Looking for Work? You’re in the Right Place 

Maybe you’re ready to apply, or maybe you just landed on this glossary while checking out the job.  Either way, welcome, and we’re hiring.  This one’s built around merchandising, but if building displays and setting up whole store environments sounds more like you, that’s installation and assembly.  Not sure which fits yet?  That’s fine too, you don’t need it all figured out, just be ready to show up and learn.  

Talk the Talk on Day One 

If you’re new to retail, don’t worry when some of the terms and acronyms you hear sound like a foreign language at first. POG? Schematic? Turns out those two mean the exact same thing. It gets even trickier because every retailer tends to have its own version of the same lingo. 

We put together this quick merchandising glossary. Bookmark it, keep it handy, and you’ll sound like you’ve been doing this for years. 

Action Alley: The main aisle that loops around the store. You’ll hear it paired with a location, like “back action alley” or “men’s action alley,” meaning the aisle that runs next to that department. Also called the “Racetrack.” 

Aisle Violators: Those double-sided signs that stick out from the shelf to grab a shopper’s attention. Also called Shelf Blades or Aisle Blades. 

Audit: A record of where a product sits, what it costs, and other details about how it’s set up in the store. 

Authorized Product: A product a retailer has agreed, at the corporate level, to actually carry. If it’s authorized, it’ll show up in the store’s schematic or distribution plan. 

Backstock: Extra product kept in the backroom. It can also mean product that got pulled off the shelf during a reset because it didn’t fit, even though it’s technically still part of the planogram. 

Bar Code: The UPC number on a product. Scan it and you can pull up everything from sales history to markup. You’ll also find it on shelf labels used for ordering. 

Blitz Coverage: One-off reset work a client asks for outside the normal schedule, usually for a specific category. For example, a client might ask for the pet food aisle to be reset by a certain date. 

Brand Blocking: Grouping all of one manufacturer’s products together on the shelf. 

Clip Strips: Long plastic or metal strips with clips or hooks, hung on a shelf or end cap, holding merchandise meant to catch a shopper’s eye as an impulse buy. 

Code Date: The date a product needs to come off the shelf, basically its expiration date. You’ll sometimes hear this connected to OOC or OOD (out of code, out of date). 

Continuity Coverage: Sometimes called “routine coverage.” It’s the regular, scheduled visits a rep makes to a defined set of stores to keep up with things like new item setup, checking distribution, POS placement, rotation, and reporting. 

Cross Merchandising: Placing a client’s product somewhere outside its usual spot in the store, like putting sunscreen near the camping gear. 

Cutting in Product: Making room on the shelf for a brand-new item that isn’t currently stocked, by shifting existing product to fit it in. 

Displays: Extra product placed on fixtures like side stacks, end caps, or knockdown displays, on top of what’s already on the shelf. 

Distribution Void (DV): When a product that’s supposed to be on the shelf is missing. Sometimes this shows up as an out-of-stock, and sometimes it just means the shelf tag itself is missing, which at some retailers means the item can’t even be ordered. 

DSD (Direct Store Delivery): Product that’s stocked and delivered straight from a vendor rep, not through the store’s own system. 

End Cap: The display area at the end of a gondola (a shelving unit), which can hold shelved or pegged product. Front end caps face the registers; middle end caps face each other where gondolas split. 

Facing: Pulling every product forward on the shelf so the store looks perfectly stocked. “Facings” also refers to how much shelf space one product gets. 

Already sounds like a language you could learn on the job? See open merchandiser roles.  

Front End: The area with the registers, service desk, and checkout tables. Sometimes also refers to the “high wall” of merchandise across from the registers. 

Gondola: The main shelving unit you’ll see in most stores: a base, a back wall, and shelves divided into sections, usually 3 or 4 feet wide. “High profile” gondolas run 78 inches or taller; “low profile” ones are usually 48 or 64 inches. 

In Stock: The product is actually sitting on the shelf. 

In-Line: A category found in the main body of the store on a regular gondola, basically the everyday section where a store’s regular stock lives. 

Inventory: A physical count of what’s actually in the store. 

Item Number: A 7-digit number that identifies a product, found under the barcode on the shelf label. The first two digits are always the department number, and different warehouses can assign their own item number to the same product. 

J-Hook: A hook, usually mounted near the top shelf, that sticks out so merchandise can hang from it. 

Not on File (NOF): A barcode or item number the system doesn’t recognize. It could be an old item that’s been inactive for a while, or it might mean that product isn’t authorized at that particular store. New items sometimes scan as NOF until it gets fixed on the retailer’s end; if that happens, try scanning the actual product instead of typing in the UPC or item number. 

Out of Stock: The shelf has a tag for the product, but no actual product is sitting there. 

Overstock: More product than actually fits on the shelf once everything’s stocked. Also called repack or backstock. 

Pallet: The wood or plastic base merchandise gets stacked on. 

Plan-o-gram (POG): A diagram showing exactly how many facings and what shelf position each product gets in a section, department, or store. You’ll also hear this called schematic. 

Point of Sale / Point of Purchase (POS/POP): Materials meant to grab a shopper’s attention, like standees, promotional signage, or window clings. Usually provided by the client. 

Private Label: Products made and sold exclusively for one specific retail chain. 

Product Rotation: Moving older product to the front of the shelf and newer product to the back, so the oldest stock sells first, before it hits its code date. 

Racetrack: See Action Alley.  

Remodel: Renovating an existing store location. 

Reset: Rearranging or reorganizing shelves to match a new plan. 

Scan Coordinator: The person at a grocery or mass retailer responsible for creating and controlling shelf tags throughout the store. 

Schematic: See Planogram. 

Shelf Dangler: A small 3D piece that clips onto a shelf and hangs down to advertise a product, hence “dangler.” 

Shelf Height: The distance between two shelves. 

Shelf Lip: The front edge of a shelf that sticks down slightly, forming a “lip” where shelf tags, strips, or talkers get installed. 

Shelf Signage: A catch-all term for things like shelf danglers, talkers, and other small shelf-level signage. 

Shelf Talkers: Small tags attached to a shelf that point shoppers toward a specific product. 

Shoppable: A shelf slot with enough air space above the product for a shopper to grab it. 

Stock Keeping Unit (SKU): It’s a number manufacturers assign to each product, part of it identifies the manufacturer; the rest identifies the specific product. Used to track and locate items in a warehouse or store. 

Surge / Project Coverage: Special, client-requested reset or merchandising work with a defined start and end date, requested for one specific purpose. 

Universal Product Code (UPC): The code behind a barcode that tells a manufacturer the size and flavor, or variant, of an item. 

And that’s the crash course. You won’t need to memorize all of this before your first shift; most of it will just start sticking once you’re actually out there doing the work. But now when someone asks you to check the schematic or mentions a distribution void, you’ll know exactly what they mean.   

No experience on paper required, just a willingness to learn. It’s weekly pay, W-2 employment, and project-based work you can build around your schedule.   

Ready to put it to use? Search retail merchandising jobs here, or dial 1-813-712-2525 ext 2 to talk to a recruiter directly.