Merchandise Planning Calendar

This peak season, protect your margins by controlling discount stacking. As we approach peak trade and the peak discounting period, brands often default to the bluntest tool in the box: heavy sitewide sales. The logic is simple “drop the price, drive volume, clear stock.” But too many brands forget one crucial detail: stacking discounts can quickly turn profitable orders into loss-making ones. The Overlooked Discounts: Sitewide promotions don’t operate in isolation. Sitting in the background are your: High-intent pop-ups Welcome series discounts Cart abandonment flow incentives These are designed to capture incremental conversions in normal trading periods. But when layered on top of aggressive sitewide offers, they often wipe out already-thin margins. A Quick Example: RRP: $100 Sitewide discount: 30% → Sale price = $70 Product cost (COGS): $20 Customer acquisition cost (CAC): $30 Shipping / merchant / pick & pack costs: $15 At this stage: Revenue: $70 Costs: $20 + $30 + $15 = $65 Profit: $5 per order (5% margin) Not great, but still positive. Now add in an additional 20% discount from a pop-up or triggered flow: Extra discount: 20% off $70 = -$14 Adjusted sale price = $56 Recalculate: Revenue: $56 Costs: $65 🛑 Net loss: -$9 per order Why It Matters At scale, these “hidden discounts” mean businesses spend thousands acquiring customers and fulfilling orders at a negative contribution margin. Instead of driving growth, they quietly erode cashflow and profitability during the most critical sales period of the year. How to Avoid This Trap: Audit your flows before peak trade. Adjust high-intent pop-ups, welcome offers, and cart abandonment discounts during sitewide promotions. Set a CAC ceiling. Ensure that even with discounts applied, your contribution margin remains positive. Model scenarios. Calculate “worst case” blended discounts and costs before launching campaigns. Use AI or rules-based systems. Automate safeguards so discounts can’t stack beyond a certain threshold. Discounting can be a powerful lever, but unmanaged, it becomes a profit killer. You may risk turning your busiest period into your least profitable one.

There are three ways companies handle discounting. Only one of them makes sellers better. → Policy plus an operating system. Built to defend the price, with the language, the manager behavior and the proof to hold it. → Floor-first policy. The rep asks the pricing team for the floor, gets it, and opens there. That's selling on price with a process wrapped around it. Thousands, sometimes millions, given away before anyone asked and before value was ever established. → Deal-by-deal discretion. The decision sits with the rep, and the guardrail sits far enough out that it rarely stops anything. I've worked inside all three. Carrying a number, and later in product management building the programs meant to change the behavior. The first is where I learned the most. The constraint didn't limit those sellers. It developed them. 🛡️ That isn't willpower. It's design. And a point you don't give away is booked revenue this quarter and margin you didn't have to go win. But less discounting gets treated as an aspirational goal. It rarely gets built into the operational layer. 🎯 Five places to build it. 1. Approvals → In one study of 321 pricing teams, strict approvals held discounts under 10% off list nearly half the time. Loose guidelines managed one in five. Set named thresholds, and require the business case before approval, not after. 2. Language → Research on price defense found the value a seller builds does not translate into holding price. Two different skills. Write the rationale by product and segment. Why this number, what it buys, what changes if it moves. Then have reps say it to their manager before a buyer. 3. Managers → Across 264 customer conversations, the strongest predictor of a rep holding price was their manager's own behavior on price. So build the manager. Model it, coach it, inspect it. Modeling first. Watch how fast your managers escalate one. Then inspect the sequence, not only the number. Was value established before price moved. 4. Proof → Value quantification predicts company performance, not individual performance. Build the quantified case by segment before the call exists, give it an owner, and refresh it. 5. Then negotiation skill → It works, and it fades without the four above it. Train the concession sequence rather than the tactics, with reinforcement behind it. 🔗 Sequence, not substitution. If you only build one, build the third. 🤝 Tomorrow, the seller side. The words, and what to do before price ever comes up.

One of the biggest mistakes I see brands make is handing out wholesale discounts with no consumer strategy behind them. A wholesale discount by itself does not create velocity. It just lowers the retailer’s cost. If there’s no MSRP strategy, no promo cadence, and no plan to communicate value to the consumer, you’re not driving sell through…you’re just giving away margin. Wholesale discounts should be used strategically to help retailers achieve margin goals while still allowing the product to hit the right retail price and promotional price for the customer. Because at the end of the day: Consumers buy on perceived value. Retailers care about margin and turn. Brands need sustained velocity, not one-time buy-ins. If a retailer receives a wholesale discount, that discount should be passed through to the consumer as a promotional price or shelf discount — while still accomplishing the retailer’s margin objectives. The strongest brands understand this: MSRP discipline + intentional promo planning + aligned retailer margins = sustainable sell through. Discounting without a retail strategy is just expensive noise.

Brands often discount at the wrong moment. The discount to get the first order… Then remove discounts once the customer is invested. That’s backwards. The most effective place to discount is after the customer mentally commits but before they repurchase. Here’s how to spot that moment: Signals of commitment: (behavior based) - Product usage emails opened - How-to content clicked - Review page visited - Subscription page viewed (even without converting) That’s when you introduce a discount. Why it works: Before commitment: Discount = “convince me” After commitment: Discount = “reward me” Tactically: Create a segment for customers who engaged with post purchase content but haven’t reordered. Offer: Not “20% off” But: “Lock this price in for your next order” You’re reducing future risk.

