The UK retail buying calendar for 2026

Q1 (January–March): plan, don't buy

The first quarter is not a buying quarter. It is a planning quarter. The retailers that trade well in Q4 spend January and February on last year's numbers, not on line sheets.

• Review last year's sell-through by SKU, not by category. Identify the top 20% of SKUs that drove 70–80% of revenue.
• Clean down dead stock — anything with zero sales in the last 60 days is a candidate for markdown or return.
• Lock your open-to-buy for the year and split it: roughly 60% pre-book, 40% in-season repeats.
• Meet distributors, request AW26 line sheets, and ask which lines they expect to be short on.

Q2 (April–June): place AW orders, chase SS repeats

Quarter two is the most important buying quarter of the year. Every major branded footwear and outerwear label closes AW pre-books by the end of April. Miss the window and you are buying from someone else's leftovers.

• Confirm all AW26 pre-books with brand accounts by end of April.
• Book inbound freight and warehouse receiving windows for August–September deliveries now — slots go faster than the stock.
• Watch weekly sell-through on SS core lines and re-order the top 20% before the distributor stocks out.
• Set your Q3 discount plan in June, not September. Panic discounting kills margin.

Q3 (July–September): receive, check, hold the line on price

Quarter three is receiving-heavy. Between July and mid-September the bulk of AW stock lands. This is where the operation is tested, not the buyer.

• Resource goods-in early. A missed inspection window turns into faulty stock sold at full price and a returns spike in November.
• Photograph and list new lines on-site the week they arrive — every day off shelf is a day of lost margin.
• Hold discounting until the last week of September at the earliest. Early discounts train customers to wait.

Q4 (October–December): trade hard, plan SS27

Peak trading runs from October to late December. This quarter typically produces 35–45% of full-year revenue for branded retailers, and the winners are the ones with the top 20% of SKUs in stock every single week.

• Re-order best sellers weekly. Branded stock rarely gets replenished on demand — assume every winner will stock out at the distributor by mid-November.
• Use quieter weeks in November to place SS27 pre-books with the same discipline as AW.
• Plan January stock take and end-of-year markdown windows in early December, not the week they start.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Buying too much SS in Q1. Q1 is planning. Hold cash for Q2 pre-books.
• Missing the April pre-book cut-off. The most expensive mistake in the whole year.
• Waiting for the monthly review to repeat winners. By then they are already sold out at the distributor.
• Discounting AW in September. You give up 6–8 weeks of full-price selling for no reason.