Lara GuevaraSupply Chain expert (Product and Service)

Why Your Clearance Sale Should Happen in September, Not January #supplychain #ecommerce

21 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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1:04

In this concise segment, Lara Guevara argues that brands should shift their clearance promotions from the traditional January window to September. She explains that slow‑moving SKUs that remain in the warehouse past October incur elevated storage surcharge rates, so clearing, bundling, or discounting them in September avoids these carrying costs. Guevara frames the clearance as a proactive marketing decision rather than a forced write‑off, emphasizing that the cost savings from avoiding surcharges outweigh any perceived margin sacrifice. She also notes that many merchandisers miss this opportunity because they are unaware of warehouse contract trigger dates, making the strategy underutilized.

Chapters

Merchandising first. You now have a hard reason to look at your slow movers before October 1st rather than in January when you always do. Which SKUs are going to sit in that warehouse through peak paying an elevated rate for the privilege? Those are the ones to clear, bundle, or discount now in September while it's a choice rather than a write-off. Which makes it a marketing decision. And this is the part I think is genuinely underused. A September clearance push on slow movers isn't a margin sacrifice, it's avoided carrying costs. And those are different numbers with different sizes. Most brands ran their clearance in January because that's when the problem becomes reasonable. The cheaper time to run it is before the surcharge starts, and most nobody does because the person planning promos has never seen the warehouse contract and has no idea a trigger date exists.