Billing for your clothing and sari shop in Uttar Pradesh
The sari, the suit piece and the ready-made kurta, each counted once and billed once.
From the Banarasi sari on the block to the wedding week report
Every size and colour on its own line, so the last red kurta is known
Add each kurta as it sits on the shelf, one item for each size and colour. Every sale takes one off. When a customer asks for the red one in medium, you know in a moment whether it is there, and you do not walk to the shelf to find that it is not.
A Banarasi sari sold once, and its bill kept
Each sari that stands on the block outside the shop is an item of its own. When it sells, it comes off the stock and the bill goes to the customer's WhatsApp. If the family comes back after the wedding for an exchange, the bill shows the day and the sari.
The bridal wear left on the rack, given a lower rate one piece at a time
After the wedding weeks, list the lehengas and sherwanis still hanging, each with its count. The ones you will not order again can be given a lower rate, one piece at a time. The list of bridal wear that did not move also tells you what not to take from the wholesaler's man.
The bargained price that never reaches the book, and the last red kurta in medium
Bargained at the counter, written nowhere
A customer picks a kurta, asks for a lower price, and you come down a little, then a little more. The price she pays is not the price on the tag, and the lower price is nowhere written. At the end of the day the cash is less than the tags of the clothes that went out, and you cannot say how much of the gap is the bargaining and how much is something else.
One sari, one design, and sizes in colours you cannot count
A sari is often the only one of its design in the shop. A kurta comes in four sizes and five colours, and the red one in medium sells out while the green one in extra large sits. Stock is counted by eye, shelf by shelf, and a customer who asks for the red kurta in medium waits while you search, only to hear that the last piece went yesterday.
Wedding weeks, Eid and Diwali, and the clothes left after them
The shop earns in a few seasons: the wedding months, Eid, Diwali and the first cold. Bridal wear and festival kurtas are bought in a heap before them, and what does not sell sits until the next season. A family that bought for a wedding comes back to exchange a size, and without a bill you cannot be sure whether the piece was sold at your shop and when.
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Saris, suit pieces and kurtas: what a UP clothing counter asks of a phone
Bills on your phone
A chikan suit length by the metre with the work charge as its own line, and the stitched kurta beside it, sent to the family's WhatsApp.
Low stock warnings
A warning when the kurta size most wedding guests ask for is down to its last pieces.
Daily reports
Each day of the wedding months, Eid and Diwali counted by garment, so next season's buying starts from them.
Your own online shop
A page of chikan and Banarasi pieces that a wedding family looks at in your WhatsApp group before the visit, so the choosing starts at home.
Orders to suppliers
The order to the wholesaler for the sizes and colours of kurtas that sold out before the wedding months, with the lot noted against it when it comes.
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Cloth for the miller, the saddler and the brass worker's family
Families from every district buy cloth for weddings and festivals. A few of the districts and their trades:
- Kanpur has a long saddlery trade from colonial times. Today it is the only independent centre making leather saddlery for global markets.
- Moradabad is called Brass City, Peetal Nagri. It is famous for a huge export of brass handicrafts to North America and Europe.
- Jaunpur's economy depends mainly on agriculture because it has no heavy industry. About 85 industrial units, such as a flour mill, run at Satahariya.
- Sitapur is known for its traditional wool carpets, called dari, woven on traditional looms. It is the district's One District One Product.
What UP clothing shop owners ask about saris, suit lengths and exchanges
I sell suit lengths by the metre and stitched suits as well. Can both go on one bill?
Yes. The length by the metre and the stitched suit are separate items with their own rates. A bill can hold both, and each comes off its own stock.
A family returns a size to exchange after a wedding. How do I check that it was bought here?
Open the bill on your phone, or ask the family to show it on WhatsApp. It has the day and the garment. You check it and make the exchange without guessing.
I sell hand-embroidered chikan and also plain cotton. Will the report show them apart?
Yes. Each garment is its own item, and the daily report counts every item. Open the report for a wedding month and see which of the two sold more.
Zardozi and Aminabad: Lucknow's cloth trade
Lucknow Zardozi is a GI-registered craft that gives livelihoods to around 1.5 to 2 lakh artisans, with women forming a large share of the workforce.
Lucknow's Aminabad Market is known for hosiery, bedsheets, embroidered fabrics and footwear at very low prices, and shoppers are expected to bargain. A garment shop that bargains every day does well to know the price at which each piece really sold.