Garment businesses: sizes, colours, seasons and agent credit

How the apparel trade moves

Garments are made by manufacturers in clusters known for particular products, by job-work units that stitch for brands, and by in-house factories of larger labels. Goods reach retailers through several routes: brand distributors, wholesalers in city garment markets, travelling agents who carry samples to retailers in smaller towns, and direct sale by brands to large stores. Retailers include multi-brand clothing stores, family stores, boutiques and, increasingly, online sellers.

Credit is long in this trade. Wholesale bills of 60 to 90 days are common in many markets, and agents who bring orders take a commission. Retailers often expect to return or exchange unsold pieces at the end of the season.

Sizes, colours and the item master

A shirt design in five sizes and four colours is twenty stock items. A hundred designs a season is two thousand. Without a clear structure, stock reports become unreadable and retailers get the wrong sizes. Common approaches in Tally are: one item per design-size-colour with a consistent naming pattern, stock groups for product type (shirts, kurtis, jeans), and categories for season or brand. Sets (a size set of one each of S, M, L, XL) are often used in wholesale; decide whether you bill by set or by piece and keep it consistent.

See stock groups and categories for structuring large ranges.

Seasons and markdowns

Apparel sells by season: summer and winter collections, festival wear before Diwali and Eid, wedding wear in wedding months, school uniforms at the start of the academic year. Retailers book orders months ahead, and manufacturers produce against those bookings. Whatever remains at the end of the season is sold at a discount, sent back, or carried to next year at lower value.

Track sell-through by design during the season, not after it. If a design sells half its stock in the first three weeks, reorder; if it has sold almost nothing, move it early before full markdown. The guide on inventory turnover and dead stock shows the calculation.

Agents, credit and returns

Commission agents bring orders from retailers across a region and are paid a percentage on billed or collected sales, depending on the agreement. Record commission in a separate ledger per agent and calculate it from the same sales data you use for billing, so there are no disputes.

Returns are a constant. Retailers return damaged pieces, wrong sizes and unsold season stock. Each return should come against a credit note that references the original bill, and returned stock should be checked and moved to saleable or seconds. Our guide on sales returns under GST explains the tax side.

Selling with photos

Much of apparel wholesale now happens through photos on WhatsApp. A wholesaler sends new designs to hundreds of retailers, and orders come back as screenshots with sizes typed underneath. It works, but the trail is messy: which design code was in which photo, which sizes are still available, and which retailer asked for what. Keeping photos linked to the actual item codes, and sharing a catalogue that shows only what is in stock, cuts down errors.

GST points for apparel

GST on garments and made-up textiles has historically depended on the sale value per piece, with different rates above and below a threshold, and the rates and thresholds have been revised. Check the current rules on the GST portal before setting up items, and remember that a discount can change the applicable rate if the value per piece crosses the threshold. Job-work stitching has its own treatment; see GST on job work. This is general information, not tax advice.

Cashflow OS for garment businesses

Cashflow OS shows your TallyPrime books on the phone. Item photos with your own display names, grouped by Tally stock groups, become an online catalogue retailers can browse, with enquiries on WhatsApp. Salespeople and agents can take orders that post to Tally as sales orders, with price lists for different retailer types. Retailer outstanding and ageing, plus statements on WhatsApp, help collections in long-credit markets. Barcodes per piece help stores. See item photos.