Five questions before the sale

A woman in Jeddah sells bed sheets through her own small online shop. Orders have been slow, Eid is close, and she has decided to cut every price by a third for a week.

It feels like the obvious answer to an urgent problem. Slow sales are loud. They are on her screen every morning, and doing something about them today feels better than waiting.

Before she posts it, there is a short exercise worth doing. Ask: and then what? Then ask it again of the answer, five times.

The sale goes live, and then what? Orders arrive, more than usual. And then? She has to pack and send them while every courier in the city is busy with everyone else's holiday orders. And then? Some arrive late, after the guests they were bought for have come and gone. And then? A few unhappy messages, a few refunds, and a set of customers who now believe her real price is a third lower. And then? Next month, nobody buys at full price.

Somewhere along that chain there is usually a step that sounds like hope. The courier will cope. People will not mind the delay. We will sort out the pricing afterwards. That step is the one carrying all the weight, and nobody has checked it.

None of this means the sale is wrong. Perhaps she has the stock, a second courier and a plan for the month after. Then the chain holds and she should run it.

But if step three or four depends on a lucky break, the place to fix it is step one, before the new prices go up on the page.