Best Apparel Management software of 2026: which is right for you?

What is clothing store inventory software?

Clothing store inventory software automates old school retail processes such as physical inventory counts and reorder point calculations. Often integrated or included with retail POS systems, these systems keep accurate, up-to-date analytics that help smoothly manage an apparel business. Common features of clothing store inventory software include inventory reports, backordering, inventory optimization, multichannel sales, order management, and sales reports.

Common features of apparel POS and inventory software

In addition to core business functions, retailers should evaluate the following functions to meet their unique requirements of a clothing POS solution:

Online customers and apparel retailers

Apparel is one of the fastest growing ecommerce segments. Online research firm eMarketer predicts revenue around $40.9 billion in 2012, a 20% increase in growth over 2011. There are a number of reasons for this, including greater sophistication of online tools for shopping and a growing number of traditional retail clothing chains moving to online retail.

To be successful today, apparel shops owners can react by investing in one of the following strategies:

Produce an online storefront: Store owners can enter the online shopping game themselves. Some apparel management software vendors offer ecommerce and shopping cart integration with their system. Other software vendors offer third-party shopping cart solutions. Retailers can then build out and optimize their website for local, regional, or national customers. In this scenario, it may be worthwhile to invest in online marketing services, such as consulting firms that specialize in pay-per-click advertising, to gain visibility.

Improve the customer experience: Another option for retailers is to focus on differentiating from online apparel websites and improving the in-store experience. A number of POS vendors offer clothing inventory software that works on tablets and smartphones to help associates answer customers' questions and look up apparel options from the floor. Some mobile apparel store software can even process payments from the device. One national apparel retailer—Nordstrom—is moving to a mobile point-of-sale solution in all of its stores. Another option is to improve the experience for customers through improved signage, a more open and inviting store layout, and better-trained associates.

Customer attainment is also an important consideration for these retailers. As customers transition to websites and social media to find promotions and deals, smaller clothing retailers should meet these consumers online to offer similar promotions and store information.

Market trends to understand

• CRM-enabled POS: Customer relationship management (CRM) functionality is increasingly integrated with traditional POS systems. More and more apparel retailers are finding they're able to fulfill their CRM and POS requirements with a single system. (Some of the benefits of integrated systems are discussed in the first section above.)

• Internet of Things: While the IoT is very much still a nascent technology, some of its more compelling use cases are in the realm of retail. Inventory management, for example, can be improved—and to a degree automated—with peripherals such as RFID tags and scanners. Expect these systems to be more tightly integrated with other retail technologies, including POS systems, as a larger variety of stores begin exploring their use.