12.12 sale in Pakistan: a small seller’s playbook

The 12.12 sale in Pakistan falls on Saturday, December 12, 2026, a month after 11.11 and two weeks after White Friday. Run it only as a short sale on stock you still hold. A discount costs more than it looks once COD refusals are counted: in the worked example below, a 15% discount has to bring roughly twice the orders to earn what full price earns. As of October 2026 Daraz has not announced its 2026 dates, so plan around the calendar and not around Daraz.

When 12.12 falls, and what Daraz did before

December 12, 2026 is a Saturday, which suits a one-day sale. It is also the third sale in about a month for anyone who shops online: 11.11 on Wednesday, November 11, and White Friday on Friday, November 27. Your buyers may already have spent their sale money. This page covers what changes in the third one. The first two are in 11.11 sale for Pakistani sellers and White Friday for Pakistani sellers.

Daraz has no fixed window for 12.12, and it announces late. These are the years with a published source, with the dates as each source gives them:

Where an end date is given, the window is six to eight days, apart from TCL’s 12-day window in 2022. TCL’s windows are one brand’s sale on Daraz and may not match Daraz’s own campaign. The announcements were dated December 10 or 11 in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2025, so Daraz tells the public the day before the sale or the evening it opens. Read the table as a picture of how Daraz frames the night, not as a forecast.

Go or skip: four checks

You do not have to run it. Run each check against your own numbers from 11.11 and White Friday:

If you skip, you have lost nothing. Keep full prices, message past buyers about the stock you hold, and spend the week on fewer refusals, which pays every month. The steps are in how to reduce COD returns.

What a discount costs once returns are counted

A discount takes margin from every parcel, and a sale can raise refusals, so check your 11.11 and White Friday refusal rate before you pick a number. Here is a worked example. Every number is an assumption, so replace it with yours:

• Item price Rs 3,000, delivery included in the price.
• Product cost Rs 1,300, packaging Rs 100, courier charge Rs 250.
• Withholding at 2% of the COD amount, the rate for a seller on FBR’s Active Taxpayers List. Off the list it is 4%, which costs Rs 60 more on a Rs 3,000 parcel. The rule is in the courier COD account guide.
• A refused parcel costs you the Rs 250 trip out, Rs 250 back and Rs 100 packaging, so Rs 600. The item goes back on the shelf. If your courier charges nothing for the return, your loss is Rs 350.
• Refusals: 1 in 10 at full price, 2 in 10 at 15% off in the sale.

The working: Rs 3,000 minus Rs 1,300, Rs 100, Rs 250 and Rs 60 withholding leaves Rs 1,290. At Rs 2,550 the withholding is Rs 51, which leaves Rs 849. On 10 orders, 9 × Rs 1,290 minus Rs 600 is Rs 11,010, and 8 × Rs 849 minus 2 × Rs 600 is Rs 5,592. Rs 11,010 ÷ Rs 5,592 is 1.97, so the 15% sale needs about two orders for every one at full price to break even.

If refusals stay at 1 in 10 in the sale, 9 × Rs 849 minus Rs 600 is Rs 7,041, and Rs 11,010 ÷ Rs 7,041 is 1.56. That is the case for confirming every COD order before it ships. At the 4% rate the profits are Rs 1,230 and Rs 798, the results are Rs 10,470 and Rs 5,184, and the multiple is 2.02. Put your own cost, courier charge and discount into the discount calculator.

Offers that protect your margin

A percentage off the whole shop is the offer that costs the most. These are the same Rs 3,000 item under other offers, on the same assumptions as above:

The online-payment row keeps the Rs 250 courier charge and ignores your payment provider’s fee, so add that from its rate. The 1% applies when a payment intermediary remits to a seller on the Active Taxpayers List. Off the list it is 2%, which brings that row to Rs 1,192. Both rates, and the 4% COD rate for a seller off the list, are in FBR’s Withholding Tax Rate Card, updated to June 30, 2026. The bundle row earns more than a single full-price parcel only because the buyer takes two. If the bundle only discounts what they would have bought anyway, it is a plain discount in disguise.

Stock, courier and cash

The capacity checks are the same as for 11.11 and White Friday, so this section covers only what is new. A third sale in a month has no reason to beat both earlier ones. Take the lower of your two best days and discount only products you hold stock for at that number. If a product runs out, say so on the page and in your WhatsApp reply.

Courier. Ask your rep for pickup on Saturday, December 12 and Sunday, December 13, the cut-off time and the payout day. If you have no courier account, open one in mid-November. PostEx’s guide says activation takes a maximum of 2 to 3 working days once your documents are verified, which is PostEx’s claim, and we found no approval time published for the other couriers. The steps are in how to open a COD account with TCS, Leopards, PostEx and others. A message to send:

Assalam o alaikum. We will have about [number] parcels on Saturday, December 12 and Sunday, December 13. Please confirm in writing whether you pick up on those days, the cut-off time, and the payout day for parcels delivered that week.

Cash. COD money arrives after delivery, on the courier’s schedule, with the 2% or 4% already taken out. The payout days each courier states are in the COD payment cycle guide. As of October 2026 Leopards’ Retail COD says weekly disbursements, within a week of successful delivery. A White Friday parcel delivered on Tuesday, December 1 is paid by about Tuesday, December 8 on a weekly cycle, four days before 12.12. Order the stock for 12.12 only after that money lands, and plan with the net figure: COD amount, minus the courier charge, minus the withholding.