📊 Over the years of auditing thousands of email campaigns across various industries, I've noticed a concerning trend: The perpetual "sale spiral." 🌀 Companies are trapped in an endless cycle of discounting, each trying to outshout the other in increasingly crowded inboxes. Recently, I worked with a DTC brand whose open rates had declined over 30% over six months despite increasing their promotional frequency. Their customer lifetime value was dropping, and unsubscribe rates were climbing. The diagnosis? Discount fatigue. 😫 Here's what we implemented: We introduced what I call the "70/30 Value Rule" - 70% pure value content, 30% promotional. ⚖️ For the value portion, we created: ➜ Industry insight newsletters ➜ Behind-the-scenes glimpses into product development ➜ Customer success stories ➜ Actionable tips related to their product category ➜ Community spotlights The results after 90 days were compelling: ⭐ Open rates increased by 32% ⭐ Customer feedback emails jumped 215% ⭐ When promotional emails were sent, conversion rates improved by 28% ⭐ Unsubscribe rates dropped by 41% Key Learning: The most successful brands understand that email isn't just a sales channel—it's a relationship builder. By giving your audience "breathing room" between promotions, you create anticipation and trust that translates into stronger campaign performance when you do make offers. This approach requires patience and a shift in metrics. While immediate sales might dip initially, the long-term engagement metrics and customer lifetime value typically show significant improvement within 3-4 months. For companies looking to break free from the discount cycle, start small: Replace one promotional email per week with pure value content. Track not just opens and clicks, but also replies, shares, and sentiment. The data will speak for itself. Remember: In a world where everyone is shouting "BUY NOW," sometimes the most powerful message is simply "We're here to help."

One topic increased 100% in our client conversations last week across 170+ brands. Inventory pressure heading into summer. Brands that over-indexed on Q1 optimism are facing a Q2 demand reality mismatch. Excess inventory is piling up and the instinct is to discount. Portfolio discount rate hit 10.85% in May. That's $54.2M in discounts against $499.8M in gross revenue. The highest in three months. Brands across multiple categories bleeding margin to move product. It's worth mentioning a lot of this was due to memorial day being the largest discount day of the year. The pattern we keep seeing: a brand starts marking down reactively. Ten percent off, then fifteen, then a flash sale, without a designed promotional structure behind any of it. Each markdown trains customers to wait. A structured campaign built around the same inventory converts at a higher rate, acquires new customers in the process, and preserves pricing power going forward. The difference in margin recovery between reactive and structured is roughly 3 to 4x. Not because you're spending more. Because the structure changes how customers respond. Reactive discounting converts excess inventory into a brand tax. A designed promotional campaign converts it into a brand moment. The brands designing their Q3 promotional calendar now will enter Q4 with clean inventory and intact pricing power. The ones still reacting in July will be discounting through October. Excess inventory is a planning problem before it becomes a marketing problem. The brands that treat the promotional calendar as a planning input and not a reactive lever will consistently outperform on gross margin.

Are you discounting your way to unprofitability? Discounts aren’t just marketing tactics, they’re financial decisions. And when they aren’t analyzed properly, they become a profit drain that no one notices until it’s too late. Here’s what happens behind the scenes: ❌ Marketing thinks discounts are boosting sales. ❌ Finance sees revenue increasing and doesn’t question the margins… yet. But here’s the real problem. Not all customers respond to discounts the same way. 📉 The Wrong Way to Discount: - Blanket sitewide discounts that attract deal-hunters who never return. - Seasonal clearance sales that cannibalize future full-price purchases. - Overuse of first-time buyer discounts that teach customers to wait for a sale. 📈 The Right Way to Discount: - Segmented Discounts – Reward high-LTV customers, not just price-sensitive ones. - Cohort Analysis – Track whether discounted buyers actually return at the same rate as full-price buyers. - Contribution Margin Tracking – Ensure discounts don’t erode gross profit per order beyond what was planned. The best CFOs don’t just approve discounting strategies. They pressure test them against long-term profitability. If you don’t track post-discount retention, you’re not optimizing. You’re guessing. How does your team analyze discounting today?

💡 Creating a Discount Strategy That Boosts Sales Without Undermining Your Brand’s Value 💡 As an e-commerce brand, offering discounts is a great way to drive sales, but it’s essential to strike the right balance. Too many discounts, too often, can devalue your product and erode your brand’s worth. So, how do you create a discount strategy that maximizes sales while protecting your brand’s value? Here are some key tips: 1️⃣ Focus on Strategic Timing: Don’t overuse discounts. Reserve them for key events, holidays, or special product launches to create urgency and excitement. Too many flash sales can make your brand seem “cheap.” 2️⃣ Offer Value, Not Just Price: Instead of always slashing prices, consider offering bundles, free shipping, or exclusive gifts with purchases. This adds value without directly lowering the perceived value of your products. 3️⃣ Loyalty Discounts: Reward your most loyal customers with exclusive discounts or early access to sales. This builds loyalty and makes your discounts feel more valuable and less like a “race to the bottom.” 4️⃣ Clear and Limited Offers: Set clear boundaries around your discounts—make them time-sensitive or product-specific. When customers know a discount is rare or limited, they’re more likely to act quickly and appreciate the value. 5️⃣ Price Anchoring: Use higher-priced items as anchors to make your discounts appear more attractive without reducing the value of your core products. For example, offering a small discount on a high-ticket item can make your other products feel like a better deal. 6️⃣ Avoid Discounting Bestsellers Too Often: It’s tempting to discount your top products, but overdoing it can harm the perception of their value. Instead, focus on moving slower-selling items and creating promotions around them. 🔑 The Bottom Line: Discounts can drive sales, but they shouldn’t be the primary driver of revenue. Keep your brand's value intact by using them strategically and offering customers something of true value beyond just a price cut. How do you approach your discount strategy to maximize revenue without compromising your brand's value? Drop your thoughts below! 👇