Why You Need Fashion-Specific ERP for Your Apparel or Footwear Business

Xperia’s Comprehensiv^TM Enterprise (ERP) System has been built from the ground up to meet the unique needs and challenges of today’s apparel and footwear industry. From startups to multi-billion dollar corporations, fashion and uniform companies of all sizes can enjoy the benefits of Xperia’s incredibly robust, reliable and scalable industry-specific solution.

But why is it important for clothing and footwear suppliers and manufacturers to choose an enterprise system designed specifically for their industry? Unlike other products, apparel and footwear items come in a variety of colors, sizes, and dimensions. Simply put, if your database and applications are not optimized to address that reality, then you will be in for a lot of duplication of effort!

Consider, for example, that a single garment style such as a shirt or pair of pants can be offered in multiple colors and sizes, and in multiple dimensions by size (think of inseam lengths for a size 32 waist, or sleeve lengths for a dress shirt). Likewise, shoes may come in a multitude of colors, sizes and widths for a single shoe style.

With typical enterprise software, you would be required to set up each variation of the style separately, AND, if something changes such as the cost, description, or other specifications, then the change must then be applied to every color, size and dimension. That can be a lot of work, and it opens the door to data inconsistency.

By contrast, with Xperia’s industry-specific enterprise system, you only enter style-related information once, and then define size, color, and dimension overrides as needed, which is super-efficient both up front and in the event of changes!

We refer to this ease-of-use feature as the Style Matrix. It applies not only to how styles are defined, but also to how information is stored for sales orders, purchase orders, manufacturing orders and more. 

The style matrix makes it easy to answer questions like these:

·      What are the total sales for this style?

·      What are the sales by size and by color?

·      How much inventory do I have for this style in total, and by color and size?

·      What colors are selling the fastest?

·      What sizes am I running low on?

·      And so on …

So now it should be clear why you need an enterprise system that is optimized for your industry.  You can learn more about Xperia’s fashion-optimized ERP software at www.XperiaSolutions.com.