7 Questions to Ask Before Q4 Hits

Sharp questions to make sure your Q4 drives momentum, not just revenue.

Pietro Saccomani
September 25, 2025

Q4 is the Super Bowl for ecommerce brands. It can make your year. Or, it can wreck your margins.

Most brands sprint for revenue, blindly spray discounts, and wake up in January with tired lists, lower margins, and zero momentum.

Don't be most brands.

Those who come out ahead? They pause, ask sharper questions, and design Q4 for profitability and retention. Not just topline spikes.

Here are 7 questions to ask yourself before the holiday chaos kicks in.

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1. Am I playing long-term or short-term games?

Q4 dangles easy money in front of you. Big spikes, lots of orders, dopamine hits when you refresh your Shopify dashboard.

But here's the thing: if those orders are unprofitable or one-time-only, you're gonna fall back to Earth come January.

Winners zoom out. They treat Q4 as a chance to capture quality customers. People who stick around and spend again. That means resisting the urge to optimize purely for as many new customers as possible.

Look at your Black Friday strategy: is it pulling in people who'll never come back, or planting seeds for 2026?

TLDR: Don't just chase Q4 revenue. Chase customers you actually want long-term.

2. Are my discounts driving profit or draining it?

Machine-gun discounting is the default play in Q4. And I’m not here to tell you not to discount — for 99% of brands, discounting is a natural part of doing business.

But too many brands treat it like a blunt weapon: “30% off sitewide.” Sure, you’ll sell, but you’ll also light your contribution margin on fire, for not much benefit, with a blanket discount like that.

Don’t discount just because you feel you “have to”. Do it intentionally.

A smarter move: structure offers that increase order value (bundles, tiered thresholds, free shipping minimums) rather than cut into margin. For example, a $20 free shipping threshold might lift your AOV from $35 to $50, while costing less than 10% in actual margin loss. That’s a far better trade than a flat 30% off.

Or, get creative. Run giveaways, drop exclusive product lines, do other things that generate excitement, and value, not just cutting prices.

TLDR: Discounts should drive margin, not destroy it. Structure them with AOV in mind.

3. Am I planning for retention?

This, again, is about thinking further than November/December.

The big wins don’t come in Q4. Everyone’s making sales in Q4. The value isn’t how many sales you drive in the holiday season, it’s how many long-term buyers you acquire.

To maximize retention, you need to start working on it immediately. The flipside of the Q4 spike is that people are buying from more brands, and you’re easier to forget.

This isn't about spamming them the next day. It's thoughtful sequencing. Thank-you messaging, product education, UGC/social proof, timely reactivation. Subscriptions, bundles, "complete the set" offers can drive the next purchase.

There’s no right answer for the best time to engage them on the next purchase. It depends on the category. The key? Keeping contact (even if there’s zero sell), to ensure you’re not being forgotten.

TLDR: Have a plan to convert your Q4 buyers into repeat customers.

4. Are my CX systems ready for chaos?

Holiday season exposes every crack in your operations. Delayed shipments, stockouts, overwhelmed support queues. Nothing kills repeat purchase intent faster than a bad first experience.

Get ahead of the chaos: tighten fulfillment promises, prepare proactive updates, empower support to over-communicate. A well-timed "your package is delayed, here's 10% off your next order" can actually strengthen loyalty.

If you leave customers guessing, they’ll bounce.

TLDR: Bad CX in Q4 is poison for retention. Plan for problems, and over-communicate.

5. Am I leveraging owned channels enough?

Paid CPMs explode in Q4. Your margin buffer lives in owned channels — email, SMS, apps/push.

If you’re not maximizing these channels, it’s hard to stay afloat and profitable.

There’s two big mistakes brands make regarding owned channels.

They blast the same campaigns to everyone. Segment, target people with the right offers instead.
They try to wake up a dormant list when Q4 hits. Instead, focus on growing your lists ahead of time, and communicate with your list regularly, so they’re conditioned to notice your emails or notifications before the Q4 avalanche.

Avoid making these mistakes. Get strategic about your low or zero-cost channels, and start nurturing them before you need them.

