Within corporate finance, retail planning, and inventory management, OTB stands for "Open-to-Buy." This critical financial metric represents the budget money that a retail business has allocated to purchase new inventory over a specific upcoming period. It calculates the difference between how much inventory is required to meet projected sales and the amount of stock currently on hand or on order. Maintaining a disciplined open-to-buy framework prevents capital from being tied up in excessive stock while ensuring stores do not run out of high-demand merchandise unexpectedly.