Independent retail runs on the calendar more than most other businesses, and the calendar is brutal. By the time your customer is asking about a category, you have to have ordered it, received it, and merchandised it months ago. Here's the rough cadence we use with most of our buyer accounts.
Spring (March–May at retail): write your orders in October–November of the prior year. Garden, outdoor, lightweight apparel, and Mother's Day / Father's Day gift inventory. Lead times for garden and outdoor categories run long because the suppliers also have a calendar — they're producing for everyone simultaneously and can't extend infinitely.
Summer (June–August): write in January–February. Most of this is reorders and category fills, not new lines, but the buyers who win in summer are the ones who placed by Valentine's Day.
Fall (September–November): write in April–May. This is the cycle that catches the most buyers off guard, because April still feels like spring and fall feels distant. By June every preserve-maker is sold out of jars for fall delivery; by July it's the candles. Don't be in the position of trying to source fall in July.
Winter holiday (the November–December gauntlet): write your initial orders by mid-July, with restock POs landing September–October. The holiday window is short and unforgiving — anything you have to reorder past October 1 is unlikely to arrive in time, depending on the supplier.
The exception to all of this: trade-show buying, where you'll often write opening orders for a season much closer to the delivery date. Trade shows are calibrated to the buyer calendar, so a January show will have orders shipping in time for the relevant season. Use shows for opening orders with new suppliers and use your standing supplier relationships for the bread-and-butter reorders.
Written by Amy Burdick for WICE. Questions or pushback? We read every reply. Write to us.