The four days that bend the year.

Plan the week early

For many stores these four days deliver a tenth or more of the year's revenue, which means the week is won in September, not November. Inventory has to be ordered while the forecast is still a guess, shipping cutoffs published before the first ad runs, and bestsellers stocked deep enough to survive the surge. A stockout on Black Friday costs a multiple of an ordinary one, because the shoppers you turn away are the most expensive and the most ready to buy you will see all year — see out of stock for what an empty shelf really costs.

Discount like you mean it

A sitewide 25% off is easy to launch and easy to regret. The arithmetic above is unforgiving: on a 45% gross margin, a 25-point discount leaves twenty points of profit per sale, so the sale has to move more than twice the usual volume just to match a normal week. That is why targeted offers usually beat the blanket cut — deeper discounts on high-margin or overstocked lines, quieter ones where the margin is thin, and bundles that lift AOV while the banner does its work. Whatever you run, size the discount against your own margin, not against your competitors' homepages. The store next door may be clearing dead stock; you may be giving away your best quarter.