Preparing for a festival season that lasts a few weeks: Rath Yatra, Raja and Puja

In many shops Puja goes the same way. The first Saturday the shop is packed and three people answer WhatsApp with three different prices. The size everyone wants is gone by evening, and the second week is spent sitting on colours nobody asked for. A season that lasts a few weeks needs three things done before it opens. Message last season's buyers so the first orders come in early. Buy stock for the first weekend only. Write the replies down and rehearse them with everyone who answers.

Why a few weeks are harder than a whole year

Rath Yatra fills Puri in June or July. Raja lifts clothing and gift sales along the coast, Nuakhai is a big shopping week in western Odisha, and Durga Puja is the same for Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Buyers across Odisha move with this calendar.

A short season leaves no time to correct a mistake. The first weekend tells you what sells, and by the time you act on it the season is half over.

Early enquiries get lost too. A customer asks a month before Mahalaya whether the Puja range has come, hears "not yet, come later", and nobody writes down the name. That was the easiest sale of the season.

Start with the people who bought from you last season

Pre-selling means taking orders from past buyers before the crowd arrives. The replies also tell you which sizes, colours and designs to buy before you have spent the money.

Build the list from numbers in last season's bill book, UPI payments with names, and WhatsApp chats from customers who asked about stock, keeping only numbers people gave you. Two weeks before the stock arrives, send each one a short message, by hand or as a broadcast list from the WhatsApp Business app, after checking the app's current rules on who a broadcast reaches.

Namaskar [name], this is [shop name] near [landmark].
Our Puja stock comes in on [date]. You bought [item] here last Puja,
so you get first pick before we put it out.
Send the size and colour you want and we will keep one aside till [date].
We can deliver in [area] before Sasthi.
Reply STOP and we will not message you again.

Change the festival and the item for Raja or Nuakhai, and have an Odia speaker write it in Odia if that is how the customer wrote to you. Anyone who replies STOP comes off the list that day. The offer is first pick and a piece kept aside, not a discount.

Stock to the first weekend, then refill from what sold

Here is the rule. Buy enough of each line for the first weekend in full, and buy beyond that only what your supplier cannot refill during the season.

"The first weekend" means the first two days of real crowd, found in last year's bill book as the first two days the number of bills jumped. For each line, take what sold on those days, add the pre-orders, and add a little extra in the sizes that ran out.

Before you order, agree a refill with the supplier: a date, the lines they can repeat, and how you will send the list (a WhatsApp photo works). On the Monday after the first weekend, count what went and order the refill from that count, not from memory.

Skip this rule when you cannot refill. Handwoven pieces, made-to-order work and goods from a supplier who ships once a season have to be bought deep, so lean harder on pre-orders to choose them.

Rehearse the replies before the first customer asks

In the rush, whoever is free answers the shop's WhatsApp: the owner, a relative, the helper at the counter. Each quotes a different price, and nobody asks the size. Write one reply card, pin it near the counter, and answer these first-weekend questions from it:

1. "Rate?" The price with what it includes, and the size question in the same message.
2. "Is size 6 there?" Yes or no. Then the nearest size, or the refill date.
3. Keeping a piece aside. Until when, and whether you need an advance.
4. Delivery before the festival day. The last day you can promise for each area. After it, stop promising.
5. Exchanges after the festival. One rule for everyone, said before payment.

Then rehearse. The evening before the stock goes out, send each question to the shop's number from another phone and read what comes back. Where two people answered differently, fix the card, not the person.

For example: a children's wear shop in Cuttack before Durga Puja

Imagine a children's wear shop in Cuttack's Choudhury Bazar. The details are illustrative. Last Puja, the owner bought the whole season's stock from a Kolkata wholesaler in one order. The first weekend cleared the frocks for four to six year olds in the two colours everyone wanted. After Dasahara the shop was left with about ₹40,000 of boxes in a shade nobody picked (an invented figure). That same weekend, a relative quoted one price for a lehenga set on WhatsApp while the counter quoted another, and two customers who knew each other compared notes.

This season the owner went in order. Three weeks before Mahalaya, a relative messaged past buyers from the bill book, and the pre-orders showed which sizes and colours to buy. The first weekend was bought in full and a refill agreed with the wholesaler. The reply card went on the wall with one price list. At the rehearsal, a family member asked "is size 6 there?" from another phone and got "come and see". That line went onto the card as a yes, a no or the refill date. On the Monday after the first weekend, the refill order went to the wholesaler, built from that weekend's bills. It did not fix everything: the refill arrived four days late, and the second colour still ran out.

When this plan is the wrong one

Pre-selling needs a list. A stall near the Jagannath Temple selling to first-time pilgrims has almost no repeat buyers, so its effort belongs on signboards and a clear Maps listing. A shop in its first season is in the same place: collect numbers at the counter this time and pre-sell next time.

A Puri guest house cannot stock to a weekend, because its rooms are fixed, but the pre-sell message still works: families who stayed last Rath Yatra want the dates and the rate first. For new customers, read how to advertise during the festive season.

Open last season's bill book tonight

Two things come out of it. The names with phone numbers are your pre-sell list. The first two busy days, and what sold on them, are your first stock order. Neither needs anything you do not already have in the drawer. Planning the messages, stock dates and reply card around your festival calendar is festive and seasonal advertising; tell us what you need to start.