Planning Your Wholesale Year For Growth & Sanity
When you are starting a brand new business, any kind of success feels so far off. You can barely imagine having so many responsibilities that you’d struggle to balance it all. And while it’s true that growth is a “good problem to have”... it’s still a problem to be solved.
So in this article, we’re going to explore the best ways of planning your year for wholesale growth and sustainability, including:
How to balance design, outreach, and production.
Planning a yearly flow that feels both productive and peaceful.
Ways to crack the code of stores’ buying cycles.
Don’t Act Like a 500 Million Dollar Business
In trying to find a way to balance all the things that need doing, folks ask me questions like:
“How do major product companies plan their lines?”
“What is the industry standard for how many collections to release each year?”
“How can I keep up with the pace that’s expected of me?”
“When should I do launches and outreach to intersect with store buying cycles?”
These are good questions. But here’s the truth: most of the time, the answers to these questions aren’t relevant because the answers mainly apply to businesses that are dramatically larger and of a different character altogether.
For example, jewelry brand Kendra Scott has sales of $100mm-$500mm/year and has 1,500 employees. In my experience that’s not a little bigger than most makers aspire to — it’s 100-500x larger. Rifle Paper Co has revenue of $25mm with 200 employees — much smaller than Kendra Scott but dramatically bigger than most makers would actually want their company to get.
And that’s not because the makers we work with suffer from a lack of ambition. They are deeply ambitious and visionary. But their vision for their company is to lead, have impact, and generate abundant revenue while they also stay close to the design, production, and values-shaping of what they do.
Companies in the realm of Kendra Scott and Rifle Paper are running a completely, dramatically different kind of business than you are running. And their needs, opportunities, and approaches are likely all but irrelevant to your business. Similarly, how Microsoft does their yearly planning (likely a months-long process informed by a large team of people and driven by quarterly profit and regulatory demands) simply shouldn’t influence how you do your yearly planning.
It’s like trying to drive your car, but covering up the windshield with a giant video of where someone else is driving. It’s not that it’s a little helpful — it’s completely unhelpful, and probably dangerous.
My honest answer is this: it doesn’t matter what Kendra Scott does. Unless you actually intend to build a $250mm company with 1500 employees, you need to build the company you actually want to have, run, and work in.
Key Insights on Aligning with Stores’ Buying Cycles
It can feel vexing to get an email from a store that says “I love the line but I already bought for the year/season.” It feels like such a close miss, caused purely from a lack of planning or information.
It’s true that store buying cycles are important to keep in mind. But honestly, folks tend to overemphasize the element of timing in wholesale growth. Timing is an important thing, but it’s not the only thing.
When it comes to managing the timing for connecting with stores, keep these insights in mind:
Timing Differs for Direct-to-Consumer vs. Wholesale Sales
The sales cycle for direct consumers is typically more immediate, while wholesale buyers often plan months in advance, particularly for larger orders or seasonal stock.Nationwide Chains vs. Independent Stores Have Different Timing Needs
Larger retailers may follow a strict buying calendar with specific windows, while independent stores often have more flexibility and may make buying decisions closer to the season. If you’re negotiating with a nationwide store, it may happen over the span of many months. Whereas an independent store may learn of your brand, decide quickly, and order 3 months before the season.Building Long-Term Relationships Matters More Than Perfect Timing
Wholesale success hinges on relationship-building. Even if you miss a season's buying window, maintaining a connection with a well-matched store will likely result in sales down the road. Regular outreach—even if it’s just a check-in—keeps your brand top of mind and can lead to orders when the timing aligns with the buyer’s needs.Follow-Up Trumps Perfect Timing
Consistent follow-up can have more impact than hitting the perfect buying window. If a store owner is interested, timely follow-ups can lead to orders regardless of the exact timing.There’s Really Only One Bad Time to Reach Out
Avoid contacting stores during the height of their busiest seasons, such as in late October, November, and December – as they may be too overwhelmed to consider new brands.Buyers’ Approaches to Ordering Vary
Some buyers wait until after key tradeshows to place online/individual orders, while others do this before. Some buyers do buying every 3 months, some every 6, and others are always looking for great new lines. This variability makes it difficult to pinpoint an ideal time to connect with everyone.Retailers Are Ordering Closer to Need Than They Used To
Many store owners are adapting to uncertain factors like changing weather patterns, fast trend cycles, economic shifts, and even political events by ordering closer to when they need stock. This trend means that you may see more last-minute orders than in the past.
🙌 Want live expert help with your wholesale plan? 🙌
☎️ Join us for our next FREE Community Q&A Call!
We’ll talk wholesale flow, answer as many wholesale questions as we can, and be a supportive start to your plans.
Store Buying Dates You Need to Know
As we explored above, it can be hard to know exactly when stores are buying throughout the year. That said, there are some important milestones that act like a gravitational field, affecting everything around it.
