Welcome back, Product Bosses! Q4 is one of the busiest and best times of the year for product-based businesses, and most people treat it like one big buying window. In this episode, I'm breaking down how I divide Q4 into four distinct buying windows, who is shopping in each one, and what you should be selling and promoting at every stage so you can stop guessing and start planning.
THE 4 BUYING WINDOWS OF Q4 (AND WHAT TO SELL IN EACH ONE
The first window is the early window, which runs from about October 1 right up until Black Friday. Fall is a big transition season: people change up their homes, their wardrobes, and the way they decorate, and they love fall flavors, colors, and scents. That makes it a great time to introduce fall collections, promote seasonal products, and sell to early gift planners, people spreading out their holiday spending, and customers shopping for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Hanukkah also comes early this year, on December 4, so there will be gift buyers shopping for that too. Promoting doesn't have to mean discounting, it means creating offers, like a new collection drop or seasonal scents, putting Halloween on sale, and clearing out summer inventory. If you sell custom or one-of-a-kind products, now is the time to push people to order, not the weeks between Black Friday and Christmas. The second window is the peak window, Black Friday weekend, which is really the Cyber Five now: Thanksgiving evening through Cyber Monday. This is when savvy shoppers shop, and the big brands know it. Target and Amazon ran their sales on October 6 and 7 this year, trying to pull deal seekers in early. You can run an early Black Friday sale too, as long as your Black Friday offer doesn't go lower than your first one. If you're still in the early stages of marketing, I'd recommend one clear offer for the weekend, like up to 30% off sitewide, and if you're selling in person, make the incentive to the person standing in front of you really good, because they're the most likely to buy.
One of my Collective members asked me whether she should drop her new fall collection on Black Friday weekend. My answer was no. Black Friday exists to get you out of the red and into the black, which means moving inventory, not launching new product. New drops belong in the early window, in October and the first half of November, when customers buy simply because it's new. I shared a personal example of how well this works. I bought a couple thousand dollars of product during a brand's big sale, and the very next day they dropped a new color and new styles. I knew from past experience that they sell out, so I bought again at full price instead of waiting for Black Friday. The brand trained me on scarcity and on wanting what's new, and I stayed engaged the whole way through. After Black Friday comes the third window, the last minute window, from early December through Christmas. These are the shoppers who ran out of time, have holiday parties and teacher gifts to buy, or are still filling in Hanukkah gifts. You don't have to keep running sales here. Instead, create offers people want, like free gifts with purchase or ways to raise your average order value. Watch your shipping cutoffs (USPS's last guaranteed day this year is December 17, as far as I know), stay available for local pickup and in-person markets, and remember Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas, which is one of the biggest shopping days of the year in real life. This is also the perfect time to sell gift cards, even in emails on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning for the person who forgot a gift.
The fourth window is the one most people don't realize exists: the holiday to halo period, from December 26 through mid January. January 17 happens to be the most commonly reported day people give up their New Year's resolutions, so anything tied to a fresh start, like fitness apparel, nutrition products, journals, and calendars, can do really well here. Customers are also redeeming gift cards, making returns, and buying for themselves, and after-Christmas sales are your chance to turn seasonal inventory back into cash. You even have permission to make these deals better than Black Friday, because nobody needs to hold on to ornaments for next year. This is also when you need to work on staying relevant, since January is one of the slow months, along with June and July. Introduce your next collection, run New Year's campaigns to re-engage past customers, and then lean into Valentine's Day, which kicks gift giving and spending up again. When you map it all out, that's four months of ideas covering October, November, December, and January: what to sell, when to sell it, and how to meet your customer where they are. The next step is implementing, with a plan for your emails, your markets, and your revenue goals, plus someone to keep you accountable when you hit a rough spot.
The key takeaways I want you to remember are:
Q4 isn't one buying window, it's four. The early window, the peak window, the last minute window, and the holiday to halo period each have different shoppers, so each needs its own offers and messaging.
Launch new products early and use Black Friday to sell through. Drop new collections in October and early November, then use the Cyber Five to move inventory with one clear offer.
Keep selling after Christmas. Gift cards, resolution-driven products, after-Christmas sales, and a new collection for the new year keep customers engaged through the slow month of January and into Valentine's Day.
Product Boss, remember: your busy season is when you need support the most, so you don't have to carry it alone. Join us for a free live workshop, or book a free call to talk through your Q4 goals.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
00:00 Why treating Q4 as one big sales opportunity could be costing you revenue.
02:00 How to capitalize on early holiday shoppers before Black Friday.
04:45 Creating compelling seasonal offers without relying on discounts.
06:00 What you need to know about the biggest Black Friday buying window.
08:00 How major retailers are changing the holiday shopping timeline.
09:45 Creating Black Friday promotions that make sense for your business.
11:00 Why timing your product launches matters for maximizing sales.
13:15 How to capture last-minute holiday shoppers without extending your discounts.
15:00 Making the most of shipping deadlines, Super Saturday, and gift cards.
16:45 The overlooked post-Christmas buying window that can drive more revenue.
18:15 Turning leftover inventory into cash and bringing customers back in January.
19:45 How to keep sales moving beyond the holiday season.
20:45 Why strategy, mentorship, and accountability matter when you're ready to scale.
Resources + Links
Ready to lead, run, and grow your product business beyond a million dollars, without being the bottleneck? Join me this week for a free workshop HERE!
Ready to stop guessing and follow a proven system? Book your strategy call HERE!
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