For many shops in Sri Lanka, December is one of the busiest months of the year. Customers buy more sweets, biscuits, drinks, gifts and household items for Christmas and the year-end. A well-prepared shop can have its best month of the year. An unprepared one runs out of best-sellers, struggles with long queues and ends January with unpaid supplier bills.
Here is a practical checklist to prepare, starting in November.
The best guide to this December is last December. If you have sales records, list the items that sold much more than usual. Compare each item’s December sales with a normal month to see how much demand went up.
Here is an illustrative example for a tin of biscuits:
| Period | Tins sold |
|---|---|
| Last November | 40 |
| Last December | 110 |
| Increase | 2.75 times |
| This November | 48 |
| Rough plan for this December (48 × 2.75) | About 132 tins |
Use this as a starting point, not an exact order. If you have no records from last year, start recording now so that next year you will.
Buying all festive stock in one large order ties up cash and risks leftovers. Instead:
Ask your distributors early about delivery times in December. Many suppliers are busy in the same weeks, so delivery can take longer than usual. Set reorder levels with this in mind. Our stock management guide explains how.
Extra stock has to be paid for before it is sold. Before you order, ask:
Be careful with credit sales during the season. Customers often ask for more naya in December, and January is when that cash is needed most. Keep credit limits in place. See our guide to managing customer credit.
Suppliers often increase prices before the season. Re-check the cost and selling price of your festive items in November, so you are not selling December stock at old prices. Our pricing guide shows how to set prices for the margin you want. Remember that items with a printed maximum retail price cannot be sold above it.
Bundles are popular in the festive season and help sell more per customer. For example, a pack of biscuits, a drink and a box of chocolates at one price. Price the bundle using the cost of everything in it, so the bundle still earns your target margin.
When the shop is busy, mistakes in change and unrecorded sales increase. A ten-minute cash-up every evening catches problems the same day. See our guide to the daily cash-up.
In the first week of January, look at what sold, what was left over, and how much profit the season made after extra costs. Note the items you ran out of and the items you over-ordered. This becomes your plan for next year.
Plan in early November and place a first order in late November, then reorder fast-selling items in December based on actual sales.
Use last December’s sales compared with a normal month as a guide, and order in stages rather than all at once.
Bundle or discount it early in January, before expiry dates get close. Note the quantity left over so you order less next year.
VeeraOne records every sale, shows your top-selling items, alerts you before stock runs low, and gives each staff member their own login, so you can plan this season and have the records for the next one.
Sales, stock, staff logins and daily profit & loss in one simple app. Free plan, no card required.
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