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Managing textile inventory can get complicated.
The textiles that fabric stores sell come in a variety of materials and styles, and customers need unique measurements of these textiles depending on the projects they’re working on. This means fabric business owners need to stock their stores with the right products, maintain optimal stock levels, and keep their store organized to make sure each customer can find what they need.
But if you’re trying to keep track of your stock manually or with ill-fitting digital programs, it’s easy to make mistakes, lose track of inventory, and fail to deliver for your customers. To streamline your inventory management and keep your inventory turning over, you need a digital system that automates these processes and records all of your data for you — and modern point of sale (POS) systems do just that.
In this blog, we’ll explore what textile inventory management is, why you should be using a POS system to help you, and how you can take full advantage of a POS system to improve your business’ workflows.
What Is Textile Inventory Management?
Textile inventory management involves the ordering, organization, selling, and restocking of textile products. Good inventory management leads to full shelves, quick product turnover, and organization that makes it easy for a customer to find what they’re looking for.
Track Inventory Numbers
To manage inventory effectively, you need to know how much of each item you have on hand at any given time. Constantly counting out items by hand is time-consuming and leads to mistakes, which is why using a POS system makes this task so much easier.
With a POS system, your inventory numbers automatically adjust when you purchase inventory and make sales, so your numbers are accurate. Fabric-specific POS software allows you to calculate fractional yards, meaning you can sell fabric in any measurement a customer needs and easily calculate the correct price.
Even a great inventory management system can make mistakes, so you need to manually count your inventory every once and a while. Count each item and check that the totals in the computer are accurate — then, let your POS system maintain your totals for you. With a cloud-based system, you can check your inventory totals from any web-enabled device, including smartphones and tablets.
Related Read: 7 Fabric Store Software Features You Can't Live Without [+ 5 Top Providers]
Develop a Purchasing Strategy
Having instant access to your inventory totals and revenue data helps you refine your purchasing strategy. If you notice a certain fabric, like cotton or satin, is becoming a high seller, order more of it. If another textile item tends to sit on the shelves, order less of it. Part of textile inventory management is knowing what (and how much) to buy to maximize profit for your business.
Why Do I Need a POS System To Manage Textile Inventory?
Using a POS system to manage your inventory streamlines the process by allowing you to manage various tasks from one system. This speeds up the process, makes it more efficient, and reduces errors.
Catalog Diverse Fabrics
As a fabric store owner, you work with a variety of different textiles. A POS system records detailed identifying information like fabric material, style, color, pattern, measurements, price, and any other information you need. This makes it easy to find fabric for a customer, ring up a sale, and keep track of the inventory you have at your store.
Some POS systems allow for serialized inventory, which allows you to track a specific item, minimizing loss and helping you keep track of each item you have in stock.
Related Reads: How To Manage Serialized Inventory in Your Fabric Store: 6 Pro Tips
Manage Seasonal Inventory
Seasonal fabrics can be a big part of a fabric store’s business. Fabrics related to holidays like the Fourth of July, Halloween, and Christmas are popular as customers work on seasonal projects. A POS system can help you find seasonal fabric to order, and past sales reports and data help you know how much to order.
But ordering too much seasonal fabric can lead to overstock that’s nearly impossible to sell. Not ordering enough and selling out too early leads to disappointed customers — this means it’s important to use data to learn from the past, so you can order just the right amount of these products.
Prevent Overstock and Stockouts
Good inventory management helps you prevent overstock and stockouts. You can set your POS system to alert you if the stock of an item falls below a certain point, reminding you to purchase more of the item. You can also set automatic reorder points — the system automatically purchases a new order of a product when it hits a low point, so you never run out of your most popular products.
Consistently carrying the products your customers need builds their trust in your business and keeps them coming back.
Related Read: Fabric Inventory Management: 4 Tips & Software Tools
Save Time
One of the greatest benefits of using a digital system to manage your inventory is that it saves you and your employees time. Digitally recording and updating inventory totals reduces time spent on counting totals.
Automatic reordering cuts down on the time you spend placing orders, and the reports your POS creates help you understand and present data about your business more quickly. Spending less time on inventory management creates more time to spend on other areas of your business.
Make Better Business Decisions
Your POS system records inventory information and key metrics like costs, revenue, and profit. You can use your POS system to create reports that clearly communicate these metrics and how they’re changing over time.
These reports are useful in helping you generate insights that lead to better decisions for your business. You can also use these reports to present data about your business to investors, business partners, and other stakeholders.
How Do I Manage Textile Inventory With a POS System?
Now that we know some of the benefits of using a POS system for textile inventory management, let’s take a look at a few key strategies to help you get the most out of your POS system.
Purchase Inventory From the System
Industry-specific POS systems grant users access to supplier catalogs, and a fabric store-specific POS system gives you access to the best fabric suppliers in the business. This allows you to research and compare prices, so you can be sure you’re getting the best deal. It also allows you to place orders directly from your system, simplifying the process of restocking your inventory.
Related Read: Quilting Inventory Management: 5 Best POS Providers
Use a Barcode System
Make sure your POS system is compatible with a barcode system. Barcodes make it easy to identify a fabric product so you can keep things organized and keep your totals accurate. It also makes it easy to ring up a customer, so you can reduce checkout times. Make sure you have a label printer to easily tag items and prepare them to sell.
Train Staff on Inventory Tools
For your inventory management to be fully effective, your staff needs to be trained on the processes and tools you use. Employees should be confident in using your POS system to update totals, do manual inventory audits, and make suggestions about purchasing strategy. As you empower your employees to do inventory management work, your business will be in good hands — even when you aren’t around.
Top POS Systems for Textile Inventory Management
These are our top four picks for POS systems for textile inventory management.
1. Like Sew
Like Sew is a POS system designed specifically for fabric stores. It’s equipped with fabric store-specific features like serialized inventory, access to fabric suppliers, class scheduling management, and sewing machine repairs — in addition to all the regular POS features you need to run your business. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to learn.
Pricing: Contact for custom pricing.
2. Lightspeed
Lightspeed is a general POS system that offers an abundance of features and can adapt to fit a variety of businesses. Its many features make it scalable for businesses of varying sizes, but also create a steep learning curve when you first learn the system. Lightspeed specializes in multilocation management and offers detailed data tracking and reporting.
Pricing:
- Basic: $89 per month
- Core: $149 per month
- Plus: $289 per month
- Hardware sold separately.
3. Shopify
Shopify began as an e-commerce platform and is now a general POS system. It offers features for selling online and in store, offers a user-friendly interface, and has an extensive app marketplace so users can add features to their system.
Pricing:
- Basic: $29 per month
- Shopify: $79 per month
- Advanced: $299 per month
- Plus: $2,300 per month
4. Square
Square is a general POS system with a simple and customizable interface. Square can adapt to meet the needs of a variety of businesses, and can process fast checkouts for in-store purchases.
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Plus: $29 per month
- Premium: Custom pricing
Make Textile Inventory Management Seamless With Like Sew
Effective textile inventory management can transform your business. Rather than waiting for stubborn inventory to move, you can optimize your product offering to turn over quickly, increasing revenue for your fabric store. By keeping track of your numbers, you can make better business decisions and avoid running out of your most popular products.
To make best use of your store’s textile inventory, you need a POS system. Like Sew is an all-in-one, cloud-based system that’s designed with the needs of fabric store owners in mind. With its fabric-specific features, like fractional yards and serialized inventory, managing your inventory is easier than ever.
To see Like Sew for yourself, schedule a demo today!
