Creating linesheets for fashion: 4 Essential components and best practices

A fashion ecommerce linesheet is a powerful wholesale selling tool. It functions as a buyer’s first contact with your newest collection, so it’s critical to get the linesheet right. It has to attract and include all crucial information to enable a seamless buying process without overwhelming the customer. If you’re looking for advice on finding the right balance between branding and creating an easy-to-consume linesheet, this article is for you.

What creates a good linesheet for fashion and lifestyle ecommerce?

The most important principle behind creating a linesheet for fashion and lifestyle ecommerce is being informative, clear and concise. In a quickly growing industry like fashion and lifestyle, pitching new collections can be challenging. It can result in overloaded, long and overly descriptive linesheets that are not buyer-friendly. Increased difficulty lowers sales. It’s possible to share a brand’s character through photos, layout and product names without wasting potential retail partners’ time. 

If they ever express the need to see well-styled editorial marketing materials, you have a different tool — lookbook. Lookbooks are created to share the character of the products in your collection as worn by real people. They are a perfect outlet for true storytelling and sharing your brand identity. 

1. Branding within linesheets

Busy linesheets aren’t going to sell. The more colors, fonts and other graphic elements you include, the more difficult it becomes for potential buyers to analyze the product and make a purchasing decision. They may feel overwhelmed as they struggle to find the data they need. Here are the best practices for creating effective linesheet branding:

• Use high-quality, unique photos. You probably already have your own style of creating product photos for your website (no models, clean product images). You want to use those display photos instead of pictures from fashion photoshoots. Let buyers see your product and let them imagine how it fits their company. You can choose to post several images of one item, but it’s a good practice to choose only three or four products to spotlight in that way. The cost of taking high-quality photographs may be high, but it is a worthwhile expenditure. If the images you display don’t showcase the excellence of your products, then no matter how wonderful those items are, it won’t make any difference.

Examples of clean product images from Davida Cashmere: 

Examples of clean product images from Ideal of Sweden:

• Keep description to a minimum. Description is not necessary in fashion linesheets unless you have some important information to share that won’t fit in any other space, such as effects in the cosmetic industry or sustainability claims in fashion. Minimizing descriptions or getting rid of them should be the goal. For the majority of products, the product name is the perfect description. Focus on creating on-brand yet descriptive product names to show your brand’s character.

Examples of descriptive product names from Tobe Outerwear:

Examples of necessary description from OLE LYNGGAARD COPENHAGEN:

• Use design and product grouping to share your brand’s character. Even with limited layouts and avoiding overuse of fonts and colors, there are still ways to create a visually pleasant, on-brand experience. Keep reading for more on that topic.

2. Create a Collection

Products sell better when presented as part of a group with a group star product. Categories help you create attractive, clear and straightforward layouts. Potential retailers don’t want to sift through a complete fashion linesheet merely to locate all your trousers, for instance. Labeling and organizing products by common characteristics makes it easier for buyers to shop and can significantly improve conversion rates. Rather than concentrating on one product, you can provide customers with a curated selection that is based around nearly any idea:

• Season. Group products by the season. 

Example of winter collection from Onepiece:

• Color. Create visually appealing color stories.

Example of color group from STAND STUDIO:    

• Style. In 2022, using trends and aesthetics to create categories proved to be a great conversion booster. 

Example of boho collection from OLE LYNGGAARD COPENHAGEN:

• Function. Create collections based on the function they’re dedicated to.

Example of yoga collection from Stronger:

• Target group. You can split your linesheet template into gender-based collections, age-based collections, generation-based collections, etc. 

Example of a kids collection from Viking Footwear:

• Product category. The easiest way to group your products with buyers’ comfort in mind. 

Example of chinos group from NN07:

• Theme. You can choose a topic, theme, material, time, place, emotion or idea to build a group. 

