Apparel Restock Fulfillment

The warehouse stage is the one brands most often lose time on, because inbound arrives without notice or without labels. At OC3PL, labeled inbound with an ASN is received and slotted within one business day. Unlabeled freight takes longer and costs more to receive.

The best restocks are planned while the style is still selling. Watch sell-through by size and reorder before the best-selling sizes run out.

• Track weeks of supply for each core style and size.
• Set a reorder point that covers production time, freight time and a buffer.
• Adjust the size curve on the reorder to match what actually sold.
• Keep a waitlist or "notify me" button on sold-out sizes so demand is captured.

See reorder points and replenishment and size curve planning for the math.

If a style sold out in an hour, the restock may sell just as fast. Treat it like a drop: a date, a forecast and labor planned ahead.

1. Confirm the arrival date and quantity by size with your factory.
2. Book the inbound and send the ASN.
3. Tell your account manager the restock date and expected order volume.
4. Go live only after inventory shows as received and available.
5. Watch the first hour of orders with your account manager on site.

Do not announce a restock date until the stock is actually received. Freight slips. A restock announced for a date when the stock is still at the port creates angry customers and refund requests. More on drops: apparel drop fulfillment.

A waitlist turns a sold-out page into a list of buyers. When the restock lands, those customers get the alert first.

Expect the first wave of orders to arrive within minutes of the alert going out. That is why the inventory must be received and available before the alert is sent. An alert for stock that is not yet sellable leads to oversells.

If the waitlist is large, tell us the size of it. It is the best forecast you have for the restock's first day.

Factories sometimes ship short, or ship sizes in separate cartons that arrive days apart. Plan for it.

• Ask your factory to pack each size in clearly labeled cartons and list them on the packing list.
• Send an ASN that matches what actually shipped, not what was ordered.
• At receiving, any difference against the ASN is flagged in your portal with photos.
• Restock the sizes that arrived, and keep the waitlist open for the rest.

For more on inbound from overseas, see receiving apparel from overseas factories.

If you sell wholesale, a restock often has to cover store orders and your own site. Decide the split before the stock lands, or the first hour of DTC orders may take units promised to a retailer.

Hold a set quantity for open purchase orders, release the rest to your store, and adjust as the week goes on. See allocating stock between DTC and wholesale.

Most apparel catalogs have three kinds of styles: core styles that sell all year, seasonal styles that sell for a few months, and limited styles that are not meant to return.

Core styles are where restock speed pays most. A core tee that is out of stock in medium loses sales every single day. Keep the reorder point high enough that it rarely happens.

Use this list each time a restock ships from the factory.

1. Confirm the packing list by style, color and size with your factory.
2. Send the ASN with carton counts and expected arrival.
3. Book a dock appointment through your account manager.
4. Prepare the product page and the back-in-stock email, but do not send it yet.
5. Check your portal once receiving is complete for any discrepancies.
6. Confirm available counts in your store, then go live.

For a restock that will sell like a drop, also share the expected order volume for the first day.

A restock is good news. Use it.

• Keep sold-out sizes visible with a "notify me" option instead of hiding them.
• Tell waitlist customers first.
• Say clearly which sizes are back and which are still coming.
• If a size will not return, say so, and point to a similar style.

Your account manager can confirm the exact moment the restock is received and available, so the announcement goes out on time.

At a few hundred orders a month, a restock is a box or two. At several thousand, it is a container of cartons across dozens of sizes and colors, arriving while daily orders keep flowing. Three things matter more as you grow.

Receiving capacity

Large restocks need dock time and receiving labor planned ahead. Tell your account manager the carton count and expected arrival, and the inbound is scheduled so it does not compete with outbound orders.

Slotting space

A restock of a core style may need more locations than the first run. Each size and color is slotted in its own location, so a bigger restock means more space near the packing line for the best-selling sizes.

Speed to available

At volume, each day a core style is out of stock costs more. Labeled, scheduled inbound with an ASN is received and slotted within one business day, so the gap is your freight time, not the warehouse.

Restocks tie up cash in inventory. Ordering too much of a slow size means paying to store it for months. Ordering too little means another sellout.

• Reorder in proportion to recent sell-through by size, not the original curve.
• Order core styles more often in smaller quantities if your factory allows it.
• Review storage against sell-through every month. Storage at OC3PL is pro-rated daily on the space you use.
• Clear slow sizes before they become dead stock. See dead stock in apparel.

Returns are a small, steady restock that arrives every day. A size that looks sold out may have units sitting in a return pile at a slow warehouse.

At OC3PL, returns are processed and logged within 48 hours of receipt, and many the same day. Resellable units go back into available stock, so sizes come back on sale without waiting for a factory order.

Look at returns when you plan a reorder. If a style comes back often in one size, check the fit before you order more of it. The monthly return report by SKU shows which sizes and styles return most, and why. See apparel returns and exchanges.

When a restock lands, your account manager is on site and can confirm the received count by size the same day, so you know exactly what to announce.

If you sell the same styles on Amazon, TikTok Shop or another marketplace, a restock has to reach those listings too. Inventory for direct marketplace orders ships from the same pool as your own site, so the restock updates every connected channel once it is received.

Amazon FBA is different. FBA stock must be prepped and sent into Amazon's network as its own shipment. If part of a restock is going to FBA, tell us how many units by size, so prep and labeling can start as soon as the stock is received. Most FBA shipments are prepped and forwarded within 24 to 48 hours after inbound receiving.

Decide the split before the restock lands. See one apparel inventory across channels and Amazon FBA prep for apparel.