Knitwear Inventory Planning: How Many Units Should You Order?

By YZR Sweaters · 2026-09

Knitwear punishes both extremes. Order too much and you carry bulky boxes into markdown season; order too little and you spend the best six weeks of the year telling customers the medium is gone. The difference is arithmetic, not instinct — and it starts with a sales target rather than a gut feeling about how many you can move.

Work backwards from a sales target

Start with revenue, not units. If you plan to sell USD 30,000 of sweaters at an average ticket of USD 60, you need about 500 units at full price, plus the stock you expect to lose to markdowns, returns and damage. For a first season, assuming you sell through roughly 60–70% of your buy at full price is realistic; the remainder is discounted.

That gives a first order in the region of 650–700 units. Spread across three styles and five sizes, the real constraint appears immediately: many factories set a MOQ per style or per colourway, so three styles at 200 pieces each is far easier to place than six styles at 100.

Setting your size ratio

Size ratios decide how much of your buy becomes dead stock. Womenswear in Europe and North America commonly runs with the middle sizes doing the heavy lifting — a typical starting ratio for a five-size run is around S 15% / M 25% / L 30% / XL 20% / XXL 10%, adjusted by market, age profile and fit. Menswear generally skews one size larger, and unisex lines often need a longer tail at the larger end.

• Check your own data first — if you sold before, your size curve beats any generic ratio.
• Adjust for fit — oversized and relaxed styles sell differently from fitted ones; a boxy knit often pulls sales toward smaller labels.
• Do not over-cut the extremes — a small run of XXS or 3XL is fine only if the factory does not charge a separate MOQ for it.

Colour depth: go deep on neutrals, shallow on statements

A workable pattern for a first season: two core colours at full depth, two commercial colours at moderate depth, and one or two statement colours at the minimum your supplier accepts. That gives the range visual interest without tying up cash in shades you may have to clear at cost.

Neutral and core colours — black, navy, off-white, camel, grey — carry the volume and rarely date, so they can take the deepest commitment. Seasonal colours and fashion structures are better bought shallow and reordered if they move, because a colourway that misses cannot be rescued by discounting alone and cannot be re-cut cheaply later.

Safety stock and the lead-time rule

Replenishment is a timing problem before it is a quantity problem. A knitted sweater program typically runs several weeks for yarn sourcing, knitting, linking, washing, finishing and packing, and add-on orders rarely jump the queue behind existing bulk commitments. Ocean freight adds transit time on top.

The practical rule: decide your reorder while you still have enough weeks of stock to cover total replenishment lead time plus a safety margin. If a repeat takes ten weeks from confirmation to arrival and you sell 40 units a week, you need roughly 400 units on hand — or a confirmed production slot — the moment you place it. Waiting until stock looks thin usually means arriving after the peak.

Managing bestsellers and slow sellers

• Bestsellers — top up in the proven colour and size curve only; do not expand the size range at the last minute, since extra sizes often carry their own minimums.
• Steady movers — hold, and reorder only if the selling window still justifies it.
• Slow sellers — bundle with a bestseller, discount early rather than late, or move them to an off-price channel while the season is still live.

Review sell-through by style, colour and size at the mid-season point, not at the end. That is the last moment when a replenishment order can still land in time to sell at full price.

How to talk to your factory about repeat orders

Repeat orders are generally faster and often cheaper than a first order, because the fit, yarn, colour and trims are already approved and no sampling cycle is needed. Two conditions matter: the yarn must still be available in the same dye lot or a close replacement, and your supplier must have reserved capacity.

When you confirm a first order with an OEM/ODM sweater manufacturer, ask two questions in the same email — how long a repeat order would take, and how much notice you should give. That single exchange turns replenishment from a scramble into a plan.

Hold stock, or buy small and reorder?

Neither approach is universally right. Committing to depth tends to win when you have reliable sales history, a stable core colour, and a factory slot that is cheaper to book early. Small-batch buying wins for new styles, test colourways and any item whose size curve you cannot yet predict.

The mixed approach usually works best for knitwear: depth on two or three proven styles, a light buy on everything else, and a pre-agreed repeat lead time for whatever sells. As a Dongguan knitwear manufacturer we build this into the program from the start — our partner factories are certified to BSCI, SEDEX and Oeko-Tex, welcome audits and third-party inspection, and we set MOQ and sampling terms so a buyer can test a colourway without over-committing cash.