The Dashain-Tihar sales playbook for online sellers

Dashain and Tihar bring a sharp rise in orders for clothes, gifts, electronics, and household goods. They also change courier schedules, supplier lead times, and customer availability.

This checklist covers stock counts, delivery cutoffs, payment checks, and campaign dates for the Dashain and Tihar rush.

Key 2026 dates

• Ghatasthapana: around October 10-11, 2026.
• Vijaya Dashami (Tika Day): around October 20-21, 2026.
• Tihar (Laxmi Puja): around November 9, 2026.
• Bhai Tika: around November 11, 2026.

Nepal's official calendar confirms the exact tithi for each day closer to the festival, and sources vary by a day this far out, so treat these as planning dates and confirm the final calendar (patro) once it's published. The countdown below is anchored to Tika Day on October 20; shift every milestone by a day if the confirmed date lands on the 21st instead.

Six weeks before Dashain: source stock and count inventory

Start around September 8 if the working Tika date is October 20.

• Review what sold during the previous months and last year's festive season. Order proven products early.
• Ask suppliers for their last dispatch dates, especially for goods coming from China or India. Keep a second supplier for the products you cannot afford to run out of.
• Count the stock on your shelves and correct your records. If you sell at a counter and online, a shared-inventory POS can keep those sales in one stock count.

Four weeks before Dashain: set offers and prepare posts

Nepali social media feeds will be crowded with ads and sales announcements. To stand out, you need a clear promotional calendar.

• Decide which products can carry a discount without erasing your margin. A fixed discount above a minimum order or a bundle is easy for customers to understand.
• Photograph the festive collection and prepare TikTok and Instagram posts before packing work increases.
• Give regular customers an early look through Viber or WhatsApp, but only message people who have agreed to hear from the store.

Two weeks before Dashain: confirm delivery dates

Delivery is the biggest bottleneck during Dashain. Road congestion increases, courier companies face staff shortages, and workers return to their home districts.

• Confirm courier schedules: Meet with your delivery partners (e.g., Pathao, NCM, Upaya) and confirm their operations calendar. Write down their final pickup dates for deliveries inside Kathmandu Valley and major cities across all 7 provinces. Ask each provider to confirm the districts it will serve during the holiday period.
• Publish clear delivery cutoffs: A workable target is "order by October 13 for Valley delivery, October 10 for outside the Valley," adjusted to your actual courier's Dashain-week schedule. Post it on your website header and social media profiles well before the rush, not during it.
• Establish local pickup options: If you have a physical pasal or office, encourage customers to choose "Local Pickup" during checkout. It guarantees they get their items on time and saves you delivery costs.

One week before Dashain: confirm COD orders

Cash on Delivery (COD) returns can spike during festivals if customers travel or buy from another merchant who delivers faster.

• Call to confirm every COD order: Before packing, send a WhatsApp message or call to verify the customer's address and the time somebody will be home. Hold the shipment if repeated attempts go unanswered.
• Check the address fields: Checkout should collect a district, local landmark, and active mobile number.
• Track return rates daily: If a specific courier is experiencing high failure rates in a particular province, temporarily shift shipments to another provider.

Between Dashain and Tihar: change the campaign

The festive season doesn't end with Dashain. Use the roughly two-and-a-half-week window between Vijaya Dashami and Tihar to run follow-up campaigns.

• Transition to gifting themes: Tihar is heavily focused on family gifts, lights, colors, and sweets. Adjust your homepage banners and social media creative to reflect Tihar themes.
• Run last-minute Valley promotions: Since deliveries outside the Valley will be difficult between festivals, focus your marketing budgets on same-day or next-day delivery campaigns within Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur.
• Clear excess stock: Use post-festival sales to clear out seasonal items that did not sell, offering deep discounts to make room for winter inventory.

Prepare the checkout and stock records

During the festive rush, manual replies and bank-account checks take time away from packing orders and coordinating with couriers. Automate those repeated checks where you can, and make sure your checkout offers the payment methods Nepali customers actually use before the traffic arrives.

Pasalos keeps counter and online sales against the same stock count. It can mark eSewa and Khalti orders as paid after confirmation from the provider, and it calculates the delivery charge from the customer's zone at checkout.