Seasonal sale preparation checklist
Work through inventory, marketing, site, and support tasks before a seasonal sale goes live. Each task has an optional note field for a date, a figure, or a link — check items off as you complete them, then export the whole checklist (with your notes) to a branded PDF or a CSV for your team.
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should I top up inventory for a seasonal sale?
Enough lead time to account for your supplier's production or restock lead time plus shipping — for most sellers that means finalising inventory levels 4-6 weeks before the sale, not the week of. Running out of a hero product mid-sale wastes the ad spend that drove traffic to it and pushes customers toward a competitor's listing instead, which is a worse outcome than a slightly conservative promotion.
Why test the countdown timer specifically, rather than just the page as a whole?
A countdown timer that shows the wrong end time, doesn't update correctly across time zones, or keeps counting after the sale has ended creates a direct mismatch between what the page promises and what checkout actually honours — which is one of the fastest ways to generate support tickets and refund requests during a high-volume sale. Test it against the actual sale start and end time in production, not just in a staging environment with different dates.
What should the shipping SLA review actually check before a sale?
Whether your current carrier capacity and fulfillment turnaround can handle the order volume you're forecasting for the sale, not just your day-to-day average. A sale that drives 5-10x normal order volume can blow through a same-day or next-day shipping promise if it isn't checked in advance, and a broken shipping promise during a promotion damages trust more than not having made the promise in the first place.
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