Faire Online Market
Normally held in January and July, the Faire Online Market is a big event for many stores that buy online or from Faire primarily.
NYNOW
NYNOW is one of the biggest and most influential wholesale markets in the industry. In 2025, the shows are: February 2–4 and August 3–5. This late-winter/late-summer schedule is the usual cadence for NYNOW.
America’s Mart
America’s Mart is another huge gift show and is usually held in January and July. Dates for 2025 are: January 14 – 20 and July 15 –, July 21.
Shoppe Object
While a smaller show, Shoppe Object is good to know about for smaller, more design-focused brands. 2025 dates are February 2-4 and October 26-29.
Different Options for Organizing Your Year to Grow Wholesale
There are many ways to organize your year as a maker, and different methods work for different people. Some of my favorite makers do it a bit differently, so scroll down to see examples of their approaches.
Here’s a breakdown of some organizational options:
Yearly Schedule
What it looks like: Late summer outreach to new stores and stockists; new design creation planned for winter/spring.
Advantages: This approach allows for a focused period of outreach and product development, which can help avoid burnout and allows for a deep dive into each phase. It's simpler to manage for.
Disadvantages: There are fewer touchpoints with potential buyers throughout the year, which could slow growth for makers looking to grow quickly.
Biannual Schedule
What it looks like Outreach to new stores and stockists happens twice a year—late winter (e.g., February) and late summer (e.g., August). New design creation is planned for spring and fall.
Advantages: This pace supports steady growth by combining regular outreach at peak times and frequent product development cycles. It also coincides nicely with the wholesale shows.
Disadvantages: The fall season can be challenging, as it requires balancing new design creation with other demands, potentially leading to a “crunch” period.
Quarterly Schedule
What it looks like: Dividing the year into quarters, each with its focus on outreach, follow-up, and new design creation. For example, planning outreach and new products every three months.
Advantages: Allows for steady touchpoints with buyers and keeps your brand top of mind, which can increase engagement.
Disadvantages: The quarterly structure can be hard to maintain without a solid team, as frequent launches may feel rushed. Some makers may find it challenging to manage continuous production and outreach cycles.
Monthly/Weekly Schedule
What it looks like: Setting up a weekly or monthly routine around store owner outreach, follow-up, and new design creation. For example, dedicating Mondays to order fulfillment, Tuesdays to wholesale outreach, Wednesdays to designing, and Thursdays and Fridays to production.
Advantages: This setup allows you to be more involved in each area of your business more consistently. It also may work well to support ongoing product releases and consistent store engagement.
Disadvantages: With this approach, less urgent projects (like outreach and design) may be delayed gradually. For some, this approach can feel frantic, especially if unexpected demands arise.
Following Your Creative Flow Without Advance Planning
What it looks like: Allowing product development, outreach, and other activities to happen organically based on creative inspiration and energy levels.
Advantages: This flexible approach allows you to respond to inspiration as it arises, potentially leading to more creative and unique designs.
Disadvantages: Without structure, it’s easy for important tasks (like outreach or product launches) to slip, which can make it difficult to build a consistent presence with buyers. It can also sometimes slip from “organic” to “overwhelming” depending on your personality.
Experiment, Simplify, and Focus on Consistency Over Quantity
When organizing your year, simplicity and consistency are more powerful than an overly complex plan.
Here are some guiding principles to help keep things manageable and effective:
Experiment to Find What Works
Testing different approaches will reveal what suits your business best. Start simple, and once you’re consistent, consider adding new layers or increasing frequency where it feels right.
Launch Timing Doesn’t Have to Follow Design Timing
Product launches can be spaced throughout the year, even if design work happens in fewer, more intensive sessions. Separate these timelines to keep flexibility in your launch calendar.
Prioritize Based on Your Business Goals
Define what’s most important for your growth right now—whether it’s outreach, product development, or consistency with current clients—and build your schedule to support these goals.
Build Around Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Structure your year to support your unique working style. If certain tasks tend to slip through the cracks, create a routine that helps address these areas consistently while leaning into what you naturally excel at.
Aim for Consistency, Not Quantity
The right flow should feel manageable and sustainable. Focus on building a steady rhythm that’s easy to maintain rather than overloading your schedule. This will help you stay on track without burnout.
Cover all your bases.
When designing your structure, consider incorporating these core elements:Outreach to Stores
Design
Production
Back Office Tasks
Hiring and Team Development
Content Creation
Retail Markets and Events
🙌 Want live expert help with your wholesale plan? 🙌
☎️ Join us for our next FREE Community Q&A Call!
We’ll talk wholesale flow, answer as many wholesale questions as we can, and be a supportive start to your plans.
