Preparing your startup for fourth quarter sales

As the end of the year approaches, the retail industry starts to pick up speed: The fourth quarter is a critical period for brick-and-mortar retailers and online sites alike. After all, it’s a time of heightened consumer spending, with holiday shopping, gift-giving, seasonal promotions and end-of-year celebrations driving significant sales. When it comes to setting up your business for success in Q4, it’s not just about boosting sales; it’s about strategic planning, inventory management and capitalizing on seasonal opportunities. Ahead, a deep dive into what you need to do to ensure your small business is set up for success during Q4. 

There are three important things to consider: 

1. The Rhythm of Retail: Insight about Wholesale Buyers are focused on each month from October through January.  

2. Your Honest Assessment: Are you a holiday-related product or not?  

3. Your Fourth Quarter Focus: How you’ll use the key information above to map out your focus for each month of the Fourth Quarter. 

Let’s examine each step to help you map out your game plan for the last few months of the year.

1. The Rhythm of Retail: To navigate the fourth quarter successfully, it’s crucial to understand the rhythm of retail from the perspective of the wholesale buyer. Each month from October through early January carries its own focus and demands in retail. 

October: As fall sets in, buyers are finalizing their holiday assortments. They’re looking for products that will captivate holiday shoppers and fit into seasonal promotions. This is the time to ensure your holiday-related products are well-stocked, your inventory is full and your marketing materials, such as holiday-themed packaging or promotional displays, are ready to go. Note that you should have already communicated this to the Wholesale Buyer, and you’ve both agreed to your seasonal plan. 

Note that as the Buyer turns most of their attention to turkeys and candy canes, they turn their focus away from categories that aren’t a priority during the holiday season, and they put a freeze on bringing in new products that aren’t holiday-related until next year. When I was a buyer, I wouldn’t even consider new brands between October 1st and mid-January, after we caught our breath through the seasonal push. If you pitched your kombucha to me in October, I’d question if you even knew what you were doing in this industry, and that alone would be enough to say “no” to your product line.  

November: The buzz of the holiday season picks up, and the Buyer has hired, onboarded, and is managing new seasonal team members and busier, more complicated schedules. Buyers are monitoring early sales trends, replenishing stock and preparing for the upcoming surge. They’ve likely pulled all-nighters, swapping out seasonal displays after hours. They’re starting to feel tired, and the impact of the seasonal rush. 

Practically speaking, they’re also considering last-minute additions to their assortments, so if you have any last-minute holiday-related products, early November is your last chance to get them on shelf. In these few weeks, it’s crucial to maintain open communication and be ready to fulfill any sudden orders quickly, as well as commit to doing in-person demos and sampling in your key, local accounts.  

Thanksgiving Week is a marathon in retail, and this is your time to be the best, lowest-maintenance (but still supportive, if need be!) vendor to your Wholesale Buyers. Do not bug them during this time, and do not, under any circumstances, pitch your products in the 10 days around Thanksgiving. It’s an absolute no-go. 

December: After we get through Thanksgiving, we turn to gift-giving. This is the peak of the holiday shopping season. Buyers are intensely focused on keeping shelves stocked and managing inventory turnover. Again, they’re not taking on new products but will appreciate efficient logistics and reliable stock levels from their current vendors. It’s vital to ensure that your deliveries are timely, and your stock levels are sufficient to meet demand.

Important to note: There is one sneaky window of time between Thanksgiving and the December holidays when Buyers turn their sights to January, thinking about promotions for the first month of the next year. How will they capitalize on New Year, New You energy, or Dry January? What items will pick up during cold and flu season? If you’re not holiday-related but you are health-focused, you have a short window to communicate with Buyers in early December, pushing to get stocked for January’s focus.  

Early January: As the holiday rush winds down, buyers shift their focus to inventory assessment and planning for the year ahead, and are finally ready to consider new, non-holiday related products for their shelves. They may attend industry expos or events like The Fancy Food Show, or Good Food Mercantile in January, or planning for Expo West in March. Before the holidays get too far out of reach, they reflect on sales performance and gather feedback, making it the perfect time for you to gather your Fourth Quarter notes as well. What went well? What would you do differently next year? Write it all down now, before your learnings become distant memory 

And remember: By aligning your strategy with buyers’ focus each month, you can better position your products to meet their needs and maximize your success during this critical holiday season.

2. Your Honest Assessment: Before you map out your Fourth Quarter focus, you need to honestly assess whether or not your product is holiday-related and if you’ll spend October through December focusing on the seasonal rush, or if your time is better spent focused on preparing for January’s sales pitches. 

It’s a simple assessment: is your product gift-worthy or tied to a seasonal celebration or specific seasonal recipe? For example, beautiful lemon curd or seasonal truffles would be lovely for stocking stuffers, but a bag of handmade potato chips or cold brew concentrate likely won’t see that seasonal spike. Maybe your canned pumpkin flies off the shelf in November, or your family’s maple syrup soars each winter, but your dog food doesn’t see a fourth-quarter fluctuation. Be honest with yourself and don’t try to make your product fit into a holiday box if it simply doesn’t.

3. Your Fourth Quarter Focus: 

After your honest assessment, you now know what your focus will be for the upcoming quarter: will you push to land on shelves, in seasonal displays and holiday guides for the rest of the year, ensuring you’ve got inventory on hand, clear communication with your Wholesale Buyers, and a plan for demos, samples, and holiday promotions? 

Or will you pause on the holiday push, knowing your energy is better spent focusing on January’s new product placement surge, using these next few months to dial in your sales systems – from your pitch scripts, to revamping your sell sheet and price list, to your promotional plan, to your logistics and operations… There’s plenty to keep you busy to be fully prepared for nailing your sales pitches come January.  

As the fourth quarter approaches, it’s clear that success in retail hinges on strategic planning, keen awareness of the retail rhythm and an honest assessment of where your products fit into the holiday landscape.  

By understanding the unique pressures and opportunities each month brings to retail, you can align your efforts with those of your Wholesale Buyers, ensuring you’re a low maintenance, organized, valuable partner during this busy season. Whether you’re gearing up for a holiday push or preparing for a sales push at the start of the new year, a focused approach will position your brand for success.  

Remember, the relationships you build and the strategic moves you make now can set the stage for ongoing growth and a thriving business year-round. So, take a deep breath, plan thoughtfully and dive into this busy season with confidence and clarity. You’ve got this. 

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About the author

Alli Ball is the founder & CEO of Food Biz Wiz and the creator of Retail Ready®, an online program providing strategic support, curated curriculum, and values-aligned community for producers of packaged products in the food industry who want to grow their sales sustainably. As a former grocery Buyer-turned-Wholesale consultant, Alli has helped thousands of emerging brands understand what it takes to get on the shelf and have high sales once you’re there. Find her on her website here and through the Food Biz Wiz® podcast, her award-winning podcast about wholesale strategy.