Open-to-Buy
A merchandise budgeting metric representing the remaining inventory purchasing capacity available to a buyer within a defined period.
Full Definition
Open-to-buy (OTB) is a dynamic financial control tool used in retail merchandise planning to track how much budget a buyer has available to spend on new inventory during a given season or month. It is calculated by subtracting planned inventory (on order and on hand) from planned sales and desired ending stock levels. Analytics dashboards frequently surface OTB figures to prevent over-buying or under-buying relative to sales forecasts. Editors should always hyphenate 'open-to-buy' in all uses—as noun, adjective, or abbreviation—and note that OTB appears frequently as an acronym in buying and planning documents.
Usage
Usage note: Always hyphenate in all grammatical positions. The abbreviation OTB should be defined on first use. Do not confuse with 'open-to-ship', a logistics term.
In Context
- "The open-to-buy report showed a negative position in womenswear, signalling that the department was over-committed for the autumn season." — Merchandise planning dashboard
- "OTB is reviewed weekly by the buying team and reconciled against the weekly sales and stock intake (WSSI) model." — Retail planning process guide