Boxing Day Sales: How Small Shops Should Plan Stock

Boxing Day is a bit of a funny one. Christmas is over and done with, but the holidays aren’t quite finished. Some shops stay closed, but with so many people off work and looking for something to do, closing can mean missing out on a whole lot of potential sales. 

And it’s still a big day for the high street. Boxing Day 2025 saw footfall across UK retail destinations rise 4.4% on the year before, the biggest jump in more than a decade, according to MRI Software. Shoppers had a bit more to spend, too, with Barclays finding the average budget for the end-of-year sales rose to £253, up from £236 the year before.

But let’s be honest, Boxing Day can be tricky. You’re selling, swapping and clearing stock all at once. Some customers are after a bargain, some are already returning presents that didn’t quite hit the mark, and others have gift cards to spend.

Then there’s the question of what to do with all your Christmas stock. The day after Christmas, festive gifts and decorations feel a bit out of date, but they’re still just about relevant. By January, though, hardly anyone’s looking for tinsel or advent calendars, so whatever’s left either needs a bigger discount or goes in a box until next year. At the same time, you don’t want to knock money off things people would happily pay full price for, so it’s a bit of a balancing act, to say the least!

So, as a small shop, how do you juggle all of the above and make the day worth your time? Spoiler: it starts well before anyone’s finished their Christmas dinner.

Why Boxing Day needs its own plan

Let’s be honest, Boxing Day can be easily forgotten. After all the pomp and glamour of Christmas, plenty of people are pretty done by the time 26 December rolls around and the day tends to just happen, usually involving the sofa, a country walk and a sizeable portion of leftovers. But give people a free day and a bit of Christmas money, and plenty of them will end up at the shops. And because it’s so unplanned, the customers who come through your door tend to fall into a few very different camps:

• Bargain hunters, who’ve come specifically for the sale

• Returners, who want to swap or refund gifts they didn’t want

• Gift card shoppers, who’ve just been given money to spend in your shop

That’s why it’s worth thinking carefully about your Boxing Day game, because the day after Christmas is truly a completely different ball game. But how do you go about planning? Keep reading for our top tips. 

1. Look at what sold over Christmas

Before you decide anything, have a look at your sales from Black Friday through to Christmas Eve. What sold well? What didn’t? And what are you likely to have left once Christmas is over?

If you’ve got last year’s figures, check what sold on Boxing Day and the week after, too. You might find people mostly went for discounted Christmas bits, or that they used the sales to stock up on everyday things. Either way, it tells you what your customers actually come in for. If you’re not sure where to start, our guide to the 8 most useful reports you can run in Epos Now walks you through the main ones.

2. Decide what goes on sale

It’s easy to assume Boxing Day means putting everything on sale, but is that really the best move? The problem with this approach is that it can cost you a lot of margin without bringing in many more customers. Instead, it’s usually better to sort your stock into a few groups and treat each one differently:

• Christmas stock: decorations, festive gift sets, advent calendars and anything else that won’t sell at full price after the 25th. These are the ones to discount most.

• Slow sellers: anything that’s been sitting around for a while. The sales are a good excuse to finally clear it and free up space and cash.

• Winter stock: coats, boots, gloves and the like still have a couple of months left in them, so a smaller discount (or none at all) often makes more sense.

• Bestsellers and everyday lines: these tend to sell anyway, so there’s rarely a need to cut their price much.

So, rather than just discounting everything willy-nilly, knock money off only where it’ll really make a difference. And if you’re looking at a pile of slow-moving stock and wondering how it got there, our guide to inventory control has some handy tips for keeping it in check next year.

3. Think twice before ordering extra

About to hit buy on that order? Hold your horses! It’s easy to get carried away and order a load of extra stock for the sales, but it’s worth doing a quick sum first. Say you buy something in for £10 and normally sell it for £20. Knock 30% off for the sales, and you’re selling it for £14, so you’re only making £4 instead of £10. That can still be worth it if it sells in big numbers, but not if half of it ends up sitting on your shelves through January, which is usually one of the quietest months of the year.

If you do decide to order more, stick to the things you know always do well in the sales, and try to order a little less than you think you’ll need. Selling out of something on Boxing Day isn’t the end of the world, but being stuck with a pile of it in January is a lot more of a headache. It’s also worth checking when your suppliers close for Christmas, so your sale stock actually arrives in time. If you’re not sure how much to order, our guide to inventory forecasting can help you work it out.

