Clothing store online: sizes, colours and one stock

An online store for a clothing or shoe shop isn't an ordinary online store. One jacket isn't one product but twelve: three colours times four sizes. Each has its own stock level, often its own barcode and sometimes its own picture. When the last blue M is sold in the shop, it's exactly the blue M that has to disappear online — not the whole jacket, and not nothing.

This is where a separate online store and a separate till or inventory program drift apart the most. Below is what a clothing shop's online store needs to do, which questions to ask a supplier or developer, and how it works on the NUNDINAE platform, where the online store, till and stock are one application.

Variants: size × colour

The first thing to check: how does the system create variants? If every combination has to be created by hand, entering a new collection takes days.

In NUNDINAE you add attributes to a product and click "Add several at once" — the system creates every combination itself. For example, colour: black, blue, green × size: S, M, L, XL gives twelve options at once. Each option has its own SKU, EAN, price, stock level and, if you like, its own pictures. If you don't enter a variant code, the system generates one from the parent product's code.

A few details that matter in a clothing shop:

• Size order. S, M, L, XL — not alphabetical L, M, S, XL. You set the order once with arrows and it applies to every product.
• Colour swatches. You can assign a colour to a colour option, which the shop displays as a small swatch. The customer sees straight away what "olive" or "sand beige" looks like.
• Label in the shop. If the supplier calls a colour "NAVY-02", you can show "Dark blue" in the shop without changing the products.

A barcode on every variant

Goods from clothing suppliers usually come with a separate EAN code for every size and colour. You don't have to enter them one by one: in the variants table you can scan the code straight into the cell, and for larger quantities there's a CSV import in the form SKU;EAN — two columns side by side from the supplier's price list. I explained what an EAN actually is and where it comes from in EAN barcodes for products.

Once the codes are in, everything else is done with a beep:

• Goods-in. "Receive goods (scanner)" — you beep every item from the box, and each scan adds one to the right variant. The goods are on sale online immediately.
• Till. Beep the label and the right size and colour are in the basket. The same product again increases the quantity.
• "Have you got this in L?" Beep the label on any admin page and you see the stock: green, orange (low) or red (out).

Any USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner that works as a keyboard will do. On a phone you can use the camera too.

One stock in the shop and online

Clothing shops have a classic problem: the last item is sold at the till, but the online store keeps showing it for another day or two. In NUNDINAE there aren't two stock levels to sync — a till sale, an online order and goods-in all change the same number. When something is ordered online, the goods are set aside immediately; if the payment isn't made, they're released automatically. I wrote about this in more detail in online store and inventory management in one app.

A low-stock alert on the dashboard tells you when a product is running out, and the purchase order groups low-stock products by brand — you can open it in Excel and send it to the supplier.

Search and filters

People search for clothes with different words: "trainers", "running shoes", "sneakers". The shop search handles Estonian word inflections (searching "sokid", socks, finds "sokk", sock), and you can add search synonyms yourself. Category pages have filters. In the admin you can also see what customers searched for in the shop and didn't find — often it's a missing product or a word you don't use yourself.

Cancellations and returns

With clothes, returns are inevitable. Two situations are worth thinking through:

• The customer cancels before shipping. In NUNDINAE the customer can cancel the order themselves on their order page until it has been shipped (this can be switched off in the settings). The goods go back into stock; if the order was paid, you get an email saying a refund is needed.
• The customer sends the goods back. You refund the money in the Montonio partner system and mark the order as returned in the admin — so the goods go back into stock and the reports add up.

The return terms themselves (how many days, who pays for postage) are your decision and must be stated clearly in the online store.

Seasons and sales

A clothing shop's year is made up of seasons and sales. With a catalogue rule you can put a standing discount on a whole brand or product group ("everything in the summer collection −30%") and, before switching it on, test with one product what the price will be. For discount code campaigns you can set conditions, a validity period and usage limits.

Clothing store online: questions before you choose

• Can all size and colour combinations be created at once?
• Does every variant have its own EAN and stock level?
• Do the till and the online store use the same stock level, or is there an integration in between?
• Is goods-in done with a barcode scanner?
• Do returned goods go back into stock without manual work?
• Do existing products come across from the old online store with their variants?

The last one matters: if you already have an online store (for example on WooCommerce), products come across to NUNDINAE with their variants, and I set up redirects from the old addresses so that Google rankings aren't lost. If you sell only online and have no physical shop, an ordinary online store may be the simpler solution — I'll tell you honestly which fits.

If your clothing or shoe shop and your online store live in different programs, order NUNDINAE or ask for a demo — I'll show it to you using your own collection.