Set up promotional events

Enhanced plan

A promotional event tells the forecast that demand rises on certain days every year. You add it once, and from then on every forecast expects the extra sales on its dates, so your reorder dates and quantities are ready in time. This guide sets up Black Friday with an uplift measured from your own sales. For everything an event can do, see Promotional events.

Before you start

Your shop is on the Enhanced or Elevate plan.
For a measured uplift, you need sales from at least one past Black Friday. Without them, the event uses the fallback uplift you set.
Know roughly how big the event is for you, for example “about 40% more than a normal week”. You’ll use it as the fallback.

Steps

Open Inventory Planning and click the Promotional Events tile. Click Add event.
In the search box, type black and click Black Friday. The dialog moves to the setup step, Set up Black Friday.
Set Length (days). Keep the holiday’s own length, or make it 4 for the whole weekend and rename it, for example Black Friday weekend.
Set Uplift source to From past years, leave Measure it for on Your whole shop, and enter your estimate as the Fallback uplift (%), for example 40.
Leave Use in forecasts off for now and click Add event. The event’s page opens.
Click Analyze past years in the page header. The dialog lists the last three Black Fridays by their dates. Click Analyze: each year gets its measured uplift, and the dialog says what your forecasts will use, for example “Forecasts use +38%, measured at Black Friday 2025, the most recent year with enough sales.” Click Close.
Check the Occurrences list for the next dates, then switch Use in forecasts on in the Details card. A toast confirms it, for example “Black Friday is now used in forecasts”.
Open a forecast view and its Amplifiers popover. Under Promotional events, Black Friday is listed as Applied (or Applied, outside this view’s date range in a Supply view whose periods end before it).

To add your own sale instead, click Create my own next to the search in step 2, and enter its name, category, Date rule and dates, then click Next for the same setup step. See Create your own event.

Worked example

You sell outdoor gear and Black Friday is your biggest weekend. You add Black Friday, set Length (days) to 4 and rename it Black Friday weekend. You pick From past years with a fallback of 40%.

Analyze past years measures +52% for 2025 and +44% for 2024, and says forecasts use +52%. You switch Use in forecasts on. In your Supply view, the header of the period with Black Friday is now tinted blue with a ★ 1 badge, and pointing at the badge shows Black Friday weekend +52 % applied here. The reorder dates of your best sellers move earlier, so the stock arrives before the weekend.

Common failure modes

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
The forecast doesn’t change	Use in forecasts is off, or the event is archived.	Switch it on in the event’s Details card. An archived event needs Actions › Restore from archive first.
Would double-count, not applied in the Amplifiers popover	The view already repeats last year’s sales, for example with the Rolling (Past Year + Lead Time) history period.	Nothing to fix: last year’s spike is already in that view. See When an event is not applied.
No upcoming dates	The event has no dates within the forecast horizon, for example a holiday whose next date isn’t announced yet.	Check the event’s Occurrences. For dates you enter each year, use Actions › Add occurrence.
No uplift in the Amplifiers popover	The event’s uplift is 0 %: Fixed % was left empty, or From past years has no analysis and no fallback uplift.	Open the event, then set Fixed % or a fallback uplift, or run Analyze past years.
Needs the Enhanced plan	Your shop is on a lower plan.	Events lift forecasts on the Enhanced and Elevate plans only. See Subscription plans.
”Too few sales to measure” for every year	Your shop had few or no orders around past Black Fridays.	The fallback uplift applies. Set it to your best estimate and run Analyze past years again next year.
Off in this view	The event was switched off in this one forecast view.	Switch it on in the view’s Amplifiers popover, click Apply and save the view. See Promotional events in the forecast.