Successful Makers and How They Organize Their Year
Myrna Keliher, Expedition Press
I still feel real new to the yearly flow but August and late January/early Feb seem to be the best months for concentrated outreach to stockists, especially trying to drum up new accounts. I did ask all my existing stockists this August when they typically place their holiday orders and got a very mixed response, which was interesting. General trend seemed to be that bigger stores get all their ordering done in August or early September, while smaller stores are way more shoot from the hip, and sometimes will place orders as late as October. But for me it's better to keep the wholesale outreach in August because by the time I get to September I need to be focused on prepping for in person festivals and markets, and also focusing on my online / email marketing for Q4. It's really important to me to give good attention to my email list and give them first dibs on everything / have some new product offerings in fall because that's still my biggest revenue stream.
Also, of course, there's got to be time for making new work! Which is different sometimes than creating new products though of course there's a lot of overlap. For me, best times for making new work are summer and winter, as the heavy seasons for the in-person shows I do are fall and spring. And then late summer / early fall I start turning my energy toward a new product offering or two for Q4 (i.e., curated collections, new box sets of already existing notecards, framing, buttons just because, ha!). I feature different things with my online marketing than I do in person because they're totally different spaces that lend themselves to different ways of communicating… also during the heavy fall shows I can get a lot of info on the retail-worthiness of my wholesale line, because I'm in person watching people interact. So I try to put on my shopkeep lens and take note and then in January I can revamp / make refinements to the line before I do my late Jan/early Feb stockist outreach.
Lora DiFranco, Free Period Press
I like to schedule our big launches around the Faire Summer and Winter Markets so that we have something new to show stockists and leads (we're not doing tradeshows right now, so that's not a factor, though the timing is similar). So that's when we'll do a drop of a new sticker collection and things like that. However! I also like to space out other product launches throughout the year. I feel like this keeps engagement rates high for our email newsletter (including "new" in the subject line is always helpful!). It also avoids a new product getting lost in a bigger collection release and lets every new product have their moment in the spotlight. That's my hypothesis, at least!
Sam Slater, Samantha Slater Studio
Stores will be on the same buying schedule as each other so planning launches around a stores schedule can end up unsuccessful. Typically I plan launches (mostly) around my own creativity and what works for my business and then I figure out how to accommodate my retail partners. For example last year for the holidays I launched a new collection. I made it available to preorder for my retail partners around Oct. This worked for my timeline and offered my retail partners a chance to get items before they launched on my website. But I know I missed some holiday shopping deadlines as some stores order as early as August. Launching in Oct likely was too late for their holiday buying but it worked for my timeline.
I don't think it's unreasonable to do a survey and ask retail partners what their buying schedule is (or if they have one) and once gathering that data decide if working with them on launch dates for new collections is worth it. But I would only do this only if it makes sense for someone's business and or if the retail partner is ordering large enough quantities that including them in your business planning will be beneficial.
Leah Longueville, Polished Prints
Running both a brand and a retail store, I used to feel like we were continuously operating in two completely different seasons. I would be designing products for the holidays during the Spring and making it accessible for our retail partners no later than May with the intent of a delivery by August. About a year or so ago I noticed a huge shift - our retailers were no longer buying the bulk of their stock so far in advance and started investing most of their purchasing power in products that could ship faster. They were leaning into last minute decisions rather than planning out all of their buying ahead of time. And as a retailer I get it - the market is questionable and so much of what people are buying is driven by trends that weren’t relevant six months ago. Pair that with the uncertainty of the weather and it’s nearly impossible to gauge in February whether people will be buying sweaters or t-shirts come September.
With all that being said, it makes it really tough to come up with a plan for product releases. There are so many variables based on the type of product a brand sells, their turn around time and where they most often obtain buyers. For those who attend trade shows, they’re going to want to have everything completed before the show season begins. For those who rely on sites like Faire, there’s a bit more wiggle room to that (we tend to push out a lot of seasonal goods around their bi-annual markets).
As a brand, we’ve found success in leaning into smaller collections at least bi-monthly rather than diving into full seasons. This keeps us top of mind for buyers, allows us to stay relevant and keeps the creative juices flowing. As a buyer, I also prefer when brands do this - we personally buy on a regular basis and love to continue seeing fresh goods from our favorite brands.
Shubheksha, Fluffmallow
It varies a lot for indies vs. key [larger/nationwide] accounts, so you need to figure out who to cater to. Loosely speaking, indies tend to buy anywhere from 6 months to a quarter in advance, whereas key accounts look for 12 months out, if not longer.
Each year is a bit different for me depending on what is going on in the world, and how much traffic shops are getting. That aside, (particularly on Faire) my highest volume of orders are in: End of January, April, July, August, and October. My highest-grossing months are January and July, which does coincide with the Faire virtual trade show markets.
I honestly don't follow a specific schedule for releasing new product because I work with the seasons and my own creative flow. I find if I try to stick to a schedule my products have less life to them. I try to have 2-3 larger collection launches per year, with additional products and designs released throughout as well. I also take regular stock of what is stagnant and what needs to be discontinued or price adjusted.