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How to create a line sheet in ApparelMagic

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Line sheets are the backbone of the sales workflow, and an Excel file no longer cuts it!

Use them internally to sort out your assortment, as teasers you can promote to your leads, and as a B2B eCommerce tool customers can order from directly.

Doing double duty as both a promotional tool and as a sales document, line sheets can be more than just spreadsheets with styles, sizes, and prices. And with ApparelMagic, they can be beautiful!

Create sleek, informative documents that will impress your wholesale partners. Use big, beautiful brand imagery right alongside your product shots and pricing.

You can skip the time-consuming exporting and rearranging data and do it all straight from the system. And better yet, you can do this all in a matter of seconds.

Selecting Line Sheet Templates

Your line sheets are stored right next to your products! From the main line sheets page, you’ll be able to view or edit your entire history of line sheets.

Choosing a Wholesale Line Sheet Template

Creating a new linesheet can take just seconds. Either start from scratch, clone one of your existing linesheets, or use our line sheet template library.
Give the line sheet a descriptive title. This is what you’ll use both internally and when you send it out to customers.

Creating a Line Sheet

Have some beautiful hero photography? Drop it in with the visual line sheet editor. You can add images, videos, and HTML content. Otherwise, you can create a simple line sheet by just going straight to Products.
The same filter options you know and love from ApparelMagic’s Products module is available from inside the linesheet. Filter your styles by season, product type, brand—or put together something special by searching and selecting specific items!
You have plenty of options for displaying your products, so choose what feels right for your brand and imagery. This view shows the tile format, with each item centered in its own square—great for when you have flat product shots.
The Looks view pumps up the volume with large scale, portrait-style images perfect for lookbooks and on-model imagery.
Matrix view gives you the best of both worlds with your products showcased next to inventory numbers for each SKU. For any of these views, you can always select whether you’d rather show each style by Product or Colorway. Here we have our colorways separated out so customers can see each wash.

Line Sheet Fashion and Accessories Options

In addition to different styles of view, you can take your pick of a number of further options, including modifying the number of images per line, the price fields shown, and how you describe each item by name, style number, color, size, etc.
Ready to start taking orders directly from the line sheet? You can send your leads and customers an email with a customized link they can use to order from online. You can toggle on the ability to order, and select if customers are limited to ordering based off current stock.
Happy with your work? Use the Share button to get out the word! You can grab a shareable link in this drop down menu. This link will let anyone view your line sheet. If you want to send a customer an interactive line sheet to order from, select Email.

Sending your Product Line Sheet

Add your customers, a subject line, a message, and click send! It’s as easy as that.
Your customer will get immediate access to the line sheet, and they’ll be able to add items to their cart just like they would in an ecommerce store.

And just like that, you’ve got a linesheet. Your wholesale customers will be just a click away from making their next purchase. Use your new power wisely and watch your sales grow!

Product Lifecycle Management: How The Fashion Industry Leverages A Concept Borrowed From the Auto Industry

Product Lifecycle Management: How The Fashion Industry Leverages A Concept Borrowed From the Auto Industry

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From inception to manufacturing to sale and beyond, there are a lot of steps in the product lifecycle.

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing those steps.

American Motors Corporation introduced the concept in the 1980s as a way to make their business more productive and efficient and found that it helped them compete with larger companies, such as GMC and Ford. 

Apparel businesses can benefit from product lifecycle management, too. In today’s business environment, PLM is useful for any operation that designs, manufactures, and distributes products, regardless of industry.

Phases of the Product Lifecycle

It’s important to understand what the product lifecycle entails before learning how to effectively manage it. There are four main phases that make up the lifecycle of a product: conception, designing, production, and distribution.

Conception

The cycle begins with the idea for a new product. This phase involves researching the market to make sure you’re building a product that consumers will actually want to buy. It also involves defining production requirements to determine whether or not the product is actually feasible. Many product ideas never advance beyond this phase.

Design

After settling upon a product concept, it’s time to design the product. In this phase, businesses will create prototypes and look for ways to improve the product. Developing, testing, and evaluating are carried out before settling on a final design.

Production

In the next phase, a business must figure out how the product will be manufactured. Businesses may also start to plan how to market to consumers. Sales goals and other metrics are set.

Distribution

Finally, it’s time to go to market. This means distributing the product to the appropriate sales channels for sale to customers. There may be maintenance involved, depending on the product, once it is sold. Businesses must also plan for the product’s end-of-life in this phase.

What Is PLM Software?

In business, there’s a concept known as “single source of truth (SSOT).” Essentially, this is a concept used to ensure that teams base business decisions on the same data. To put an SSOT in place, an organization must provide relevant personnel with a single, centralized source that stores the data points needed to make these decisions.

Enter PLM software.

PLM software is a great example of how new business technologies can change entire industries. Modern PLM software acts as SSOT for all the teams involved in designing, manufacturing, selling, and servicing products. Integrations with related systems (like a CRM or ERP) help keep different teams on the same page.

There are industry-specific PLM software solutions available. In the garment/apparel industry, fashion PLM software has been a game-changer, as it comes packaged with functions related to inventory management and supply chain logistics to make the project management process easier than ever.

Benefits of PLM Software

Businesses use PLM software to streamline the product lifecycle and make the phases described above more efficient. Any decent PLM solution can help avoid issues with inventory management, such as overproduction, product bottlenecks and inaccurate forecasting. 

