Making to order, or holding stock

Making to order suits clothes whose delivery promise can include time with the maker; holding stock suits clothes that need to be ready to send when an order arrives. The choice also turns on when money must be committed and how much confidence there is in the sizes and colours that will sell. Neither is a universal winner.

01Making to order moves production after the sale

With making to order, a customer places an order before the finished item is made. The brand passes the order to the maker, the clothes are produced and checked, then sent to the customer. Fabric and other parts may already have been bought. What waits for the sale is the making of the finished clothes.

Holding stock reverses that sequence. The brand decides what to make, pays for production under the agreed terms, and holds the finished clothes ready for orders. Each sale draws from what is available. A size can sell out while other sizes of the same design remain on the shelf.

Making to order does not have to mean making clothes to an individual customer's measurements. A brand can offer its usual sizes and make the selected size after purchase. That distinction belongs in the description of the clothes: choosing when an item is made and choosing how it fits are separate decisions.

Start by describing the sequence for each proposed item. Name what exists before the order arrives, what the order sets in motion, and what must happen before dispatch. This gives the maker something concrete to confirm.

02The maker's working method can decide what is possible

A maker who produces clothes in groups may be unable to start whenever an individual order arrives. Cutting fabric and preparing machines take work before sewing begins. Repeating that preparation for separate orders affects the cost of making each item and the time the maker can offer it.

Ask the maker to explain how orders would enter their work. They might accept them as they arrive, or need the brand to collect orders before making begins. Collecting orders changes the delivery promise because a customer may wait for that collection period as well as for production.

The minimum a maker will run also needs a plain explanation. Establish whether it applies to a design, a colour, or a particular fabric, and how sizes can be divided within it. A minimum that works across the whole design may lead to a different decision from a minimum attached to every colour.

For held stock, establish when the maker could make more. Ready-to-send clothes solve the immediate delivery question while they remain available. Replacing sold-out sizes still requires a place in the maker's work and materials that can be obtained again.

03Money can be committed before finished clothes exist

Holding stock commits money to clothes before those clothes are sold. That commitment includes the chosen spread of sizes and colours. Money spent on a slow-selling colour remains tied to those clothes, even if another colour has sold out and needs to be made again.

Making to order can reduce the amount committed to finished clothes in advance. It does not make every purchase wait for a sale. Fabric may need to be bought ahead, and the maker may ask for payment before beginning work. Labels and other parts can also come with minimum purchases.

Trace when payments are due through the proposed arrangement. Compare when the customer pays with when fabric must be bought and when the maker must be paid. Treat these as agreed dates in the plan; taking an order does not by itself settle the timing of every payment.

Compare costs using the same clothes and the same agreed level of finish. Separate the cost of preparing to make them from the cost of repeating that work. For stock, include the work and space needed to hold finished clothes. For making to order, include the work of passing through and following up individual orders.

04Sizes and colours determine where unsold clothes accumulate

A decision to hold stock is also a decision about its shape. The total amount being made does not say whether there will be enough of the sizes that sell, or how much money will sit in colours that move slowly. Each choice creates finished clothes awaiting a matching customer order.

Work through each design at the level customers will buy it: a particular size in a particular colour. Where there is no sales history, record the basis for the proposed split and keep the uncertainty visible. A planned quantity is a decision to test, not evidence that demand exists.

Making to order lets the customer order determine which size and colour becomes a finished item. The uncertainty may move back into the fabric cupboard. Fabric bought for a colour that receives no orders is still material the brand has paid for and needs a use for.

Consider whether the same fabric can serve other clothes in the collection before committing to it. Shared fabric may leave more ways to use what remains. A print or a material bought for a particular design can leave fewer alternatives. Judge the commitment by what can still be made from it.

05The website's delivery promise starts with the actual work

For held stock, a delivery promise begins with finished clothes available to send. The brand still needs time to find the correct item, pack it and hand it over for delivery. Available stock should mean clothes that have passed the agreed checks and can enter that process.

For making to order, the promise includes the work before dispatch. Agree when the maker starts counting the making time and what must already be in place. A timing given on the assumption that fabric is ready cannot support an order for which fabric still needs to be found.

Keep dispatch and delivery distinct in the wording on the website. Finishing the clothes is another separate point. A maker's promised completion date leaves checking and packing to be accounted for before the parcel begins its journey.

Put the expected timing beside the option being bought, especially where some clothes are in stock and others are made after purchase. Establish how an order containing both will be handled. Then agree how the brand will hear about delays, so a changed date can reach the customer while the order is still in progress.

06Both options need an agreed sample and repeatable checks

The decision about when to make clothes does not settle what the maker should make. Before either route goes on sale, approve a sample and record the agreed measurements and materials in the document that tells the maker what to make. Keep the sample that production is checked against available for comparison.

For clothes made to order, agree how the maker will repeat the approved result across separate orders. Fabric bought later may differ from the fabric used before. A replacement fastening or changed finish also needs a decision before it becomes part of a customer's clothes.

For held stock, agree how the finished clothes will be checked before they become available to send. Allow time to resolve anything that fails those checks. A box arriving from the maker is a delivery to the brand; the clothes inside still need to match what was agreed.

Include the route for an item that needs correcting. Who identifies the problem, where does the item go, and when can the work happen? Record those answers alongside the making arrangements. Remaking an item uses materials and maker time under either approach, and that work needs a place in the plan.

07A mixed approach needs separate promises and clear records

A brand can hold stock of some clothes and make others after purchase. The same principle can apply within a design, with selected colours held ready and others made to order. Check that the maker can support the split before adding those choices to the website.

There should be a reason for each part of that arrangement. Finished stock might support a promise of prompt dispatch for a particular item. Making another item after purchase might limit the amount committed to finished clothes where demand remains uncertain. The fabric purchases behind both still need to be counted together.

Keep records that distinguish finished clothes available to sell from clothes already promised to a customer. Orders awaiting production need their own status. Without that distinction, the website can offer an item as ready while it is still with the maker, or promise clothes already assigned to another order.

Make the final choice against the same questions for each design: whether the maker can support the order pattern, when money must leave the brand, and what delivery timing the website can promise. Record what would prompt a change. Sales by size and colour, alongside the maker's ability to repeat the clothes, can inform the next decision.