Example of material-based grouping from Safira:

3. Clean and easy-to-read design for a linesheet

Ensure your line sheet has a clear and straightforward layout. The goal is to highlight the actual products and encourage potential retailers to opt in. You want to share only important information in the most accessible way, if you want to sacrifice design to achieve it – do it. You don’t want to stand out in a bad way. 

Here are the best practices for creating attractive linesheet design:

• Don’t be afraid to play with white space. It makes linesheets way more readable by allowing your readers’ eyes to rest. Proper use of white space helps important elements stand out and helps express your brand’s visual identity in a subtle manner. 

• Use collections to attract buyers. Use different layouts to highlight seasonal collections, new releases or even just a specific star product. Make sure that they’re not overdone and don’t negatively affect readability. The purpose of experimenting with layout is to make shopping easier by directing attention. Branding is a side effect, not the main goal. 

• Control the attention. Spotlight your star products by attaching more photos and giving them more space. Single-product linesheets are not advisable. They may seem like an ideal tool for sharing high-profit products, but in reality, potential retailers are wasting time to open pdfs with one product – they can’t compare or see with supporting collections. It takes even longer to visit a page, log in and go through the validation process. It goes against the cardinal rule: The harder the shopping process, the less sales it generates. 

• Simplify the design. Keep things simple and readable. Remember that the focus is on the images more than the text.

4. Include all the important informations in your linesheet

A linesheet should be created so that it can address the inquiries and requirements of a buyer. Potential retail partners won’t be investing time into looking up pricing for a variety of products or sending a question for color options. A standard linesheet should include all relevant information for the customer. Here’s exactly what you want to provide:

• Collection name

• Group names/categories

• Product name

• Product image

• Product SKU/item number

• Product options (color variants and sizes, sizing EU/US/UK)

• Product description (optional)

• Composition information

• Wholesale price (per quantities if relevant)

• Recommended retail price

• Ordering information (Minimum order requirements, payment details, shipping information, etc.)

• Delivery window

• Deposit requirements (if relevant)

• Contact details

Checklist – check if your linesheet is ready

Creating branded sales materials is very intuitive, but confidence can be misleading. Check out our checklist to make sure that your potential retail partners are getting a complete fashion linesheet.

Crucial linesheet template elements:

• Brand logo

• Brand name

• Collection name

• Group names/Categories

• Product:

  • name

  • image

  • SKU/item number

  • options (color variants and sizes, sizing EU/US/UK)

  • description (optional)

  • composition information

• Sales terms:

  • wholesale price (per quantities if relevant)

  • recommended retail price

  • minimum order requirements 

  • payment details

  • shipping information

  • delivery window

  • product availability

  • deposit requirements (if relevant)

• Contact details

Efficient linesheet creation

Nowadays, creating linesheets that will convince your potential buyers is quick and easy with modern product information management (PIM) or dedicated online platforms. On the other hand, the old-fashioned way — linesheets curated by a graphic designer — may be hard to maintain. In a fast-growing market like fashion and lifestyle, time and flexibility make the biggest difference.

Comparison of the three most popular methods of generating linesheets

However you choose to create your linesheet, provide hard facts about the products so potential buyers can make decisions about placing orders for your collection. 

Using linesheets for clothing brand

Creating effective linesheets for your fashion apparel business is useful. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can ensure that your linesheets are professional, easy to understand, and visually appealing.

Here are the steps: 

• To make a successful linesheet, it's important to understand your target audience and their preferences.

• Organize your products logically and include all relevant information such as product codes, sizes, and pricing.

• Use high-quality product images and display them in an aesthetically pleasing way to stand out from the competition.

• Include your brand identity and messaging to reinforce your brand and create a memorable experience for customers.

• Utilize digital tools and software to save time and streamline the process.

• By following these strategies, you can create linesheets that are informative, visually appealing, and tailored to your target audience.

• This will help you showcase your products effectively, increase sales, and grow your fashion apparel business.
  

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