December: winter stock, heavier parcels and year-end cash

Winter stock. December and January are the cold weeks, and the winter business guide puts the clearing of leftovers in February. That makes 12.12 a poor week to discount a winter line that is already selling. Put the sale on slow, non-seasonal stock, and keep shawls, jackets and kids’ winter wear at full price while buyers are cold. If a winter line has not moved by December 12, a short sale is the cheapest test of whether the price is the problem.

Heavier parcels. Winter goods weigh more, and couriers bill the chargeable weight. The winter guide gives Leopards’ formula: length × width × height in cm divided by 5,000, when that is more than the real weight. A heavier box raises the hurdle for a discount. This reruns the example with a courier charge of Rs 350 instead of Rs 250. That figure is an assumption, so use your courier’s rate for your box:

The Rs 350 column: 9 × Rs 1,190 minus Rs 800 is Rs 9,910, and 8 × Rs 749 minus 2 × Rs 800 is Rs 4,392. Rs 9,910 ÷ Rs 4,392 is 2.26. Every Rs 100 added to the courier charge takes Rs 100 from each delivered parcel and Rs 200 from each refused one, because the parcel travels both ways. A discount that works on a flyer-bag item can lose money on a boxed one, so run each product with its own courier charge in the discount calculator.

Courier load. Daraz’s sale runs on the same courier networks you use. In 2020 it paired 12.12 with TCS free shipping on bulky orders and added 300 customer-care staff for the rush. We found no courier that publishes a 12.12 or December schedule, so add these questions to the message above: are pickups normal from December 12 to 24, does the cut-off change, and what happens on Friday, December 25, which is Quaid-e-Azam Day and a public holiday?

Year-end cash. On a weekly cycle, a parcel delivered by Thursday, December 17 is paid by about Thursday, December 24, the day before the holiday, and one delivered on Monday, December 21 by about Monday, December 28. Size the sale from the cash you will hold on December 24, not from the number of orders you hope for.

Competing without Daraz

You do not need to match Daraz. Pick the one thing a buyer gets from your shop that a big platform cannot give, and put it in the offer:

The message to send, to buyers who have bought from you before:

Assalam o alaikum [name]. Our 12.12 sale is on Saturday, December 12 only. [Product] is Rs [price] instead of Rs [price], and the first [number] orders get [gift]. Reply YES with your city and we will keep yours aside until Saturday night.

If you also want a Daraz listing, Daraz University lists 0% platform commission for 30 days for new sellers, and the steps are in the Daraz seller account guide. Approval takes time, so do not plan around being live for 12.12.

A timeline from mid-November

Where your store fits

On Storelala, Core (Rs 2,000 a month, or Rs 1,000 a month billed yearly) adds JazzCash, Easypaisa and cards, so a pay-online offer is possible, and you book PostEx, Leopards or TCS from the order screen, with the tracking number sent to your buyer on WhatsApp. Lite is free forever, up to 10 products, and takes cash on delivery. Prices are on the pricing page.

Questions sellers ask

When is the 12.12 sale in 2026?

12.12 falls on Saturday, December 12, 2026, two weeks after White Friday on November 27. As of October 2026 Daraz has not announced its 2026 dates. Its announcements for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2025 came out on December 10 or 11, and the 2025 sale ran from 8 PM on December 11 to December 18. Build your own sale around December 12 and do not wait for Daraz.

Should a small seller run a 12.12 sale after 11.11 and White Friday?

Only if four things are true: you hold stock you want to clear, your returns in the earlier sales stayed near normal, your White Friday cash has arrived or will before you pay suppliers, and your courier has confirmed pickup in writing. If any of these fails, keep full prices and send a short message to past buyers instead.

How much discount can I afford on COD orders, and what tax comes off?

Work it out per product from your cost, courier charge and refusal rate. In the worked example on this page, a Rs 3,000 item earns Rs 1,290 per delivered parcel at full price and Rs 849 at 15% off, and the 15% discount needs about twice the orders to earn what full price does. Those figures include 2% withholding. Under section 153(2A) the courier withholds 2% of the COD amount if you are on FBR’s Active Taxpayers List and 4% if you are not, so a Rs 3,000 parcel loses Rs 60 or Rs 120. FBR’s Circular 01 of 2025–26 treats it as a final tax by default, and the Finance Act 2026 lets a seller with turnover up to Rs 200 million opt out from tax year 2027. It is not an extra charge for the sale, so price the discount with the rate you pay.

What did Daraz do on past 12.12 sales?

In 2019 it launched a 12.12 Salebration on December 12, with live videos from December 11 to 15. In 2020 it ran December 12 to 18 for bulky items with TCS free shipping. In 2025 it ran from 8 PM on December 11 to December 18, with Brand Rush Hour (flat 30% off or more on top brands), the One Rupee Game, Shop & Win, and bank and wallet offers of up to 40%. TCL’s brand windows on Daraz were December 12 to 23 in 2022 and December 12 to 17 in 2023. The 2021 coverage gave a December 11 game show and a Rs 2,000 lucky draw on December 12 but no window, and no report with dates turned up for 2024. Treat all of it as history, not a forecast.

Should I discount winter stock on 12.12?

Not while it is selling. December and January are the cold weeks and the winter guide puts clearing in February, so use the 12.12 discount on slow non-seasonal stock and keep live winter lines at full price. Winter parcels also weigh more: in the example on this page, a courier charge Rs 100 higher each way lifts the orders a 15% discount needs from 1.97 per full-price order to 2.26.

Do I need to be on Daraz to run a 12.12 sale?

No. A 12.12 sale is a date and an offer, and you can run it from your own store and your own WhatsApp contacts. Selling on Daraz is a separate decision with its own seller account, commission and approval, and approval takes time, so do not count on being listed in time unless you apply well before December.