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Glossary
Key terms used across this site, in plain language.
A–Z
- Availability
- The share of time a product is on the shelf when customers want it.
- Back-testing
- Evaluating a forecasting method by predicting past periods and comparing with actual sales.
- Bias
- A systematic tendency of forecasts to be too high or too low.
- Best before
- A date label indicating quality; food may still be safe after it.
- Demand forecasting
- Estimating future customer demand for products.
- External regressor
- An outside variable, such as temperature, used to explain demand in a model.
- Food loss
- Food lost between harvest and retail.
- Food waste
- Food wasted at retail, food service and household level.
- Footfall
- The number of people entering or passing a store.
- Lead time
- Time between placing an order and stock being available.
- Markdown
- A price reduction, often applied to products near the end of their shelf life.
- MAPE
- Mean absolute percentage error, a forecast accuracy metric.
- Perishable
- A product with a short shelf life, such as fresh produce, bakery, dairy or meat.
- Replenishment
- The process of reordering and restocking products.
- Safety stock
- Extra stock held to protect against uncertainty in demand and supply.
- Seasonality
- Patterns in demand that repeat over a fixed period such as a week or year.
- Shrink
- Loss of inventory from waste, damage, theft or errors.
- SKU
- Stock keeping unit: a distinct product variant tracked in inventory.
- Stockout
- A situation where a product is not available for customers to buy.
- Time series
- Observations recorded in time order, such as daily sales.
- Trend
- The long-run direction of a time series.
- Use by
- A date label related to safety; food should not be eaten after it.
- WAPE
- Weighted absolute percentage error: total absolute error divided by total actual sales.
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