How do you Choose Holiday-Themed Inventory? Avoiding the Clearance Bin After Seasonal Events

[JTPets]

Hey fellow shop owners! 🎃🐾

I'm John from JT Pets - We sell Natural pet food and supplies, and every year I wrestle with the age-old question: How much Halloween, Christmas, or Easter inventory should I really stock? There’s nothing worse than having spooky toys and treats lingering on the shelves come November! 👻

For those of you who've mastered the art of limited-time holiday sales—what’s your secret sauce? How do you nail down what sells and what ends up in the dreaded clearance bin? I'd love to hear your tips, tricks, and any lessons learned from your hits and misses! 🙏

In my store, I try to keep things simple by picking 1 or 2 holiday-themed food items and 3 or 4 toy items. This way, I minimize the risk of overstocking, but I also know it limits my potential rewards if certain items sell out faster than expected. I also don’t always rush to clearance items that don’t sell—I sometimes carry them over into the next year, especially if the themes are timeless (like pumpkins or snowflakes). It’s a balancing act, and I’m curious if anyone else takes a similar approach or has a different way of maximizing profits while reducing leftover stock.

Let's help each other prep for the next big holiday rush. Feel free to drop your thoughts or ask me anything about how I plan seasonal stock! Let’s make this season (and the next!) a profitable one for all of us. 💪🎉

[DinaLRosenberg]

Being a metaphysical shop, halloween is our busiest time of year, so we do tend to go a bit heavier on our merchandise and for us- "everyday is halloween" so the merch never really goes to waste.

We start selling halloween pretty early - Mid August- so by the time October comes around we don't have a ton left. We do tend to stick with merch in categories that are already performing well so we have an idea of what to order.

We definitely don't mind holding on to merch year over year either.

[maxpete]

Tagging some folks to weigh in! @Purple_HS, @Doran, @Donnie-M, and @Maurice8th 

[leestanton]

Hi John, I’ve found success by analyzing past sales data to determine the popularity of specific holiday items. I also utilize pre-orders or social media polls to gauge customer interest before placing large orders. For holiday-themed items that might not sell out, I bundle them with evergreen products to keep them moving without needing clearance. Keeping a balance between novelty and practical items helps minimize the clearance pile, and cross-promotions during the holiday rush can also boost sales!

[Doran]

It is a trial and error system but now I know which CATEGORY of items sell best for me on holidays. Also, some holidays, like Easter, do nothing for my clients.  So last year I was able not to have so much leftover stock. 

This year I plan to use the same strategy.  I looked over all my data for the last 5 years and saw that for me, cards and ornaments were the only festive season items that sell through to completion.  Halloween is books only.  RANDOM but New Year cards are a huge seller for me. 

Other than that holiday stock does not sell well at all for me.  So sticking to those items only this year. 

As far as gifts that I carry, the week of Christmas I get a ton of husbands in here looking for stocking gifts.  Some of them even bring the stockings for me to do up for them.  I think this was a TIKTOK effect.  Last year I didn't have much and those guys were devastated.  I've already begun getting those things.  They also requested "new" ideas so throwing in some new items.  

[rtfulk]

We have to start in January for the Fall/Christmas season. We have to turn in our designs to get them in line for April/May production and receive Halloween, Thanksgiving and some Christmas by the end of June, then the bulk of Christmas arrive at the end of September. We start selling Halloween,Thanksgiving & Christmas in July. The reason we start so early is our Summer/Fall fairs start in July and where we work different states it give people the opportunity to buy seasonal items. With clothing you never sell every piece of each design, so we do Live shows on facebook and our app to clear them out. Our customers get a discount and we clear out left over inventory. We also do live shows at the fairs and setup local pickup for people that live in the area. You would be surprised when they come in to pickup, they always find something else to buy at retail price.