Guide / fashion wholesale
Free apparel inventory software, assessed honestly
Apparel is wholesale fashion's hardest stock problem: styles multiplied by sizes, sold in packs, bought in cartons. Here is what free covers — and the paid line, plainly.
The short answer
- Apparel multiplies stock: one style becomes dozens of lines once sizes and colours enter — the multiplication is the test.
- Wholesale fashion adds packs: bought in cartons, sold in pre-packs, counted in singles — multi-level units decide the software.
- Free options: the spreadsheet phase, free tiers with caps, trials of real systems. The joined core is never free.
- BSimple is not free and not apparel-specific — from $180/month (AUD) with multi-level stock and a trade portal included.
- Context: the full inventory system holds the wider system, this page one stop in it.
- 01The short answer
- 02What apparel wholesale demands from stock software
- 03Where BSimple fits
What apparel wholesale demands from stock software
A fashion label selling to boutiques runs the multiplication at volume: styles by size curves by seasons, with markdowns ending each season and reorders riding underneath. Multi-level units decide whether the record survives: cartons received, pre-packs sold, singles counted — one record holding all three without arithmetic done by humans. Per-customer pricing: each boutique buys on its own terms, which means the ordering portal needs per-customer lists and pricing, not one public price list. Seasonal reality: end-of-season lines clear, reorders of core styles never stop, and the record has to serve both at once without a season-worth of spreadsheets.
A free spreadsheet holds a season while one person maintains it; it buckles at the multiplication, the pre-packs, and the boutique asking "what is actually available to ship?". The clothing-specific guide covers the retail-leaning version of the same question, and the free ladder prices the crossover honestly.
Where BSimple fits
We build BSimple, so weigh that — and the boundary first: it is not free (plans from $180/month AUD) and not fashion-specific (no size-curve analytics, no dedicated variant matrix). What it does carry for apparel wholesalers: live multi-location stock with multi-level units, purchase orders from demand, a customer ordering portal giving each boutique its own list and pricing through a unique link, Shopify sync for the direct-to-consumer side, batch tracking where care labels and lots matter, and invoicing handed to Xero or MYOB. The free trial loads one real season and runs it.
The honest reverse: if size-curve intelligence is the make-or-break, apparel-vertical vendors are the right first stop. If the bleeding is the wholesale record — packs, portal pricing, stock truth — this is home ground.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a truly free apparel inventory system?
A spreadsheet, genuinely — until styles multiply, boutiques ask for availability, and pre-packs need arithmetic. Software with multi-level units, per-customer portals and an accounting handoff is paid across the market; free versions are trials or capped tiers.
Does BSimple handle sizes and colours?
As stock lines, yes — live across locations, counted, with movement history — and multi-level units handle pack-versus-single realities. It does not ship a fashion-specific variant matrix; if that is the must-have, start with an apparel-vertical vendor.
Can boutiques order themselves at their own pricing?
Yes — the portal gives each account its own product list and pricing through a unique secret link. Orders land in the same record as everything else, so a boutique cannot order what the season's markdowns already sold.
What should we trial first with an apparel catalogue?
Receive one delivery in cartons, sell some in pre-packs, count one style across sizes, and place a boutique portal order. If the record stays clean through that sequence, the structure works; if it fights there, it will fight every season.
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