Dashain and Tihar are the two biggest spending seasons in Nepal. Families buy new clothes, electronics, kitchenware, gifts, and groceries; sahuji culture means people are willing to pay, and many wait all year for the festive discounts. For a retail store, these few weeks can bring in more revenue than several normal months combined. But a successful festive sale is not just slapping a "50% off" banner on your shutter. It needs planning around stock, margins, digital payments, and the post-festival slump. Here is a practical, Nepal-specific playbook.
Start planning 4–6 weeks before Ghatasthapana
The biggest mistake small shops make is reacting late. By the time Phulpati arrives, customers have already spent their Dashain kharcha and bonuses. Begin your prep early so your stock, pricing, and promotion are ready before the rush.
- Forecast demand by category. Look at what sold last Dashain and Tihar. Clothing, footwear, electronics, and gift items peak before Dashain; lights, diyo, sel-roti ingredients, dry fruits, and home décor peak just before Tihar.
- Lock supplier orders early. Wholesale prices in New Road, Asan, and supplier markets rise as the festival nears. Buying early protects your margin.
- Plan your cash flow. Festive stock ties up capital. Know how much you can safely invest without choking your daily operations.
Build a discount strategy that protects your margin
A discount should pull in customers without quietly eating your profit. Before announcing anything, calculate your real margin per product after cost, VAT, and overhead — remember that if you are VAT-registered, your displayed price includes 13% VAT, so discount on the right base.
Use tiered and threshold discounts
- Spend-more-save-more: "Rs. 200 off on purchases above Rs. 3,000" lifts your average basket instead of just cutting price on a single item.
- Category-specific offers: Discount slow-moving or high-margin items deeply, keep fast-movers at modest discounts.
- Flat percentage only where it makes sense: A blanket 40% off looks attractive but can wipe out thin-margin categories like electronics.
Avoid discounting everything equally. Your goal is higher total profit, not just higher footfall.
Bundle festive products to increase basket size
Bundling is the most underused tactic by Nepali retailers, and it works beautifully during festivals because people are already buying in sets. Instead of selling one item, sell a themed package.
- Tihar gift hampers: dry fruits + chocolates + a decorative box at one price.
- Deusi-Bhailo / pooja kits: diyo, wicks, mustard oil, sindur, and lights bundled together.
- Dashain family packs: matching outfits, or a clothing item paired with footwear at a combined rate.
- Home refresh sets: curtains, bedsheets, and cushion covers as a single décor bundle.
Bundles raise your average sale value, help clear related slow stock, and save the customer the effort of choosing — a real win during a busy shopping week.
Run digital coupon codes and promote them everywhere
Most festive shopping conversations now happen on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Viber groups. Digital coupon codes let you track which channel actually drives sales and create urgency without printing anything.
With Saauzi, you can create coupon codes for your online store and POS in minutes — for example DASHAIN10 for a percentage discount or TIHAR500 for a flat amount — set an expiry date, cap the usage, and restrict them to certain products or a minimum spend. Because the same coupon works across your online store and your physical counter, you get one clean view of what your festive campaign is earning instead of guessing.
Make coupons convert
- Add urgency: "Valid till Tika day only" or "First 100 orders."
- Tie coupons to digital payment: offer a small extra discount when customers pay via eSewa, Khalti, or bank/QR — it reduces cash handling and speeds up your busy counter.
- Use unique codes per channel: one for Facebook, one for TikTok, one for in-store flyers, so you know what worked.
Prepare delivery, COD, and your POS for the rush
Festive demand collapses if customers cannot get their order or wait in a long queue. Sort out fulfilment before you promote.
- Confirm courier capacity: Inside Kathmandu Valley, delivery is fast, but Pathao, inDrive, and local couriers get overloaded during festivals. Communicate honest delivery timelines.
- Handle COD carefully: Cash on delivery is still dominant outside major cities, but festive returns and fake orders rise. Confirm large COD orders by phone, and nudge customers toward prepaid eSewa/Khalti with a small incentive.
- Speed up your counter: Make sure your POS, barcode scanning, and QR payment are ready so a long Dashain queue doesn't cost you sales.
- Keep your billing clean: If you are PAN/VAT registered, issue proper bills throughout — festive volume is exactly when records get messy.
Plan post-festival clearance from day one
After Tihar and Chhath, spending drops sharply and you may be left with festive-only stock — lights, themed packaging, leftover gift sets. Plan the clearance before you even buy.
- Run a "Festival Over" sale" immediately: deep-discount seasonal items while there is still some buying mood.
- Bundle leftovers into combos: pair unsold décor with everyday products to move it.
- Reward festive buyers: send a thank-you coupon for a future purchase to bring them back in the quiet months.
- Review your numbers: note which discounts, bundles, and channels gave the best return so next year's plan starts from data, not guesswork.
Key takeaway
A high-converting Dashain and Tihar sale is built on four moves: plan stock and cash early, discount in a way that protects margin, bundle and use trackable digital coupons to lift basket size, and prepare your payments, delivery, and clearance before the rush hits. Pick two or three of these tactics, set up your festive coupons and POS this week, and you will enter the season ready to convert the busiest shopping days of the year into real, repeatable profit — not just a crowded shop.
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