Festivals bring buyers and break delivery at the same time. Most of the planning is about the second half.
What goes up
Demand, before the date. People buy for an occasion, and they buy earlier than you expect — the week before, not the day before.
Gift buying, which behaves differently: a firm date, somebody else's address, and less tolerance for a late parcel. Buying a gift on Metzee
Competition. Everybody has the same idea at the same time.
What goes wrong
Courier networks slow down, and nothing in the app fixes that. A dispatch time you keep is still a delivery date you do not control. How long will it take to arrive?
You are busier exactly when packing time is scarcest.
Your own closures. If you are not working through a festival, your calendar has to say so, because deadlines are built from it. Can I pause my listings for a holiday?
The four things to set
1. Your closed days, before the season starts. Deadlines then account for them automatically and you are not late for being shut.
2. Daily capacity, down rather than up. The temptation is the opposite. An order you cannot post on time during a festival is the one that produces the review. How to set daily capacity
3. A dispatch time you can hold on the worst day, not the best.
4. Honest delivery expectations on the listing, if something will not arrive by a date. Saying so loses a sale and saves a dispute, which is the better trade.
Pickup earns its place here
No courier, no network congestion, no date you cannot control. For local buyers during a festival it is often the only way to promise anything. How to offer pickup
Timing shows around it
Your Timing tab is built from your own buyers, and seasons move it. The hour that worked in March may be wrong in October. When should you go live?
And do not schedule a show against the one thing everybody in the country is watching.
After the season
Look at sell-through, not revenue. A busy month hides a pricing problem; the share of what you put up that sold does not. What is sell-through?
Write down what actually ran out and what did not move. That is next year's buying list, and you will not remember it in eleven months. Where do sellers find stock?
More: I got far more orders than expected, can I pause my listings for a holiday, when should you go live.