In this guide 6 sections
Check sales and stock by style, size and colour, not by style alone. Then look at slow styles, exchanges against the original bill, alteration slips past their trial date and regular customers who have not returned. These figures show what to reorder, what to mark down and whom to call.
Sizes that sold out, and sizes left over
A style is a grid of sizes and colours. Counting it as one number hides the problem. The medium may be gone while three larges still hang on the rack.
Each month, read sales against stock for every size of your top styles. Sizes that emptied early form the reorder list. Sizes that never moved should shape the next buy.
- Top styles by sales, size by size
- Sizes out of stock, and for how long
- Sizes still on the rack from the first lot
- Godown stock not yet on the floor
Styles that have stopped moving
Some styles sell in the first weeks and then stop. If nobody looks, they hang there through the season. By the end, they are harder to clear at any price.
List styles with no sale in the past month, with their quantity and age. Decide whether to move them forward, send them to another outlet or mark them down. That call stays with the owner.
Exchanges and the stock count
An exchanged piece that returns to the rack but not to the record breaks the count. Over a month the gap widens. Check exchanges against the original bills and the credit notes issued.
Look at unused credit notes too. Each one is a promise to a customer. A count of floor and godown by style and size, monthly or once a season, keeps the figures honest.
Alteration and stitching slips
Slips past their trial date are a service problem before they become a sales problem. List them by tailor and by promised date. A customer who waits twice may not return.
Count the pieces that needed a second fitting as well. That number says more about the tailoring than any single complaint.
- Slips open past the trial date
- Open slips by tailor
- Second fittings this month
- Advances taken on work not yet delivered
Regular customers who stopped coming
Repeat buyers carry a shop through lean months. From past bills, list customers who bought every festival but have not visited this season. They are worth a call.
Group customers by what they buy, such as sarees, kids wear or men’s formals. A new-arrival message then reaches people who buy that kind of piece. Messages sent to everyone teach people to ignore them.
A shop billing by hand can keep these checks in a notebook. Software turns them into a report instead of an evening’s work.
Monthly store review sheet
One page with five boxes: size gaps, styles with no sale this month, exchanges and unused credit notes, open alteration slips and regulars gone quiet. Fill it on the same date each month. Set it beside last month’s sheet before placing the next order.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Do these checks need software?
Not on their own. A careful register can hold them for a small shop. Software helps once sizes, outlets and customers grow past what one person can count by hand.
Can GullySystem’s clothing store software send sales to Tally?
Not built in. Sales and purchase figures are read inside the system. A Tally export file is priced once your accountant settles how the ledgers should sit.
Will the software decide what to buy next season?
No. It shows how each style, size and colour sold last season. What to buy, and from which wholesaler, stays the owner’s decision.
What about a tailoring unit that holds no rack stock?
A unit that only stitches to measure will not need a size grid. Measurements, job slips and trial dates matter more there.