Are linesheets cancelled? How fashion brands are reinventing wholesale

Linesheets have historically been the backbone of the fashion wholesale sales process. Brands have relied on them to showcase their collections and product details, while buyers used them to place pre orders and reorders. Traditionally, linesheets would be printed, filled out, and exchanged via email—a system that, while effective for its time, was extremely labor-intensive.

As more brands embrace a digital approach to wholesale—with 75% of fashion brands now using B2B software to streamline their operations—linesheets have largely been digitized - but this hasn’t eliminated the manual workflows that continue to be a major challenge for wholesale brands.

So, why is this the case?

In this blog, we’ll explore the evolving role of linesheets. Are they still essential in the digital era of fashion wholesale? Let’s discuss.

The evolution of the linesheet

Fashion wholesale has traditionally been a manual process from end to end. Buyers would visit physical showrooms or meet with wholesalers in person to browse collections and view samples. Linesheets were then filled out with selected products and quantities, and either handed over physically or emailed to the sales rep to move the order to the next stage of the process. Sales reps often prepared tailored linesheets for top-tier wholesale clients, suggesting specific products and quantities as a compelling sales proposition.

As digital wholesale has become more prevalent, particularly during the pandemic when in-person client meetings were a no-go,  linesheets got the digital treatment from wholesale tech solutions. Now, rather than sifting through wholesale catalogs and filling out paper linesheets, or emailing excel files back and forth to sales reps every time a buyer wanted to place an order, they could use pre-designed linesheets that are already formatted, so that information could be simply submitted to their sales rep digitally.

Although this approach to fashion wholesale feels more like a DTC experience, it still relies on the linesheet as the primary tool for conducting business. Digital linesheets offer a more visually appealing interface for buyers, while giving brands a platform to showcase their identity. Some even allow buyers to add products to their cart and place orders online. But digital linesheets—when used in isolation—don't necessarily streamline administrative processes, as orders might still need to be manually entered into an ERP system, for example. Much of the heavy lifting remains with the brand, as manual processes remain, which means that buyer power is still limited.

More than a digital makeover–a complete reinvention

When brands fully digitize wholesale, capturing the nuances of fashion sales cycles, the role of linesheets shifts from a central tool to an extra resource for both buyers and brands. Here's why:

Digital Showrooms 

Digital showrooms allow fashion brands to showcase their products virtually, displaying an extensive catalog with detailed descriptions, images, videos, animations, and 360-degree views. All of these features empower fashion brands to better communicate the value and uniqueness of their collections —something that the traditional linesheet aimed to do (albeit clunky and laborious!)

Lookbooks and shoppable hotspots

Digital lookbooks can be utilised to promote new collections, attract retail partners, and drive sales. Shoppable hotspots allow brands to highlight specific products and direct customers to a custom page for placing orders. This means that linesheets don’t have to do the heavy lifting they once needed to.

Smart order processing

When sales channels are connected, brands gain a complete overview of all wholesale orders (online, phone, in-person). Moreover, the end-to-end sales process is entirely digital, integrating with ERP and CRM systems to ensure orders continue to flow, reducing manual data entry and maintaining a single source of truth for brands - again, a role that was once fulfilled by the linesheet.

Real-time inventory

With real-time inventory updates, buyers can make informed purchasing decisions quickly. Standard linesheets only provide accurate information at a specific moment, while true digital wholesale does bear similarities to the DTC experience—allowing buyers to browse products online and place orders based on accurate, up-to-date information. When the functionalities of a fashion wholesale ecommerce platform are in play, buyers are in control. They can place orders anytime, confident that the products they view are tailored specifically to their wholesale account. The wholesale sales process is interactive, and self-service based for buyers. This means that the linesheet remains valuable as a record of orders placed, it no longer needs to function as a sales channel itself.

Steering the wholesale journey with Centra

Global craft jeans brand, Nudie Jeans implemented digital wholesale with Centra in 2016. Utilizing features such as Digital Showroom, and smart order processing, Nudie Jeans’ wholesale store enables buyers to place orders anytime, from any of the 53 active online markets worldwide that the brand sells to through its DTC store. 

The team realized they could move away from using linesheets in a traditional way, and instead do business with clients based on their preferences, with Centra powering the wholesale journey from end-to-end.

The majority of Nudie Jeans’ clients are self-serve in Centra—they log into their customized account to browse collections and place orders. However, some clients don’t have the bandwidth to manage wholesale digitally. In these cases, Nudie simply uses Centra to place orders and manage accounts on the clients’ behalf and linesheets are used as a reference point for clients throughout the buying journey. Similarly, for Nudie Jeans’ largest wholesale clients, buyers typically send their orders directly to the team, and Nudie’s sales rep uses Centra to place and process the order.

In this new wholesale ecommerce approach, Nudie Jeans’ can meet their clients’ preferences, and spend more time building strong relationships with key accounts, with Centra as the constant channel that powers digital wholesale for the brand and its clients.

"We aren’t using linesheets anymore, because all of our customers are in Centra, which gives them the power to place their wholesale orders in a self-serve way.”

• Joey Kallin - Wholesale Operations Manager at Nudie Jeans

At the beginning of this article, we asked, "Are linesheets still essential in the digital era of fashion wholesale?" While linesheets are still a part of the wholesale process for many fashion brands, switching to a platform like Centra that prioritizes a digital-first approach to wholesale means that brands can manage their wholesale operations more efficiently, delight buyers, and ultimately increase sales–linesheets or no linesheets.  

Want to experience the digital showroom’s capabilities for yourself? Book a demo with the Centra team now.