StayinFront Digital: Acronyms That Everyone in the Consumer Goods Industry Should Know

Become a retail execution expert!

In the consumer goods industry, there are many acronyms used, and sometimes you may not understand all of them. At StayinFront Digital, we are definitely guilty of using many acronyms, so let us help you stay on top of the key acronyms to ensure you are a retail execution expert!

AI – Artificial Intelligence
The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.

ANN – Artificial Neural Networks

These are computing systems that are inspired by, but not identical to, biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. Such systems “learn” to perform tasks by considering examples, generally without being programmed with task-specific rules.

CG – Consumer Goods
Goods purchased and used by consumers rather than by manufacturers for producing other goods.

IR – Image Recognition – Image recognition, in the context of machine vision, is the ability of software to identify objects, places, people, writing and actions in images. Computers can use machine vision technologies in combination with a camera and artificial intelligence software to achieve image recognition.

KAM – Key Account Manager
A Key Account Manager is assigned to a company’s headquarters to oversee the account team assigned to a particular account. This includes planning and managing the full relationship between a business and its most important customers.

MSL – Must Stock List
A list of inventory of the goods or raw materials kept on the premises of a shop or business.

NPD – New Product Development
The process of bringing a new product to the marketplace.

OOS – Out of Stock
A situation where the retailer does not physically possess a particular product category, on its shelf, to sell to the customer.

OSA – On-shelf Availability
The availability of products for sale to a shopper, in the place they expect it and at the time they want to buy it.

POS – Point of Sale
The time and place where a retail transaction is completed.

Rep – Representative
An appointed person to perform retail execution tasks in store.

ROI – Return on Investment
The ratio between the net profit and cost of investment resulting from an investment of some resources.

RTM – Route-to-Market
Route-to-market is ways and means of distribution of product to shoppers or end-consumers.

SaaS – Software as a Service
Software as a service is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.

SKU – Stock Keeping Unit
An identification, usually alphanumeric, of a particular product that allows it to be tracked for inventory purposes.

SOP – Size of Prize
The worth of an opportunity for your company when allocating resources to each task.

SOS – Share-of-Shelf
The total amount of space available in a store to display goods for sale, or the amount of space for particular goods.

UI – User interface
Also called an “interface,” is the means in which a person controls a software application or hardware device. Nearly all software programs have a graphical user interface, or GUI. This means the program includes graphical controls, which the user can select using a mouse or keyboard.

We hope this helps you on your retail execution journey. If you have any question, please contact marketing@stayinfront.com. Or, to find out more about these terms, visit our website: www.stayinfrontdigital.com.