Retailer stories are drawn from real patterns across our trade accounts, with details combined and anonymised so no single customer's trading data is identifiable.
A single-site health and beauty shop in the North West sold slightly more Christmas gift sets in 2025 than in 2024 while buying about 90 fewer. Its post-Christmas markdown was less than half the size.
The Christmas that prompted the change
In 2024 the gift set buy went in late and mostly in one go. Nearly all of the 500 or so units, spread across 40 lines, arrived at the end of October, picked mostly from brochures and memory. The rest came in as a few emergency top-ups.
The best sellers ran out first. The ten strongest lines, mostly sets priced at £10 to £25, had sold out by the first week of December, with the Christmas rush still ahead. By Christmas Eve 64 per cent of units had sold. The other 180 went to half price in January.
Everyday lines suffered too. With cash tied up in gift stock, December reorders of shampoo and deodorant were trimmed. Regulars who found gaps went to the supermarket instead.
An August review, line by line
In August 2025 the owner set last year's till data against the invoices and recorded, for every gift set, units bought, units sold by 24 December and the date it sold out. The sold-out date mattered most. A set that ran out on 5 December showed 100 per cent sell-through but had missed nearly three weeks of trade, so real demand was higher than the figure suggested.
Twelve lines had sold more than 90 per cent, fifteen had sold less than half and thirteen sat in between. All fifteen weak lines were dropped, along with seven of the middle group.
How the 2025 buy was built
- A tight core, committed early. Eighteen sets, the twelve strongest plus six steady middle performers, were ordered in September for delivery at the start of October. That was around 300 units. With chain pharmacies running 3 for 2 gift offers from early autumn, the shop stuck to sets customers asked for by name.
- A small test allocation. Eight new lines at six units each, so a miss would cost little.
- Reorders planned around lead times. Budget for about 60 units was held back. From November there was a fixed weekly order day sized on the previous week's sales, with a last gift set reorder on 12 December to allow for carrier delays.
- Everyday lines ring-fenced. Shampoo, deodorant and other everyday replenishment had its own weekly budget that gift sets could not touch.
- A markdown date set in advance. Full price until Christmas Eve, a third off from 27 December, and anything left on 10 January cleared at cost.
Where it landed, and what they would change
The result was steady rather than dramatic. Including reorders, the shop bought 410 gift sets and sold 330 by Christmas Eve, about 80 per cent. That left 80 units for the post-Christmas markdown instead of 180, and the gift stock was gone by mid January. Everyday lines stayed in stock through December.
The test lines were the weak spot. Two of the eight sold well enough to reorder. Three barely moved, and 15 of the 80 marked-down units came from those three lines alone. This year the owner plans to test five lines at four units each.
Two core lines still ran out in the final week. Both were reordered cautiously in early December, when the trend was already clear. The fix is to size late reorders on the previous week's sales plus a buffer for the last fortnight.
The shop repeated the review this August. A weekly order day relies on replenishment turning up within days, and trade orders with us are dispatched within 48 hours. It is the same thinking behind protecting margin all year: gift stock still on the shelf in January has already cost you.