Your Q4 Order Timeline: What to Order in September, October and November

Black Friday is 27 November. Christmas is 13 weeks away. Most of what you need for both is a regular order, and most orders ship in 1 to 3 days. Two things are not, and they decide the whole timeline.

Here is what to order when, working backwards from your busiest week.

The short answer

September: decide, count, and quote

Nothing needs to arrive this month. Two things need to start.

Quote your custom printed packaging now. If your holiday bags carry your brand, this is the deadline that matters. Local production runs 4 to 7 weeks depending on the branch and run size. Count back from Black Friday and add a week for delivery, and the order needs to be placed, artwork approved, by the end of September. If you've missed it, call us and we'll check what's still possible. We quote custom printed packaging fully itemized, typically within 24 to 48 hours, so the quote is the quick part. The artwork is usually the slow part. Send it print ready and the artwork stage goes faster. Start a custom packaging quote.

Quote any custom fixtures. A custom display, a run of branded sign holders, a fixture built to your wall: each of these has its own lead time, and it depends on the project. Get the quote in this month and ask your project manager for a delivery date before you commit. Custom solutions.

Count what you have. Bags by size, tissue by colour, gift boxes, ribbon, hangers, price tags. Write the numbers down. Then look at last December's sales and decide how many of each you will burn through. Two bag sizes, not five, and one tissue colour that matches the brand is usually enough.

October: place the Christmas packaging order and dress the window

Custom packaging for Christmas goes in by mid October. That is the last date where 4 to 7 weeks of production plus delivery still lands before the December rush. After mid October, the honest answer is plain bags with a printed sticker or a ribbon to carry the brand.

Get the seasonal window up early. Thanksgiving is 12 October and Halloween is the 31st. A shop that changes its window in the first week of October reads as current for the whole month. Snap frames, floor stands and countertop holders are regular catalogue lines, so the signage order is a short one. Signage and sign holders.

Book the November order in your calendar now. Pick a date in the first two weeks of November and write it down. The shops that run out are not the ones with the wrong numbers. They are the ones that never set a date.

Early November: the big order

This is the one big order. Everything below is a regular catalogue line, and most orders ship in 1 to 3 days from Vancouver, Toronto or Edmonton. Delivery time after that depends on where you are. Order in the first half of the month and it is on the shelf before Black Friday on 27 November and Small Business Saturday on the 28th.

• Paper bags in your two sizes, plus one spare case of the size you burn through
• Tissue paper in one colour
• Gift and garment boxes and ribbon and bows for anything gifted
• Hangers, because fall and winter stock is heavier and the cracked ones from summer will not hold a coat
• Price tags, hang tags and tagging gun supplies. This is the consumable everyone forgets until the Sunday before the sale
• Boxing Day and clearance signs and sign holders. Order them now and put them in a drawer

There is no minimum order, so if the count in September turns out low, a second small order is fine. The point is to get the bulk of it done in one go.

Late November and December: top-ups only

From the last week of November, treat every order as a top-up. Carriers across Canada are at their busiest in December and transit takes longer than it does in October, whatever day the order leaves our warehouse. If you kept the spare case of bags from the November order, this is the month you use it.

Boxing Day is Saturday 26 December. If the clearance signage and the price tags went in the drawer in November, the changeover is an evening's work, not a December order.

January: write down what ran out

Before the clearance stock is gone, note what you ran short of and what you had too much of. That list is next year's September count, already done.

One more thing for next year. Offshore production for custom packaging runs 3 to 4 months with a 5,000 unit minimum, and it is the route for larger volumes and national rollouts. An offshore order placed now lands in the new year, so it is a 2027 decision. If you want it for next Q4, the order goes in by June.

Not sure how many bags a busy December needs, or whether a custom run makes sense at your volume? Call the order desk at 1-877-433-3437 and we will work it out with you.

Questions we get asked

How far ahead do I need to order custom printed bags?

Local production runs 4 to 7 weeks depending on the branch and run size, plus delivery. For Black Friday, order by the end of September. For Christmas, by mid October. Offshore production runs 3 to 4 months and is for next year.

Can you hold custom stock and ship it as we need it?

Yes. Order a larger run for better pricing and we warehouse it, shipping to your locations on your schedule.

Is there a minimum order on regular items?

No. Order one case or twenty.

How quickly do regular orders ship?

Most orders ship in 1 to 3 days from our Vancouver, Toronto or Edmonton warehouse. Delivery time after that depends on where you are and, in December, on how busy the carriers are.

When should I order Boxing Day signage?

With your November order. Sign holders and show cards are regular catalogue lines, so add them to the same order and keep them aside until the 26th.