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Spring Buying Calendar 2026: When to Order Summer Straw Bags to Hit Retail Floors on Time
Boutique retailers selling Moroccan straw bags as a seasonal category live or die on hitting the spring floor-set window. Across our customer base, the pattern is consistent: stores doing 60-70% of their full-year straw-bag revenue between April and August, with the launch window between March 15 and April 15 driving the bulk of net-new customer acquisition.
Miss the launch window and you’re chasing a cold market all summer. Hit it cleanly and the rest of the season largely takes care of itself. Below: the full 2026 spring buying calendar, week by week, including what’s still possible at each cutoff and where most retailers slip up.
The default timeline for an April 1 floor set
Working backwards from a April 1 floor-set date for European delivery:
| Milestone | Target date |
|---|---|
| Floor set / launch | April 1, 2026 |
| Goods at retail warehouse | March 25 |
| Customs clearance complete | March 22 |
| Goods arrive destination port | March 15 |
| Ocean freight from Casablanca | Loading week of February 22 |
| Production complete + QC done | Week of February 15 |
| Production start | Mid-December 2025 |
| Sampling locked, PO submitted | December 5, 2025 |
| Sample rounds (2-3 cycles) | October-November 2025 |
| Initial design conversations | September 2025 |
US East Coast retailers add 7-10 days to ocean transit; West Coast adds 14-21 days. Adjust your PO date accordingly.
The 5 spring-order checkpoints
September 2025 — Design phase
Initial design conversations. Sample requests. Color and finish exploration. This is the cheap creative time before production economics matter. Most retailers don’t engage this early — but the ones who do get the best of our design team’s attention and the strongest custom programs.
November 2025 — Sample lock
Final samples arrive. Approval round. Specs locked. PO drafted. Volume committed. Deposit invoice issued. Anything still moving at this point introduces risk into the timeline.
December 1-10, 2025 — PO submission
Latest date for a stress-free spring launch. Production starts within 7-10 days of deposit clearing. Sea freight is the affordable option. Custom branding, color, and shape options are fully available.
December 20-31, 2025 — Compressed timeline
PO can still be submitted, but production cuts into the holiday slowdown in Morocco. Lead time effectively extends 7-10 days into mid-late February completion. Floor set still achievable but with less buffer.
Mid-January 2026 — The expensive cutoff
Production possible only on stock-shape SKUs (no custom dimensions or new tooling). Air freight increasingly necessary for late-March arrival. Per-unit costs 25-40% higher than standard. Possible for backfilling an existing assortment, not for a flagship launch.
February 2026 — Stock pulls only
Whatever’s already produced. Stock in our warehouse can be ex-stock pulled and air-shipped within 7-10 days. Quantity limited to current inventory. Per-unit pricing roughly 50-100% above standard tier rates due to expedited everything.
What 90% of retailers get wrong about spring buying
- Treating the buying decision like a fashion-retail decision — fashion brands have 6-month lead times built into their planning rhythm. Boutique retailers often plan 8-10 weeks out, which is too late for handmade goods.
- Underestimating sampling cycles — first samples rarely arrive perfect. Plan for 2-3 sample rounds in the design phase, each adding 2-3 weeks.
- Assuming reorders run on the same lead time as new POs — they’re faster (3-5 weeks vs 8-10) once we have your tooling and dye specs. Spring reorders against a fall PO can be placed in February for May delivery.
- Underbuying on first POs — running out at the launch peak hurts more than carrying 2-3 extra weeks of stock at the tail end of the season.
- Not negotiating split-shipment freight — half by air for the launch, half by sea arriving 4 weeks later for the May/June peak. Cuts blended freight cost.
Volume planning for spring
Across our retail customer base, the typical spring/summer demand curve looks like:
| Period | % of full-year sell-through |
|---|---|
| April (launch month) | 12-18% |
| May | 16-22% |
| June | 20-25% |
| July | 18-22% |
| August | 12-15% |
| Sept-March | 10-15% combined |
June is consistently the peak month. Implication: don’t order “for April” — order for the May-July window. Your floor stock March 25 should be the largest single inventory commitment of the year, with reorder buffer for end-of-May and end-of-June restocking.
SKU mix for spring 2026 — what’s selling
From our 2025 retail sell-through data and current pre-orders:
- Continuing strength — natural-color medium totes (35-40 cm), leather-handled crossbodies, embroidered baskets
- Emerging — oversized beach totes (45+ cm) returning to popularity after a mid-size dominant 2024-25, raffia pendant lights crossing into retail (not just hospitality)
- Cooling — micro bags (under 20 cm), strictly white-bleached fibers (natural tones outperforming for 2026)
- New for 2026 — wall-decor straw hats (the oversized ~80cm pieces) crossing from interior styling into retail
Plan your assortment with 60-70% in proven sellers, 25% in emerging trends, 5-15% in tested-but-new. The retailers who win each spring are the ones who balance the safe inventory bets with one or two trend bets that catch the season’s news cycle.
Sample timing for spring 2026
If you haven’t already started sampling for spring 2026: the calendar is tight but workable. Action items in priority order:
- This week — request samples for your top 5 expected SKUs. We can ship samples in 5-7 business days.
- Within 14 days — receive samples, do field tests if relevant (especially for new shapes you haven’t sourced before).
- Within 30 days — second sample round if any tweaks needed.
- By December 5 — PO submitted with deposit.
- April 1 — bags on retail floor.
Beyond December 15, the math gets uncomfortable. Beyond January 15, plan to skip a strong launch and target a May reset instead.
How we work with spring retail customers
- September: free spring-2026 trend brief — what’s coming, what’s leaving, what to over-index on
- October-November: complimentary sample sets for established customers
- December: locked spring tier pricing for POs placed by December 5
- March: split-shipment freight quotes for launch + restock waves
- May-July: reorder priority for customers who locked spring volumes early
Spring is the highest-stakes order of the year for retailers in this category. Most of the value is in planning the buying decision 90 days earlier than feels intuitive. The retailers who do that consistently outperform their season.
Plan your spring 2026 program → Talk to our wholesale team
Ready to stock these for your store? Browse our wholesale Moroccan straw bags or request a wholesale quote.
