Demand for supplies is not even across the year, and that can be put to use

Anyone who has worked in the sector for years knows it without ever having measured it: the months are not alike. There are periods when practices buy and periods when they stop, and the reasons are predictable.

Practice activity follows the patient calendar, and that calendar has known rhythms. The return after summer and holiday breaks concentrates appointments, and with them consumption.

Long breaks produce the opposite effect: in August and over holiday weeks practices work less, consume less and order less.

There is then a factor relating to the end of the financial year, when capital purchases concentrate for planning reasons. It concerns equipment more than consumables.

A seller who knows these rhythms uses them in three ways. The first is availability: being stocked during the return periods, when demand concentrates and whoever is short loses orders.

The second is promotions, which pay better when they slightly precede the peak rather than follow it. An offer arriving when the customer is already ordering adds little.

The third is expanding the catalogue, which is worth concentrating in the quiet periods, when there is time to upload and searches are fewer.

For buyers the same knowledge has a different and more immediate use. Ordering ahead of the peaks means finding stock and not paying for haste.

Whoever orders consumables in the first week back does so alongside everyone else, and in that week delivery times lengthen precisely when the opposite is needed.

Long breaks carry a practical aspect often overlooked: if the supplier is closed and you are not, or the other way round, stock must be calculated on a lead time different from the usual one.

It is worth checking beforehand rather than during, because it is the period when a missing item costs most: the alternatives are closed too.

The simple way to apply all this is to look at last year's order history. The dates say when you bought most, and they are the best basis for planning the year ahead.

In summary: demand concentrates on the returns after breaks, sellers should be stocked before the peak and expand during quiet periods, buyers should order ahead of the return, and last year's history is the basis for planning.