From sample to shipment, your apparel exports on one platform
The apparel season calendar is unforgiving: the collection gets noticed at a fair, samples go out, the proforma comes back, and by the deadline the container has to be at the port. When that cycle is split across spreadsheets, email threads and separate programs, quantity, price and date errors are inevitable. Sighthem keeps the whole flow on one platform for textile and apparel exporters, from finding buyers to subcontractor work orders, from the letter of credit to partial shipments. Every document is fed from the previous step, and deadline pressure turns into a visible plan.
Finding buyers before the season: from the fair booth to the pipeline without a gap
In textiles, sales live on the season calendar; buyers judge the collection at fairs and season openings. Sighthem records every contact collected in the fair rush and turns it into a pipeline you can actually follow up.
- Find apparel importers, retail chains and wholesalers in your target market with company discovery; confirm decision-maker emails with the discovery and verification service, so sample photos never go to dead addresses
- Scan business cards at the fair booth with the mobile PWA; OCR creates the lead automatically, so no pile of cards waits for manual entry after the fair
- Announce the collection launch with segmented bulk email campaigns; use open and click tracking to see which buyers show interest, and move warm leads to the front of your follow-up list
- Keep sample and pricing conversations on the customer card with the official WhatsApp API and QR pairing mode; live translation removes the language barrier on calls, and notes and activities land on the same record
Sample, quote, proforma: the collection cycle in a single flow
A collection has dozens of styles, each style has color and size variants, and every buyer negotiates a different price. Sighthem runs the quote to proforma to order line around exactly that cycle.
- Prepare the post-sample quote with Incoterm, delivery terms and currency; capture buyer approval through the system instead of losing it in an email thread
- Every change during price negotiation is written to the revision history; which price was approved for which style, and on which date, always stays clear
- Convert the approved proforma into an order with one click; quantity, unit price and deadline flow into the next documents without manual re-entry
- Past seasons' quotes and proformas with the same buyer stay on the customer card; base the new season price on the last terms you worked at, so per-customer price memory is never lost
Deadlines and the letter of credit: the latest shipment date runs the operation
In apparel, a missed deadline means a cancelled order, a price cut or air freight costs; on an L/C order the date pressure doubles. Sighthem puts L/C and document tracking at the center of the process.
- Bring the L/C text into the system with AI-assisted reading; the latest shipment and presentation dates and the required documents are extracted from the text and become trackable
- Get alerts as the latest shipment and presentation dates approach; prioritize production and shipment preparation around the deadline
- Track the document set (bill of lading, COMMERCIAL INVOICE, packing list, certificate of origin, insurance, certificates) in a single list and spot a missing document before loading
- Catch discrepancy risk early by checking your document set against the list the L/C requires; go to the bank presentation with a complete file
Subcontract and in-house production: work orders, BOM and quality control
Cutting in-house, sewing at the subcontractor, ironing and packing back in-house: apparel production moves in pieces. Sighthem watches both sides on one screen through the work order and purchasing line.
- Open work orders from order lines; calculate fabric, yarn and accessory needs per style with the bill of materials (BOM), and see missing materials before production starts
- Track work sent to the subcontract workshop with a purchase order (PO) and a supplier account; prevent over- or double-payment with three-way matching of invoice, order and goods receipt
- Run incoming quality control on goods returning from the subcontractor; issue a certificate of conformity or a non-conformity report, and compare workshop performance over time with the incoming goods QC report
- Tie critical steps such as releasing to production to manager approval with the production approval flow; see pending items in the approval hub on one screen and follow them with notifications
Warehouse, partial shipments and customs: stay in control as the collection ships in pieces
An apparel order rarely leaves in a single loading; containers go out as styles become ready. Partial shipments, logistics and the customs side are part of the same flow in Sighthem.
