The discount that would have worked in week six is applied in week twelve

Seasonal retail lives or dies on sell-through, and sell-through is a race against the calendar. The shop that discounts a failing style in week six clears it at ten percent off; the shop that waits until week twelve clears the same style at forty.

Why waiting feels right

Because discounting early feels like giving up on a style that might still move, and because the pressure to clear only arrives when the next delivery does. Both are understandable and both are expensive.

The measure that removes the argument

Sell-through against weeks on sale, compared with what a successful style looks like at the same point. A style at twenty percent in week five is not going to recover, and knowing that is a different decision from feeling it.

Depth as arithmetic

How much discount is needed follows from how many pairs remain and how many weeks are left. Set that way it is a calculation. Set by pressure, it is always deeper than it needed to be and always later.