What the terms mean.

A store provides retail space on which several outside sellers trade - the way an online marketplace gives retailers a platform. The store does not buy the goods; it brokers the sale and takes a share of the revenue. That is what sets it apart from classic retail, which buys and resells on its own account.

A defined area inside a store where an outside brand has a presence of its own. Classically the brand rents that area and pays whether or not anything sells. The marketplace model turns it around: payment comes out of the revenue, not out of the rent.

Goods that sit with the retailer but stay the supplier's property until they are sold. The retailer pays for them only once they have sold. What consignment shares with a physical marketplace is the ownership of the goods; the difference is the sale itself - at Spreat the customer buys directly from the producer at the till, instead of the store first acquiring the goods and reselling them.

Money tied up in goods instead of sitting in the account. Anyone who buys goods pays for them before anybody has bought them - without knowing whether or when they will turn over. Take the buying away and the tied-up capital goes with it: the store ties no money into goods it has not sold yet. That is what is meant by having no risk on the goods - it is about tied-up capital, not about questions of liability.

The share of the selling price the store gets for brokering the sale. It is paid by the brand whose product was sold - not by the store. The rate is agreed between brand and store and is fixed before anything goes out on the shop floor.

Taking a product into the assortment of a retailer or a chain. Classically a buying meeting comes first, often with demands on terms and long lead times - the usual hurdle into physical retail for a young brand. A physical marketplace removes that step, because the store does not buy.

Breadth is how many different product groups a store carries; depth is how many variants there are within each group. Small stores face the same arithmetic either way: every extra variant costs floor space and tied-up capital.

The overview of the brands selling through Spreat in stores - and the place where both sides find each other. Stores can see there which brands are candidates for their space and what commission each brand offers. Brands, the other way round, see which stores are out there and make them an offer.

The moment when store and brand both say yes. The request runs in either direction - a store asks a brand, a brand asks a store - and along the way the two agree commission and delivery quantity. Once both have said yes, that is a match; only after that are goods delivered.

The connection between the store's POS system and the platform the selling runs on. Where it exists, outside products go over the same till as the store's own assortment; without it, a separate terminal stands next to it.

The approach of connecting sales channels so that customers can move between them without anything getting lost. In the context of physical marketplaces it usually means an online brand's route onto the shop floor - and the reverse effect, a store showing brands that otherwise exist only online.