TLDR: Paid is expensive, and the cost is amplified in Q4. Owned channels are essential for maintaining margins.

6. Do I know my post-holiday plan?

December is noisy, January is quiet. Winners don't stop marketing on December 26.

Think about the customer mindset: new routines, resolutions, and fresh budgets. People are in “reset” mode, which makes them unusually open to forming new habits.

If your brand connects to health, organization, personal care, or even small luxuries, this is the perfect moment to turn gift buyers into subscribers, or one-time buyers into repeat loyalists.

While competitors disappear, you show up with tailored campaigns: “new year, new setup,” product refills, loyalty nudges, or limited-time drops. There’s actually a surprising amount of upside here. You’re not fighting the noise of December discounts, which means your messages cut through more clearly.

But get your plan in early. Draft the campaign calendar now, not on New Year’s Day when half your team is out and the other half is hungover.

TLDR: January is your chance to win when everyone else goes quiet.

7. Where am I building brand equity?

Big sales drive transactions. But without brand equity — people remembering you, talking about you — you'll struggle when it comes time to sell someone at full price.

This is where Q4 content strategy matters. Collect UGC, run small creator partnerships, encourage social sharing. Build mental availability so your brand's top of mind when someone's ready to reorder in March.

You can move product today and invest in demand for tomorrow.

TLDR: Q4 isn't just for clearing shelves. Use it to plant seeds for future sales.

Bottom line

Q4 is chaos. But the best brands are able to harness this chaos and turn it into a compounding advantage.

If you treat it as just a sprint, you'll reset to zero on January 1st, and wake up with low inventory, low margins to reinvest, and an awkward comedown.

Design for profitability, retention, and brand equity instead. You'll turn seasonal sales into durable growth.

On the Pod

I’ll be honest — when we booked this, I wasn’t convinced there would be a lot of useful info for ecommerce brands.

Digital PR is big for companies built on SEO (particularly software/service businesses, like ours). But it was like a lightbulb went off when I realized the benefits it could have for ecommerce stores.

Chris from Linkifi made some great points on how powerful PR can be for ecommerce brands — especially at a time when AI search is heating up, and authority is starting to matter more than ever.

It’s a bite-sized 25 minute pod, certainly worth checking out if you’re interested in getting more organic visibility.

Check it out on YouTube or Spotify.

Quick Hits

Klaviyo & Instagram

Interesting new feature apparently coming to Klaviyo. It seems they’re launching a tool to connect Instagram DMs & followers with your Klaviyo account. Big news if social is a key part of your strategy.

Shopping Features Coming to YouTube

Another channel diving deeper into direct monetization. New features have been announced for YouTube, including linking out from shorts and dynamic brand segments, to allow creators to swap ad slots in and out.

It all sounds like YouTube might be making a push to replicate TikTok shop’s success.

Read more →

Q4 Survival Guide (for humans)

I thought this was important. We’re often focused on how to survive and thrive during BFCM & Q4 as a brand, or a business… but as one of the most stressful times of the year, it’s just as important to think about how to navigate this time personally.

Panagiota Hatzis, VP of HR @ HexClad, shared some great advice here on how not to burn out and break down during the holiday period. Required reading for all operators, or anyone else who’s likely to be under pressure for the rest of the year.

How to Find the Right Free Shipping Threshold

Solid advice here on getting your free shipping threshold right, and how to test and settle on a number that drives AOV and profit per visitor.

Turning Your Packaging Into a Retention Engine

I’m a big fan of this idea. A great unboxing experience can have a major impact on retention — it’s a key step in creating a memorable customer experience, and making sure your brand is remembered. This article breaks it down beautifully.

That’s all for now.

I’ll be back in touch next week, with more on how successful brands are doing CX and retention right.

If you haven’t already, pick up our 2025 BFCM Report to learn how to keep more of your sales, and elevate loyalty and retention this holiday season.

FYI, if there’s any topic you’d like to see us dive into, for either the newsletter or the podcast, just shoot me a message here.

Until next time,

Pietro and The Retention Edge Team

PS: want to boost retention, revenue and profitability? If so, launching your own app could be the best move you make this year.

See how: go to our website to get a preview of your app for free, or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn to talk about it.