Q4 in PrestaShop: a checklist before Black Friday and Christmas

The fourth quarter – November and December – is the most important part of the year for many online shops. It is not won by the loudest promotion, but by the shops that are in order before the peak: planned prices, checked stock, clear delivery dates and a simple path for people buying gifts. Here is a Q4 checklist for PrestaShop shops, with SQL queries that let you check the essentials in a few minutes.

The Q4 2026 calendar

Agree the last shipping dates with your carriers in November and show them in the shop: in the header, in the cart and on the product page. “Order by December 18 for delivery before Christmas” is one of the best sales arguments in December – and the most frequent question to customer service.

Prices and promotions: plan ahead

If you sell to consumers in the EU, every price reduction must show the lowest price from the 30 days before the reduction (the Omnibus Directive). Two practical conclusions:

• Do not raise prices in October to “cut” them in November. The 30-day lowest price will show it to the customer in black and white.
• Check that your shop shows this information at all. PrestaShop does not display it natively – usually a module or the theme does. Test it on a discounted product before the promotion starts.

List the specific prices and cart rules dated in the season like this:

-- specific prices that start or end in the season
SELECT id_specific_price, id_product, id_product_attribute,
       reduction, reduction_type, `from`, `to`
FROM ps_specific_price
WHERE `from` BETWEEN '2026-11-01' AND '2027-01-10'
   OR `to`   BETWEEN '2026-11-01' AND '2027-01-10'
ORDER BY `from`;

-- active discount codes and their limits
SELECT id_cart_rule, code, date_from, date_to, quantity, quantity_per_user
FROM ps_cart_rule
WHERE active = 1 AND date_to >= NOW()
ORDER BY date_from;

Watch the quantity column: a code limited to 100 uses can run out within the first hour of Black Friday.

Stock: last year’s best-sellers

The best forecast for this December is last December. This query lists what sold best in the 2025 season, together with today’s stock of each combination:

SELECT od.product_id, od.product_attribute_id,
       MAX(od.product_name) AS name,
       SUM(od.product_quantity) AS sold_2025,
       sa.quantity AS stock_today
FROM ps_order_detail od
JOIN ps_orders o ON o.id_order = od.id_order
LEFT JOIN ps_stock_available sa
  ON sa.id_product = od.product_id
 AND sa.id_product_attribute = od.product_attribute_id
 AND sa.id_shop = 1
WHERE o.valid = 1
  AND o.date_add BETWEEN '2025-11-01' AND '2025-12-24 23:59:59'
GROUP BY od.product_id, od.product_attribute_id, sa.quantity
ORDER BY sold_2025 DESC
LIMIT 50;

Replace the ps_ prefix with yours. In a multistore setup with shared stock, quantities may be stored per shop group – then check id_shop_group instead of id_shop.

Average order value: the cheapest way to sell more

In Q4, traffic is the most expensive of the year: everyone bids on the same keywords and the same audiences. If each visit costs more, it pays to raise the value of each order:

• Gift sets. Two or three products at one price – in PrestaShop as a pack of products. Especially important when single products are cheap.
• A free-shipping threshold set slightly above your current average order value. Shoppers add a small item to avoid paying for delivery.
• Add-ons in the cart. Cheap, matching products, a greeting card or gift wrapping (natively: Shop Parameters › Order Settings › gift options).
• Recommendations that listen. If someone skipped three black products, a fourth black product in “recommended” will not help.
• A gift card. It saves the sale for people who missed the shipping deadline.

A path for gift shoppers

Gift shoppers do not browse categories – they search by person and budget. Give them a separate path: a “Gifts” page split by recipient (“for her”, “for him”, “under €30”) and a gift finder that shows a few matching products after a few questions. How to design such a quiz is described in A gift finder quiz for PrestaShop before the holidays.

Tech: freeze the shop before the peak

1. No PrestaShop or module updates from mid-November to the end of December, unless it is a security fix.
2. A full backup of files and database before Black Friday – and a check that it can actually be restored.
3. A test order with every payment and delivery method. Payment gateways and carrier integrations change during the year.
4. Page speed. Check a product page on mobile in PageSpeed Insights. Heavy images are the most common brake in PrestaShop.
5. Monitoring. An alert when the shop does not respond, or when no order has come in for an hour.

After Christmas

In the EU, consumers have 14 days to withdraw from a distance purchase, counted from delivery. Many shops voluntarily extend this for Christmas purchases (for example until mid-January) – a good argument in December, but put it in the promotion terms. Finally, write a short review: what sold out too early, which codes worked, which products shoppers kept rejecting. It is the best material for Q4 2027.

Sources

• Directive (EU) 2019/2161 (Omnibus) – EUR-Lex
• Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights – EUR-Lex