I was recently attending a meeting and realized how many new terms were used in the conversation. It seems that omnichannel retailing has driven an exponential increase in the number of acronyms and buzzwords in use. Here are my top ten definitions – old and new – to avoid being lost when shopper marketing is discussed.
- BIMBO: Browse In-Store on Mobile, Buy Online. A variation of showrooming using mobile. Ex. “I browsed the mobile-speaker phones available while I was at FNAC-Darty [popular CE store in my country] and I bought online on my phone”.
- BORIS: Buy Online Return In-Store. An emerging behavior in omnichannel retailing. Particularly popular among online apparel and footwear shoppers. Ex. “I bought three pair of sneakers online, I returned the ones which did not fit in a store”.
- CRAP: Cannot Realize A Profit. According to people closed to the matter (eg brand owners who have experienced it), the acronym is used by Amazon to signal the underperformance of a brand on its platform. Ex. “Your brand is CRAP, fix it”.
- DTC: Direct-to-consumer. A popular trend among manufacturers to experiment with new ways of selling products directly to consumers. Ex. “We decided to connect directly with consumers and cut intermediaries. We tested two approaches: a pop-up store and an online store”.
- JBP: Joint-Business Planning. A formal collaborative process in which manufacturer and retailer process align objectives, strategies and plans to drive incremental sales. Pioneered by Walmart and P&G in the USA in the eighties. Ex. “We started a joint-business planning initiative with our key supplier to reinvent the beauty category”.
- OOS: Out-Of-Stock. A situation where a product is unavailable on a shelf – physical or digital. Ex. “We were frequently out of stock and the retailer told us to fix the problem quickly to avoid being “delisted“.
- PDP: Product Description Page. the primary webpage for a product, containing all of the relevant information shoppers might need to make a purchase decision. The content also is needed to effectively feed search engine algorithms – critical to succeed on Amazon and e-commerce websites.
- POSM: Point of Sale Materials. As old as shopper marketing. A generic term referring to all pieces of communication installed in a store. According to Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business quoted in a Campaign article at the end of last year, voice-based ordering will eliminate the need for POSMs.
- ROPO: Research Online, Purchase Offline. A shopping behavior also known as webrooming. Ex. “I researched information and compare prices for a bicycle online before ultimately testing it and purchasing it at a brick-and-mortar retailer”. Note that ROPO can also be read as Research Offline, Purchase Online. Confusing, isn’t it?
- SKU: Stock keeping unit. A number given by a retailer to a specific product, brand, flavor, variety and/or package size – According to my Kantar Consulting colleagues. Ex. “We will launch 3 new SKUs in Spring”.
Think Shopper 