Getting ready for a festive sale

The situation

A Jaipur block print label does most of its year's business between Navratri and Diwali. Last year the sale opened at midnight with a 20% code. By morning, the code had been applied twice to some orders, two best sellers were oversold, the courier missed pickups for three days, and the founder's phone had two hundred unread WhatsApp messages. Sales were good. The month after, spent on refunds and apologies, was not.

None of this was bad luck. Each problem can be found and fixed in the weeks before.

Four weeks before: stock and products

Decide what you are really selling

Pick the products you will push. Usually it is your best sellers plus a festive collection. Check stock for every variant as well as the product total: a kurta with 80 units may have none left in medium.

Count, then count again

Do a full count of the products in the sale. Fix the differences in the admin before the sale starts. Set aside a small safety stock on the best sellers, so a counting error does not become an oversold order.

Product pages

Update photos and descriptions on the sale products. Make sure each colour has a photo and each size chart is right. Tag the sale products so they can be shown together on a sale page.

Three weeks before: prices, codes and payments

Write the offer down

One sentence: what is discounted, by how much, from when to when, and whether codes stack. "20% off the festive collection, 9 to 15 October, one code per order, excluding items already reduced." Ambiguous offers create disputes.

Test every code

Set up the codes in the admin, then test each one as a buyer would: on one item, on several, with another code, after the end time. On ShopenUp, basic discounts and price management are native; unusual offers (buy two get one on selected sizes, tiered gifts) may need a custom rule, and that needs time to build and test, so ask early.

Talk to your payment gateway

Ask about any limits on your account and whether settlement timing changes at peak. Make sure refunds work. Have a backup: bank transfer for large orders, and COD where it makes sense.

Two weeks before: shipping and packing

Talk to your shipping service

Tell them your expected volumes and dates. Ask about pickup times and cut offs during the peak. Agree what happens if a pickup is missed.

Prepare packing

Order packing material for twice your expected volume. Print and pin a packing checklist. If you hire temporary help, give them access to only the parts of the admin they need.

Decide on COD

COD orders bring sales, and also returns. During a sale, impulse buying rises, and so does RTO. Consider confirming COD orders above a value before dispatch, and see what your current RTO costs with the RTO loss calculator.

One week before: support and a dry run

Prepare answers

Write short replies to the questions you know will come: delivery times, the code not working, size exchanges, order status. Put them where the whole team can use them.

Do a dry run

Place three real orders on the live store: one prepaid with a code, one COD, one that you then cancel and refund. Pack and ship them. Fix whatever is confusing.

Share the dates

If you are on a managed plan, tell the team running your store when the sale opens and what you expect. On ShopenUp, hosting is managed by our team, so share the time of a midnight launch in advance.

During the sale

• Check stock levels of the top ten products twice a day.
• Watch for orders that look wrong: the same address many times, huge quantities, codes applied twice.
• Clear the NDR list every day, so undelivered parcels get a call before they go back.
• Reply to messages in batches at set times, with the prepared answers.

After the sale

Look at what sold, what ran out and what came back. Write down the three things you would change. Next year starts there.

Limits

Preparation does not remove every problem. Couriers are stretched at peak for everyone, and some delay is outside your control. What preparation does is make sure the problems are small ones, and that you find out before your buyers do.

Checklist

• Sale products chosen, every variant counted, safety stock set.
• Pages, photos and size charts updated.
• Offer written in one sentence, codes tested every way.
• Gateway, refunds and backup payment methods checked.
• Shipping service told your dates and volumes; pickups agreed.
• Packing material and checklist ready; temporary staff given limited access.
• COD rules decided.
• Support answers written; dry run done.
• Sale dates shared with whoever runs your store.

For how orders move from payment to delivery on ShopenUp, see orders and fulfilment.