Dashain and the weeks that follow — right through Tihar — are the biggest retail window in Nepal's calendar. Families buy clothes, electronics, kitchenware, and gifts in volume. If you run an online store and you are not ready by Ghatasthapana, you will spend the peak days firefighting instead of shipping. This 30-day checklist gives you a structured runway so that when traffic spikes, your store handles it.
Week 1 (Days 30–22): Audit Stock and Confirm Suppliers
The first thing to get right is inventory — not discounts, not design. Promising a product you cannot deliver destroys trust faster than any bad review.
- Do a physical count. Discrepancies between your POS records and the actual shelf are common. Find them now, not during Astami.
- Forecast demand from last year. If you sold 40 units of a kurta set in October last year, plan for 50–60 this year and reorder accordingly.
- Contact your wholesalers this week. Suppliers in Kathmandu, Butwal, Birgunj, and Bhairahawa reduce capacity or close entirely during Dashain. Confirm purchase orders and inbound delivery dates by day 25 at the latest. If you source from Indian wholesalers, border congestion during the festival period is real — build in extra lead time.
- Set low-stock thresholds. Decide at what point a product disappears from your listing. A practical rule: hide or mark as sold out when fewer than 3 units remain. Oversold items cause more damage to your reputation than a sold-out banner.
Week 2 (Days 21–15): Update Product Pages for Festival Intent
Dashain buyers are gift-shopping, not bargain-hunting on a commodity. Your product pages need to reflect that mindset.
Build Gift Bundle Listings
Create new SKUs that bundle complementary products under a single, gift-ready listing: a Dashain Mithai Pack with dry fruits and sweets, a New Dress Set pairing fabric with dupatta, or a Kitchen Upgrade Bundle with two or three cookware items. Price bundles at a 5–10% discount over buying each item separately, photograph everything together, and write a short one-paragraph description aimed at someone buying for a relative. Bundles raise average order value without requiring a sitewide sale.
Write Honest, Complete Descriptions
Include size charts in centimetres, material composition, care instructions, and — critically — estimated delivery time by region. Customers in Pokhara, Chitwan, and Dharan have different delivery windows than someone in Kathmandu. Be specific. A product page that says "delivery in 3–5 days" without clarifying inside-valley versus outside-valley will generate complaints.
Add a Delivery Promise Label Where You Can Keep It
A label like "Arrives before Astami" on eligible products creates honest urgency. Only use it if you can genuinely back it up with your courier's schedule. Remove it when the window closes.
Week 3 (Days 14–8): Discount Codes, Payments, and VAT
Discount Codes — Simple Beats Clever
Run one or two codes maximum. A general festival code — for example, DASHAIN10 for 10% off orders above NPR 1,500 — is easy to share on social media and easy for customers to use. Optionally, a separate loyalty code for repeat customers. Avoid stacking too many conditions: "20% off only on kurtas, only on weekdays, only if you spend NPR 3,000" confuses more than it converts.
Decide whether your discount applies to the pre-VAT or post-VAT price before you go live, and test it with an actual order. Getting this wrong causes accounting headaches in November.
Activate Every Payment Channel
eSewa and Khalti are non-negotiable during Dashain — a large share of your customers will use a digital wallet rather than a card. Confirm both are active, test a real payment on a mobile device, and make sure the callback (order confirmation) works after a successful transaction. If you accept Fonepay QR or direct bank transfer, verify the QR code on your checkout page is current.
Cash on delivery (COD) still drives a significant portion of orders from customers outside Kathmandu Valley. Keep it enabled, and set a realistic COD cap — most stores use NPR 5,000 to NPR 10,000 — to manage risk. Platforms like Saauzi let you enable eSewa, Khalti, and COD from one place, so take ten minutes to confirm every channel is live and tested before traffic picks up.
PAN and VAT: A Quick Sanity Check
If your annual turnover crosses NPR 20 lakh, VAT registration is mandatory and your invoices must carry your VAT number. Dashain revenue can push smaller businesses over that threshold faster than expected. At minimum, make sure your PAN number appears on all receipts. If you are unsure whether you should be VAT-registered, a short conversation with a CA now is cheaper than an IRD penalty later.
Week 4 (Days 7–1): Delivery, SLAs, and the Full Checkout Test
Delivery is where most Dashain store failures happen. Orders placed on Saptami and Astami need to arrive before Vijaya Dashami — that is a narrow window and every courier in Nepal is at peak load.
Call Your Courier Partner and Get Dates in Writing
Contact Pathao Courier, Hulas, City Express, Bhimsen Express, or whichever service you use, and confirm: the last pickup date before Dashain, which districts they serve during the festival period, and their delivery SLA for inside-valley versus outside-valley shipments during peak days. Then publish those dates clearly on your shipping policy page — not buried in a FAQ, but visible at checkout.
Add a Cutoff Banner to Your Homepage
A simple, honest banner — "Order by [specific date] for delivery before Dashain" — reduces post-festival complaints and sets expectations upfront. Remove it as soon as the cutoff passes.
Prepare for COD Returns
Return rates on COD orders rise during festivals. If your courier handles reverse logistics, confirm the return SLA and fee structure now. Publish a clear return policy before the festival starts so customers know what to expect and your team has a documented process to follow.
Run a Full Checkout Test on Mobile
One week before the festival, place a real test order on your store from a mobile device. Browse, add to cart, apply a discount code, complete an eSewa or Khalti payment, and verify that the order confirmation SMS or email arrives. Fix anything that breaks. Do not discover a broken checkout flow on Astami morning.
During the Festival: Three Things to Monitor Daily
- Stock levels. Update sold-out status every morning. An oversold item that generates an automatic confirmation and then a cancellation is worse than simply being out of stock.
- Payment failures. eSewa and Khalti can experience gateway timeouts during high-traffic periods. Monitor failed-payment logs daily and have a fallback message ready for customers — for example, "If eSewa times out, try Khalti or pay on delivery."
- Customer messages. Response-time expectations are higher during festivals. If you cannot reply within a few hours, set an auto-reply that tells customers where to find their order status. Silence during Dashain week reads as negligence.
One Actionable Takeaway
Start with inventory today. Everything else — bundles, discount codes, payment channels, delivery SLAs — depends on knowing what you can actually sell and ship. Confirm your supplier orders this week, build your gift bundles next week, and you will arrive at Ghatasthapana with a store that is ready to earn rather than scramble.
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