Retail English 6 — Stock & Inventory Vocabulary AE

The language of stock management and back-of-house retail — what you need to know when you're not on the sales floor.

Vocabulary in context

A lot of retail English isn't spoken to customers at all — it's spoken to colleagues, managers, and suppliers about stock. Knowing these terms means you can communicate quickly and accurately about what's on the shelf, what's in the back, what's been ordered, and what's sold out.

Ready to practice! Let's go!

Fill in each blank with the correct word from the list:

out of stock
backroom
reorder
shrinkage
stocktake
facing
markdown
overstocked
lead time
planogram

1. That model is currently — we expect the next delivery on Thursday.

2. There are three more boxes in the — I'll go get them.

3. We need to the red wine — we've only got two cases left.

4. Our is higher than expected this quarter, so security will be doing random bag checks.

5. We're doing the quarterly on Sunday — everyone needs to be in by 7am.

6. Can you do the on aisle 4? Some products have been pushed to the back.

7. We're going to the winter coats by 40% to clear space for the new season.

8. We're on the large sizes — can we move some to the back until demand picks up?

9. The supplier's is six weeks, so we need to order now for the Christmas period.

10. Please set up the new shelf display exactly according to the — head office will check it next week.