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The language your buyer speaks

If some of these are new, that is exactly the gap we close. If all of them are familiar, you already know why the details matter.

The shelf cycle

Line review
The meeting where a buyer reviews the whole category and decides what is in and out for the next cycle. Usually once a year. This is the pitch.
Modular “the mod”
Walmart’s word for the planogram: exactly which items sit where on the shelf, and how many facings each one gets. Not on the mod, not in the store.
Mod reset
When store crews physically tear down and re-set shelves to the new modular. Everything upstream is planned backward from this date.
Modular effective date
The day the new layout goes live on shelf.
Assortment
The set of items actually carried in a category.
Facings
How many units wide your item appears on the shelf. More facings, more visibility, more velocity.
Traits
Store attributes that decide which version of a modular each store gets. This is how a regional product earns national distribution.

Getting it right

OTIF
On Time In Full. Deliver the right quantity inside the window, or pay for missing it.
MABD
Must Arrive By Date. The window OTIF is measured against.
SQEP
Supplier Quality Excellence Program. The compliance program covering labels, barcodes, packaging and paperwork.
Deduction chargeback
Money withheld from your invoice when any of the above slips. The quietest way a profitable item stops being profitable.
VNPK / WHPK
Vendor pack and warehouse pack. The case quantities everything downstream is built on.
DSD
Direct store delivery, as opposed to shipping into a distribution center. Two completely different operations.

How it performs

Sell-through velocity
How fast the item moves off the shelf. The number that decides whether you survive the next line review.
UPSPW
Units per store per week. Velocity, stated the way a buyer states it.
In-stock %
How often the item is actually there to buy. An out of stock is a lost sale and a mark against you.
Comp
Comparable store sales, measured against the same period last year.
Rollback
A temporary price reduction, funded and planned in advance.
EDLP
Every Day Low Price. The pricing philosophy the whole model is built on.

Who is in the room

Merchant buyer
The person who decides assortment. Not a “category manager” here, and calling them one tells the room you are new.
Replenishment manager
Owns the flow of goods after the yes. A different person, with different priorities, and you need both.
Home Office
Bentonville. Where the decisions get made, and where we are.
Endcap
The display at the end of an aisle. Off-shelf space, negotiated separately, and worth the fight.

Bring us the part you are stuck on.

Whether that is your first line review or a deduction you cannot explain.

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