Here are a few other benefits you should look for when choosing the tool that’s right for your business:

Increased Productivity

Imagine a world with fewer emails and fewer spreadsheets. PLM software boosts operational efficiency in a number of ways. Information doesn’t have to be recompiled at each stage because it can be reviewed concurrently via the platform. You don’t have to send updated product design files back and forth and wonder if everyone has the latest version. In a more collaborative environment, teams can discuss issues and brainstorm to find solutions. You will eliminate time-consuming activities such as replicating data across different systems, correcting processing errors and hunting for missing data.

Lower Costs

PLM software gives you a clear view of the product lifecycle. Clear visibility into product costs during product development helps you model a forward-looking view of the associated product costs. Using data-driven analytics, various teams such as procurement and manufacturing can build a predictive or prescriptive forecast model. With real-time dashboards, under- or over-buying raw materials becomes a thing of the past.

Flexibility

Product lifecycle management is an ongoing process, and continually developing PLM platforms can provide even greater benefits to businesses. Like any good tool, PLM software should be responsive to your changing needs and scalable when you are ready to grow. One benefit of some PLM software solutions is their ability to integrate with other business software and applications to meet these needs.

Access

On-premise PLM systems are still common. However, cloud PLM software lets teams collaborate in real-time. With the connectivity of cloud and mobile technology, production, operations, sales, and service teams can access their data from anywhere, on nearly any device. One feature that’s become more important in recent years is mobile functionality for PLM solutions. Why not access everything from your phone, wherever you are?

Customer Satisfaction

Modern PLM software solutions let you track customer responses, track quality issues and respond quickly. Direct feedback from customers can be relayed to the engineering team. Continuously improving products based on customer feedback drives customer satisfaction. Happy customers become repeat customers. PLM software gives design and production teams control over data, allowing them to close the gaps between teams, ultimately leading to faster order fulfillment.

Reduced Risk

Compliance is an important part of the product design and production phases. Companies need to adhere to regulatory standards; PLM software helps you keep detailed documentation of changes in product versions to ensure audit trails are intact. This reduces the risk of fines, delays, and lost sales due to regulatory issues.

Remember: Thousands of different PLM software solutions exist; choosing one that continually offers new features and functions can put you ahead of the game and make it even easier to manage your products efficiently. 

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Product Lifecycle Management

What Is Product Lifecycle Management & Why Does It Matter?

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Want to learn about the concept of product lifecycle management? Read below to learn about the concept’s history and see a break down of each phase of the product lifecycle and the impact these concepts can have on your business. You’ll also learn about some of the benefits of PLM along with the importance and advantages of using PLM software.

What Is PLM?

PLM stands for product lifecycle management, and it is the process of managing the complete lifecycle of a given product — from inception to manufacturing to disposal. 

This concept first came around in the 1980s from American Motors Corporation as a way to make their business more productive and efficient, so they could better compete with larger companies like GMC and Ford. However, nowadays, PLM is useful for any business that designs, manufactures, and distributes products, regardless of industry.

Phases of the Product Lifecycle

It’s important to understand what, exactly, the product lifecycle entails before learning more about how to effectively manage it. There are four main phases that make up the lifecycle of a product: conception, designing, production, and distribution.

–Concept

The cycle begins with the conception or idea for a new product. This phase involves researching the market to build a product that consumers will actually want to buy, and defining production requirements. This phase will determine whether or not the product is actually feasible, with many ideas never advancing beyond this phase.

–Design

After deciding upon a certain idea, the product is then designed, developed, tested, and evaluated. In this phase, businesses will create prototypes and look for ways to improve the product before settling on a final design.

–Production

The next phase is production, wherein businesses will decide how the product will be manufactured. While the product is being produced, businesses may also discuss how to market it to consumers, sales goals, and other related metrics.

–Distribution

Finally, once the product has been successfully manufactured, it must be distributed to its sales channels and sold to customers. There may be maintenance involved, depending on the product, once it is sold. Businesses must also plan for the product’s end-of-life in this phase.

Benefits of PLM

The benefits of using PLM are numerous. One of the most notable benefits of PLM is how it can help avoid issues with inventory management, such as overproduction and inaccurate forecasting.

When using PLM software that is specifically designed to improve the efficiency and quality of your operations, the benefits of the solution become even greater, and will likely include:

  • Enhance compliance with industry regulations and applicable laws during design and production processes
  • Accelerate time to market
  • Increased throughput
  • Consolidate product records
  • Improve communication and collaboration
  • Clear visibility across all development phases
  • Holistic view of product lifecycle
  • Improve product quality
  • Reduce time to market
  • Reduce waste from production; make this list as thorough and comprehensive as possible. 

What Is PLM Software?

In the modern age, businesses use PLM software as one of many newer business technologies that are completely changing entire industries.

The software helps businesses streamline multiple processes and makes them even more efficient and beneficial for their organization.

Thousands of different PLM software solutions exist; some are even industry-specific with unique functionality for that niche. Using the right PLM software for your business is essential to enjoying the benefits mentioned in the section above. 

Take for example that your business operates in the garment/apparel industry. Fashion PLM software will include functions related to inventory management and supply chain logistics to improve your overall product lifecycle. 

Final Thoughts: Advantages of PLM Software

Continually developing PLM platforms can provide even greater benefits to businesses. Let’s use the example of PLM for the fashion industry once more. With mobile functionality for PLM, this makes it even easier to refine and manage the product lifecycle. And thanks to PLM’s ability to integrate with other business software and applications, you won’t endure extended periods of downtime during integration. 

Using PLM software has some serious benefits in and of itself. Not only can it help businesses capitalize on the benefits listed above, but the continual development of new features and functions can put you ahead of the game and make it even easier to manage your products efficiently.

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