How do you measure whether retailers are more promotional this holiday season than last year?

Thanksgiving falls on a different date each year, so Black Friday and Cyber Monday shift by up to a week, and marketplace events such as Prime Day move between months. Comparing calendar weeks directly will show false increases and decreases. Align on the event, not the date.

• Markdown breadth: how much of the range is discounted during the event window.
• Discount depth: how large the discounts are on promoted products.
• Promotion start date: retailers starting earlier than last year is itself a signal.
• Full-price availability after the event: what did not sell through at full price.

1. 1Choose the retailers and categories that matter for the company or theme.
2. 2Line up event windows for this year and the prior two years.
3. 3Compare breadth, depth and duration inside each window.
4. 4Check the weeks after the event for continued clearance.

• Promotional intensity: How heavily a brand, retailer or category relies on discounts, combining how often products are promoted and how deep the discounts are.
• Markdown breadth: The share of a brand's or retailer's live products that are selling below their full price at a point in time.
• Discount depth: The average percentage reduction from full price across products that are on sale.
• Full-price availability: The share of a brand's products that are both in stock and selling at full price, a proxy for clean, healthy demand.

How each measure is built: methodology.