4. Remember it’s not just one day

When we talk about Boxing Day, we’re really talking about more than just one day. That strange week between Christmas and New Year (or “Twixmas”, as some people call it) is prime shopping time, too. In fact, VoucherCodes’ research found that 27 December was expected to bring even more shoppers into stores than Boxing Day itself, and for most shops, the sales carry on well into January.

So, what does this mean for you? Brace yourself for a pretty unique shopping week. Rather than putting everything out on the 26th, it’s worth holding a bit of stock back. Topping up your sale rails and displays over the following days gives people a reason to pop back in, and it means your shop still looks full and inviting on the 28th, rather than like the last biscuits at the bottom of the tin.

5. Count your stock before Christmas

This is not the time to get sloppy! Picture it: it’s Boxing Day morning, and a customer asks for the half-price boots your system says you’ve got, only for you to find they sold weeks ago. Fortunately, all it takes is a quick count in the week before Christmas to save you from that; and you don’t need a full stocktake, just check the products going into the sale and your bestsellers. Our guide to retail inventory management has more tips on keeping your counts accurate.

If you sell online too, this matters even more, as plenty of people start browsing the sales from the sofa on Christmas evening. But we’ve got just the answer! With Epos Now, your online and in-store stock is linked through multichannel inventory management, so every sale updates both automatically, and you won’t end up selling the same jumper twice.

6. Plan for returns, exchanges and gift cards

Our best advice is to brace yourself for returns, because let’s be honest, not every present is going to be a hit. Make sure your returns policy is clear, and that your staff is comfortable and confident with a return. Just don’t forget to check returned items over quickly, as anything in good condition can usually go straight back on the shelves (and maybe even into the sale). Our guide to managing gift returns has more tips on setting a returns policy that works for you and your customers.

Then there are the gift card shoppers, who are often the most relaxed customers you’ll see all week. They’re not too fussed with bargains; they just want something they’ll love, and they’ll often happily spend over the card’s value to get it. So to prepare for these shoppers, ensure you’ve got plenty of your popular full-price lines in stock, so that no matter the shopper, you’ve got options. 

7. Get your team on the same page

This is a day you’re going to want your staff to know what’s what. Have a look at last year’s sales to see when your busiest hours were, and plan your rota around them, so you’re not left with one person on the till while a steady queue forms.

Before the doors open, run through which products are in the sale, how much they’re reduced by and how returns and exchanges work. Plan in like ten minutes of briefing – it’ll save a lot of confusion later on. 

Oh, and before we forget: it’s also worth making sure your tills and card machines are ready for the rush, as a long queue at the counter is one of the quickest ways to lose a sale.

After the sales: look back before you move on

And while you’ve been working hard, so has your POS. It’s been chugging along quietly in the background, keeping track of every sale over Boxing Day and the days after. But those numbers won’t do much sitting in a report you never open, and with the January sales right around the corner, now’s the moment to actually use them. A few things worth sorting while it’s all still fresh:

• What to do with the leftovers: Is that Christmas stock going back in a box for next year, or is it worth knocking a bit more off in January? And could a couple of slow sellers be bundled together to get them moving?

• Which discounts to repeat: If something sold just as well at 20% off as it did at 40% off, that’s really handy to know for next year.

• What to reorder: Anything that sold out quickly is a good sign it’ll do well again, so it’s worth getting it back in sooner rather than later.

Don’t forget to check in with your team; they were on the shop floor all day, so they’ll have noticed things the numbers won’t show, like which displays people kept stopping at, or what customers asked for that you didn’t have. Then, once the dust has settled, run your end-of-year reports to see how the whole festive season went.

Wrapping up your Boxing Day plan

Boxing Day doesn’t have to be a bit of a dud. With a little planning and the right information to hand, it can be a really good day for your shop. If you know what sold over Christmas, decide what’s going in the sale (and what isn’t), keep a bit of stock back for the rest of the week and make sure your team knows the plan, you’ll be in a great position. And whatever happens on the day, you’ll come out the other side with plenty to learn for next year.

If there’s one common theme running through all of it, it’s knowing what’s actually on your shelves. That’s where an Epos Now POS system can help, keeping track of every sale, return and online order as it happens. And if you’re still getting ready for the weeks before Christmas, our Christmas marketing ideas are a good place to start.