- Track fabric, semi-finished and finished goods separately across multiple warehouses; record transfers between warehouses in the system, and separate fabric dye batches with lot tracking to trace the source of shade complaints
- Lock finished goods to the buyer with order-based stock reservation; bind cartons and pallets to the shipment by scanning GS1 barcodes, and let the packing list feed automatically from package binding
- Manage partial shipments line by line: how many units of each style have shipped and how many remain is visible at any moment; forwarder, container and demurrage tracking sits on the shipment record
- Link the customs declaration to the shipment, with the GTIP code coming from the product card; collect the VAT refund file attached to the export, and track the inward processing (DIIB) input, offset and commitment closure cycle for imported fabric and yarn
Invoices, reports and the team: a snapshot of the season at any moment
When the season closes, the answer to which customer, which collection and which workshop made money should sit in a report, not in scattered files. Sighthem produces the documents and the visibility from the same place.
- Generate the COMMERCIAL INVOICE for exports from order and shipment data; issue GIB-compliant UBL-TR e-invoices for domestic sales, working with your existing e-invoice integrator
- Customize order, shipment, production, incoming goods QC and DIIB reports with the column picker and download to Excel; management and your accountant look at the same data
- With role-based permissions, sales, warehouse, production and accounting each see only their own area; the approval hub ties critical steps to manager approval
- With the TR and EN interface, your sales rep abroad works in the same system; notifications remind everyone of pending approvals and tasks within their own scope
Build your target market list in Sighthem before the fair. Every business card you scan at the booth drops in as a lead via OCR; your campaign segment is ready when you return, and the first follow-up email goes out while the collection is still fresh in the buyer's mind.
When the sample, quote, proforma and order line is consolidated into a single flow, the wrong-price and wrong-quantity errors caused by style, color and quantity data degrading across spreadsheet copies disappear. Every document is fed from the previous step, and the revision history makes it indisputable which version was approved.
On an L/C apparel order, the latest shipment date can conflict with your production deadline. Check the dates and required documents as soon as the L/C text is in the system; if a term cannot be met, request an amendment before production starts. A conflict discovered at presentation time means a discrepancy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What separates Sighthem from a generic CRM as textile export software?
A generic CRM stops at tracking customers and opportunities; in apparel exports, the real workload starts after that. Sighthem keeps the sample, quote and proforma cycle, subcontract and in-house work orders, deadline and L/C tracking, partial shipments and the customs side in the core of the product. Collection-based orders, revision history and buyer approval are the flow itself, not bolted-on modules.
How do I track subcontract production in Sighthem?
You record work sent to the subcontract workshop with a purchase order (PO) and a supplier account. When goods come back, you run quality control and issue a certificate of conformity or a non-conformity report. Three-way matching of invoice, order and goods receipt prevents over- or double-payment, and the incoming goods QC report shows which workshop returns defective work and at what rate.
Do I need a separate expert to read the letter of credit text?
When you bring the L/C text into the system, AI-assisted reading extracts the latest shipment date, the presentation period and the required documents from the text. You get alerts as the dates approach, and the document set (bill of lading, COMMERCIAL INVOICE, packing list, certificate of origin, insurance, certificates) is tracked in a single list. The final check stays with you, but the burden of manually digging critical clauses out of pages of terms is gone.
My collection becomes ready in pieces, can I make partial shipments?
Yes. Partial shipments are managed line by line: how many units of each style have shipped and how many remain is visible at any moment. On every shipment, cartons and pallets are bound by scanning GS1 barcodes, and the packing list feeds automatically from package binding. Forwarder, container and demurrage tracking also sits on the shipment record, so which loading belongs to which customs declaration is never lost.
I use imported fabric and yarn, is there inward processing (DIIB) and VAT refund tracking?
Yes. You track inputs, offsets and the commitment closure process under the inward processing permit linked to your export transactions; which imported fabric was offset against which export stays on record. The documents and amounts needed for the VAT refund are also collected against the export, so you never hunt for the refund file piece by piece. Since the GTIP code sits on the product card, the declaration side feeds from the same data.
How do I clear the pile of business cards and leads after a trade fair?
During the fair, you scan cards with the mobile PWA; OCR reads the card and creates the lead automatically, with no manual entry waiting. Back at the office, you segment those leads by country, sector and product and send a bulk email campaign. Open and click tracking shows which buyers are interested; you call the warm ones with live translation and continue the conversation over WhatsApp on the same customer card.
Bring your textile exports onto one platform, from collection to loading. Try Sighthem free for 14 days on the PRO plan, no card required.
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