planning is the process of deciding which styles, colors, sizes and quantities a store or brand will carry in a season, within a budget.
A case pack is a fixed number of units of one style that a buyer orders together, such as a pack of 6 or 12.
In wholesale, a retailer buys stock from a brand upfront and owns it; in consignment, the brand still owns the stock in the store and is paid only when an item sells.
A delivery window is the period in which a season's goods, or one drop within that season, are scheduled to arrive at retailers.
Keystone pricing means setting the retail price at double the wholesale price, which gives the retailer a 50% margin at full price.
A line sheet is the wholesale order document for a fashion collection.
A lookbook is a set of styled photographs that presents a fashion brand's season as complete outfits, or looks.
A minimum order quantity (MOQ) is the smallest number of units a buyer can order of one style, or across a whole order.
MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) is the price a brand recommends a store charge shoppers for a product.
Net 30 terms mean the buyer must pay the full invoice within 30 days of the invoice date.
Open-to-buy (OTB) is the amount a retailer still has available to spend on new stock for a period, after allowing for planned sales, markdowns, the stock it already holds and the orders it has already placed.
A prepack is a pack of one style that holds a fixed mix of sizes, and sometimes colors, sold as a single unit.
A purchase order (PO) number is the reference a retailer gives each order it places with a brand.
Sell-through rate is the percentage of the units a store received that it sold to shoppers within a set period.
A ship window is the range of dates in which a brand must ship an order, and the cancel date is the day after which the retailer can cancel anything that hasn't shipped.
A size curve is the share of a style's units given to each size, based on how that style or category sells.
A wholesale price is the price per unit a brand charges a retailer that buys stock to resell.
ModaFlow.ai is wholesale software for fashion brands: line sheets, shoppable lookbooks, a buyer portal and order management, with prices, minimums, packs and order dates kept together. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.