(Our November print issue includes a feature story detailing “10 Steps to Last-Minute Holiday Success.” Today we bring you an excerpt explaining one of those steps: moving out old inventory.)

Laurelle Giesbrecht of French’s Jewellery in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada, clears out old merchandise by early November. It’s her only deep-discount sale of the year. She puts aside classics and basics she knows will sell for the holidays and deeply discounts everything else. “We’re closed the day before and the night after. We work through the night so when we open up the morning after, our store is Christmas-fied.”

Andrea Hill says the fourth quarter is a great time to create sales inventory highlights.

“Picture this: You take two or three items that have been sitting there forever, and you dramatically mark them down. Feature them in a tower near the door, so nobody can miss it. Make it clear that when these deals are gone, they’re gone — but also, that there will be some new surprise in that same spot tomorrow, or the next day. The goal is two-fold:

“Move old inventory, and catch the attention of the browser who would otherwise walk in and walk out without purchasing anything.”