Agree the codes before the quantities
A style code that encodes fabric, fit and colour consistently is worth more than any report. Once codes drift, two people create two SKUs for the same garment and the stock figure splits quietly in half.
- One naming convention for styles, sizes and colours
- Reorder levels set from real supplier lead times
- Cycle counts on fast movers weekly, everything else monthly
- Ageing review each month for stock older than one season
Count small and often instead of large and rarely
A full physical stock take is a shutdown. Counting a slice of fast-moving styles every week finds the same errors earlier, with no disruption, and keeps the team honest about entries.
Treat slow stock as a decision, not a fact
Ageing stock has a cost that never appears on an invoice. Reviewing it monthly turns it into a decision - discount, bundle into ratio packs, or push through a different channel - while it still has value.
Separate available stock from committed stock
Having 500 pieces in the warehouse does not mean you have 500 pieces available to sell. Some may already be allocated to customer orders, packed for dispatch, or held at another location. Track physical stock, committed stock, and available-to-sell stock separately so your team knows exactly what can be promised.
Make every inventory movement leave a trail
Purchases, sales, returns, transfers, samples, damaged pieces, and stock adjustments should all create a transaction record. When stock changes without a corresponding entry, the system gradually loses credibility and teams go back to WhatsApp messages, notebooks, and spreadsheets to find the real number.
Track stock by size and colour, not just by style
A garment style can show healthy inventory while the sizes customers actually need are already unavailable. Track inventory at the SKU level - style, colour, and size - because that is the stock you can actually sell. This is especially important for school uniforms where orders depend on specific size ratios.
Connect purchasing to actual demand
Purchasing should start with demand, not simply with the statement that stock is running low. Before raising a purchase order, consider available stock, open customer orders, recent sales velocity, supplier lead time, minimum order quantities, and existing purchase orders to determine what to buy, when, and how much.
Keep suppliers and purchase orders connected
When supplier details, purchase orders, and received quantities live in different places, following up becomes unnecessarily difficult. A simple flow - Supplier, Purchase Order, Goods Received, Stock Updated, Payment - makes it easy to see what was ordered, what actually arrived, and what is still pending.
Give everyone the same stock number
Sales, purchasing, warehouse, and management should work from one live inventory figure. Sales needs to know what can be promised, purchasing needs to know what must be ordered, the warehouse needs to know what needs to be picked or received, and management needs to know where money is tied up in inventory.
Takeaway
Good inventory management does not mean counting everything every day or creating more paperwork. It means having a simple system where every piece of stock has a clear identity, every movement is recorded, and every important decision is based on the same number. For a growing garment business, that can be the difference between constantly chasing stock and actually knowing what is happening inside the business.
Topics in this article
- best practices
- cycle count
- reorder level
- garment inventory