1. Order from last year, not from memory
What you remember about last season is what happened at the end of it, which is rarely representative. The movement report over the same weeks of the previous year is what actually sold, item by item, and it is the only honest basis for an order. Two years of the same report is better still, because it separates a genuine trend from one unusual season.
2. Size the order to your capital, not your optimism
A season order is the largest single commitment most shops make, and it is made before any of the money comes in. Work out what you can carry if the season is twenty per cent worse than expected and order to that, because a shop that is short in a good season loses some sales while a shop that is long in a bad one has its capital locked for a year. The asymmetry matters.
3. Stagger the deliveries if you can
Where a supplier allows it, take the order in two or three despatches rather than one. It reduces the godown pressure, spreads the payment, and gives you a chance to adjust the second tranche once you have seen the first few weeks of actual demand. Many suppliers will agree to this and are simply never asked.
4. Set minimums only on the fast lines
Low-stock alerts are useful during a season and become noise if set on everything. Put them on the twenty or thirty items that actually carry your turnover, so a warning means something. Those are also the lines where a stockout costs a sale and often a customer, which is exactly what the season is too short to recover from.
5. Watch the credit as well as the stock
In seasonal trades the money goes out with the goods and comes back afterwards, so your exposure peaks predictably. Know the total outstanding and its ageing before the season starts, because that tells you how much more you can safely give during it. A shop that runs out of credit capacity mid-season is as stuck as one that runs out of stock.
6. Clear the tail before it dates
What is left at the end has a value that falls with time, especially in trades where designs, shades or expiry matter. Review the movement report as soon as the season closes rather than months later, and clear the tail while it is still current — through bundling, a trade buyer, a supplier return where terms allow, or a visible discount. The recovery is far better than it will be next year.