Retailers: Christmas Order Deadlines
By The Velocity Wear Team
Order in October for Christmas. The selling window opens in late November rather than December, so stock has to land before then, and behind that date sit transit, a 10 to 15 working day production window from artwork approval, and the approval stage itself. October gives you all of it plus a fortnight of slack. November leaves you none.
What is the last sensible date to place the order?
Work back from the day the product needs to be selling, not from 25 December. For most shops that is the last week of November, when gift buying starts in earnest. Subtract transit, then three calendar weeks for the build, then a week for approval and any revision, and mid October is where you land. Earlier is better because October is also when everyone else is booking capacity.
Order in November and the arithmetic still works on paper, but a single artwork revision spends the whole margin of safety. The wholesale range shows what can be produced to this schedule, and the comparison page helps if you are deciding between decoration methods under time pressure.
Why is October rather than November the real cut-off?
Because a Christmas product has no second chance. Miss the window on a core line and it sells in January at a lower price. Miss it on a seasonal design and it does not sell at all until next year, by which time you are holding a year of stock for a four-week selling period. The asymmetry is what justifies ordering earlier than feels necessary.
The fix is a buffer rather than a faster supplier. Planning apparel lead times so you never air freight sets out how much slack a seasonal line needs and where to put it in the calendar.
How much should a shop commit to a Christmas line?
Enough to cover the window without a restock, because there is no time for one. A design ordered in October cannot realistically be reordered and received before the season ends, so the quantity decision is final at the point you place it. That pushes most shops to one design, ordered deeper than a normal test run.
Deeper also prices better. Crossing from 50 to 99 pieces into the next band lowers the per-piece figure, and up to 35% comes off on the largest runs. When to reorder and how much buffer to hold is worth reading before you settle the number, even though the restock option is off the table here.
What should be decided before October?
The garment, the colourway and the artwork. Those three are the whole approval stage, and a shop that arrives in October with them settled is ordering rather than deliberating. If a sample is wanted, it belongs in September, because £150 spent then is credited against the bulk order and costs nothing in schedule.
What should a festive run leave behind in January?
As little as possible, which is an argument for designs that are seasonal in colour rather than in message. A dark green hoodie sells through December and then sells again in February. A hoodie with a dated festive slogan on the chest has a four-week life and then occupies rail space until it is marked down below cost.
If the client for the design is the gift buyer rather than the wearer, lean on packaging and presentation to make it feel seasonal instead of printing the season onto the garment. The product then survives into the new year at full price, which changes how deep you can afford to buy in October.
Plan the markdown before the season rather than after it. Decide in advance which week you will discount, by how much, and what the floor is, so the decision is made calmly in October instead of anxiously in the third week of December. That plan also tells you honestly whether the run size you are about to order is one you can live with.
