Seasonal Promotion Planning Checklist

Pull verbatims from the last campaign's post-purchase survey and the loyalty CRM. Look for repeat themes — sizes that sold out early, signage confusion at checkout, BOGO mechanics customers misunderstood. These are the gotchas worth fixing before the next launch.

The merchant works the buy plan against forecast units, target weeks-of-supply, and GMROI. Capture the planned sell-through percentage so allocation and the markdown matrix can be built off the same number.

Match each PO's ex-factory and ETA dates against the launch date. Build in a 7–10 day buffer for DC receiving and store allocation. Late vendor ship windows are the most common reason a launch goes live with thin SKU coverage.

Hold back roughly 15–20% at the DC for week-two replenishment instead of pushing 100% on the initial allocation. Top-velocity stores will pull through faster than the model predicts.

Build the first / second / third markdown cadence (e.g., 25% / 40% / 60%). The cost-protection floor is the price below which margin goes negative — flag any planned markdown that breaches the floor for VP of Merchandising approval before the calendar locks.

Route the affected SKU list, projected unit liquidation, and gross-margin impact to the VP of Merchandising. Do not publish the promo calendar until the override is signed.

Lay out launch date, first markdown, second markdown, terminal markdown, and clearance hand-off. Attach as the source of truth that store ops, digital, and CRM all build against.

Confirm stacking rules with the POS team — which offers combine, which are mutually exclusive, what the loyalty-tier override looks like at the register. Stack mistakes show up as register-level margin leak the first weekend.

Each kit ships with window clings, valance headers, shelf talkers, and register danglers labeled by fixture. Include a placement photo card so morning openers can set without a district-manager visit.

The visual director walks one pilot store against the schematic before chain-wide rollout. Catch fixture-fit issues, signage gaps, and product-to-fixture mismatches here — fixing them once at the pilot is cheaper than fixing them across 50 stores.

Revise the schematic based on pilot findings, reissue to stores with a change-log, and re-walk the pilot before signage ships chain-wide.

Build the Klaviyo (or equivalent) flow with a teaser send 7 days out, a launch-day send, and a mid-promo reminder. Segment loyalty tiers so VIPs see early-access pricing before the broader list.

Stage the Shopify (or BigCommerce) theme changes in preview, schedule the publish for launch-day midnight local time, and verify the BOPIS and curbside flow still works against the new merchandising tiles.

Cover the hero SKUs, top customer questions, return-policy exceptions for promo items, and stacking rules. Post in the store's Slack or Beekeeper channel so part-time staff can reference on shift.

Walk through the POS prompts on Lightspeed / Square / Counterpoint — when the loyalty override fires, when manager approval is required, what to do when a coupon and a BOGO collide. Misrings here drive refund-and-rering volume on launch weekend.

Compare the published schedule against last year's hourly traffic curve for the same week. Flag any open shifts to district managers; predictive-scheduling jurisdictions (NYC, Seattle, Oregon) require notice well before launch weekend.

The director of stores and director of e-commerce both sign off after walking the readiness checklist: inventory in stores, signage hung, web banners staged, email scheduled, staff trained. A no-go on either channel pauses launch until remediated.

Walk through the failing readiness items, assign owners and a fix deadline, and re-poll for go/no-go before opening doors. Document what slipped so the next season's calendar can pull the date earlier.

District managers walk their assigned stores Saturday and Sunday. Photograph end-caps, check signage placement against the schematic, and spot-check that the register is firing the right promo prompts. Send corrections to the visual team before Monday.

Two weeks after launch, the merchant, visual director, and store ops lead recap actual sell-through against forecast, gross-margin impact of any sub-floor markdowns, and the top three things to change for next season. Capture the artifact so the next planning cycle starts with the lesson, not from scratch.