Objective-and-Task Method A promotional budgeting technique by which a retailer clearly defines its promotional goals and then prepares a budget to satisfy these goals.
Objectives The long-run and short-run performance targets that a retailer hopes to attain. Goals can involve sales, profit, satisfaction of publics, and image.
Observation A form of research in which present behavior or the results of past behavior are observed and recorded. It can be human or mechanical.
Odd Pricing A strategy in which retail prices are set at levels below even-dollar values, such as $0.49, $4.98, and $199.
Off-Price Chain Features brand-name apparel and accessories, footwear, linens, fabrics, cosmetics, and/or housewares and sells them at everyday low prices in an efficient, limited-service environment.
Off-Retail Markdown Percentage The markdown for each item or category of items as a percentage of original retail price.
One-Hundred Percent Location The optimum site for a particular store. A location labeled as 100 percent for one firm may be less than optimal for another.
One-Price Policy A strategy wherein a retailer charges the same price to all customers buying an item under similar conditions.
Open Credit Account Requires a consumer to pay his or her bill in full when it is due.
Open-to-Buy The difference between planned purchases and the purchase commitments already made by a buyer for a given time period, often a month. It represents the amount the buyer has left to spend for that month and is reduced each time a purchase is made.
Operating Expenditures The short-term selling and administrative costs of running a business.
Operating Expenses The cost of running a retail business.
Operations Management The efficient and effective implementation of the policies and tasks necessary to satisfy a firm's customers, employees, and management (and stockholders, if a publicly owned company).
Opinions See Attitudes.
Opportunistic Buying Negotiating special low prices for merchandise whose sales have not lived up to expectations, end-of-season goods, items consumers have returned to the manufacturer or another retailer, and closeouts.
Opportunities The marketplace openings that exist because other retailers have not yet capitalized on them.
Opportunity Costs Involve forgoing possible benefits that may occur if a retailer could make expenditures in another opportunity rather than the one chosen.
Option Credit Account A form of revolving account that allows partial payments. No interest is assessed if a person pays a bill in full when it is due.
Order-Getting Salesperson Actively involved with informing and persuading customers, and in closing sales. This is a true "sales" employee.
Order Lead Time The period from the date an order is placed by a retailer to the date merchandise is ready for sale (received, price-marked, and put on the selling floor).
Order-Taking Salesperson Involved in routine clerical and sales functions, such as setting up displays, placing inventory on the shelves, answering simple questions, filling orders, and ringing up sales.
Organizational Mission A retailer's commitment to a type of business and to a distinctive role in the marketplace. It is reflected in the firm's attitudes to consumers, employees, suppliers, competitors, government, and others.
Organization Chart Graphically displays the hierarchal relationships within a firm.
Outshopping When a person goes out of his or her hometown to shop.
Outside Buying Organization A company or person external to the retailer that is hired to fulfill the buying function, usually on a fee basis.
Overstored Trading Area A geographic area with so many stores selling a specific good or service that some retailers will be unable to earn an adequate profit.
Owned-Goods Services The area of service retailing in which goods owned by consumers are repaired, improved, or maintained.
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