8 January 2026 ยท Helen Crowe
Markdown timing after the second quiet weekend
Waiting for a calendar sale can waste two weeks of full-price conversion. A merchandising note should flag lines that have already told you they will not recover.
Many calendars still wait for a named sale. Meanwhile a line has already had two quiet full-price weekends, stock is heavy, and the converting colourway is not the one in the window. A merchandising note after the second quiet weekend is earlier than finance often likes and later than the warehouse would like.
We look at conversion against the same weekends last year, not only against last week. A cold May does not always mean the parasol has failed. A dress that converted in week one of last September and is already lagging in week one this September is a different conversation.
When we recommend a markdown, we try to keep it at colourway or size level. Blanket category sales train shoppers to wait, and the next full-price weeks become harder to read.