Category planning
SPF season in the Midwest: order in February, sell in June
Sun care is the most punishing category to buy late. Here is the month-by-month build that keeps a Midwest retailer off allocation in June and out of markdown in September.
Sun care punishes bad timing twice. Buy late and you are competing for allocation with every chain in the country in the last week of May. Buy too much and you are discounting SPF 30 at 40% off in September, because customers stop buying it the moment the temperature drops even though the product is perfectly good until next spring.
The category is entirely predictable, which is exactly why so many independents get it wrong: nothing about it feels urgent in February.
The Michigan curve
In our accounts across Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, sun-care sell-through follows the same shape almost every year. Nothing moves before April. A first wave arrives with the first genuinely warm weekend — which can be anywhere from mid-April to mid-May. Volume peaks between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, holds through July, and falls off a cliff after the second week of August when school buying takes over.
That gives you roughly fourteen selling weeks and two of them do most of the damage if you are out of stock.
| Month | Action | Share of season buy |
|---|---|---|
| February | Place the opening build. Face SPF, mineral, kids, first body lotions. | 40% |
| March | Set the shelf block. Sun care as one visible fixture, not split by brand. | 10% |
| April | First read on sell-through. Reorder on what actually moved. | 15% |
| May | Top up before Memorial Day. This is the last comfortable order. | 20% |
| June–July | Weekly top-ups on the top five SKUs only. | 15% |
| August | Stop buying. Start planning the wind-down. | 0% |
The single most useful line in that table is February at 40%. Placing the bulk of the build in February is not about price — it is about being at the front of the queue when a manufacturer runs tight on a popular SPF in late May, which happens most years on at least one hero SKU.
Nothing about sun care feels urgent in February. That is precisely why February is when the category is won.
What mix to hold
A workable Midwest sun-care set for an independent runs about 20–25 SKUs. The split that works for our accounts:
- Face SPF, 35%. Lightweight daily protection is now a year-round face-care purchase, not a beach purchase. It is also the highest-margin part of the set and the one a pharmacist actively recommends after a retinoid or a procedure.
- Body lotion and spray, 30%. SPF 30 and SPF 50 in large format. Buy less SPF 15 than you think; it is a declining share every year.
- Mineral, 20%. Zinc-based products for sensitive skin, kids and post-procedure. Growing every year and the part of the set most likely to be short in June.
- Kids and baby, 10%. Sticks, sprays and lotions in obvious kid packaging. Bought by claim, not brand.
- After-sun, 5%. Aloe and after-sun lotion. Small, but its absence is conspicuous in July.
Formats matter more than brands
Sticks and mini sizes carry a disproportionate share of impulse sales at the till in June and July. Sprays sell to families; pumps sell to adults buying for themselves. Keep at least one stick and one travel size within reach of the register from Memorial Day onwards.
Storage is part of the plan
Sun care is the category where a warm storeroom costs you the most, because SPF is an over-the-counter drug and potency loss is a genuine problem, not a cosmetic one. Every sunscreen carries a printed expiry date. Hold the stock in the same envelope as everything else — 59–77 °F, dark, off exterior walls — and check dates before the season, not during it. There is more on this in our note on storing skincare stock.
The wind-down
Here is the part most retailers get backwards. Unopened sunscreen with a good expiry date is worth more next April than it is at 40% off in September. If the date supports it, hold it. Pack it properly, keep it cool and dark, and bring it back out in March at full price.
Only discount the SKUs that will actually expire before next season ends, and discount those hard and early — the last week of July, not the last week of September, when there is still a customer for them.
A February order that works
For a typical independent pharmacy or grocery account, an opening sun-care build lands between $1,500 and $3,000 at cost — which clears our $1,200 free-freight threshold in the lower 48 comfortably, and is the reason most accounts place it as one order rather than three. Ask for the sun-care sheet when you request the pricelist; it lists case packs, SPF values and formats side by side so the build can be planned in one sitting.
Key takeaways
- Place 40% of the sun-care build in February — availability, not price, is what you are buying.
- Fourteen selling weeks: nothing before April, peak from Memorial Day to mid-July, over by mid-August.
- Hold roughly 35% face SPF, 30% body, 20% mineral, 10% kids, 5% after-sun across 20–25 SKUs.
- Keep a stick and a travel size at the register from Memorial Day.
- Do not liquidate in September — carry good-dated stock to next March and discount only what will genuinely expire.
Keep reading
Cleanser, moisturizer, barrier: what counter staff should be able to answer
Nine questions customers actually ask at the shelf, with answers a part-time clerk can give without practising medicine.
Reorder cadence: how often an independent store should actually restock
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly — the arithmetic behind the choice, and why the freight threshold usually decides it.