The seasonal collection calendar: when to launch, when to mark down, and who decides in March

Work backwards from the selling weeks, not forwards from the buy

Count the full price selling weeks the season honestly offers in your climate and your channel. A spring collection that lands six weeks into spring has not lost six weeks of sales. It has lost the six best weeks, when demand is fresh and price resistance is lowest, and kept the weeks where every competitor is discounting. Set the in store date first, then subtract freight, customs, receiving, and a buffer week you will actually need in one year out of three, and let that arithmetic set the order deadline. Suppliers negotiate. The season does not.

Launch when the range is complete enough to tell the story, not when the first carton arrives. A collection page missing half its sizes teaches shoppers that your size is never in, a lesson they remember in the next season when the range is perfect.

The first markdown is a decision, so schedule it

Pick the review date when the order is placed: a fixed week where sell through by product is read and the first markdown candidates are chosen on evidence, while there are still selling weeks left for the reduced price to work in. An unscheduled markdown happens late and in a panic, deeper than it needed to be. Scheduled and early beats brave and late on almost every line we have tracked, because a small cut with eight weeks to run outsells a large cut with three.

Name who decides, in March, before anyone's buying pride is attached to a number. The buyer argues for the product. The calendar argues for the season. Both should be in the room, and the tie break rule should be written down: sell through thresholds agreed in advance, not negotiated per product while the clock runs.

Open to buy is the bridge between seasons

Money parked in leftover seasonal stock is money the next collection does not get, and the next collection is the one that could have sold at full price. That is the real cost of refusing an exit date, far bigger than the markdown itself. Set the exit before the season starts: the date by which remaining stock moves to outlet, bundle, or clearance, and the warehouse stops counting it as an asset at full value. Feelings about a product do not change its season. Snow boots in April are a storage cost with a story.

Carryover deserves one honest exception. True core products that sell across seasons should be designated as such at buying, with their own stock rules, so the seasonal exit does not sweep them and the seasonal label does not protect everything else by association.

One page, on the wall and in the shared drive: order deadlines, in store dates, launch dates, markdown review, exit, per season, with an owner per date. Last year we shipped thirty one changes on one store's operations. The wall calendar was the cheapest and the one referenced in every meeting after. A calendar that lives inside one person's head leaves the business when they take a holiday.