Notes for owners · Sales management
How to quote a garment order by style, fabric and size ratio
How a garment manufacturer builds a quote line by line, with fabric, trims, stitching, washing and packing shown apart and the size ratio printed on it, so a buyer can negotiate one line without reopening the whole price.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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The buyer wants fifteen rupees off, and your quote has one number on it. Quote a garment order line by line, style by style: fabric (consumption per piece and rate per metre), trims, stitching, washing or finishing, packing, and overheads with margin, each on its own line. Then print the size ratio the fabric line was built on. Now the buyer can point at one line, say the wash, and you talk about that line alone. A single price per piece leaves only the whole price to negotiate, and it hides the fabric cost of larger sizes.
Why one price per piece gets you into trouble
Many small units quote a single figure: "₹480 per piece, ex-factory, GST extra". It is quick and the buyer understands it. The trouble starts when the buyer asks for less.
With one number, the only answer is a smaller number. You cannot offer a lighter wash, a cheaper button or a different carton in exchange, because none of those appears on the quote. And when the order arrives with more large sizes than you costed for, you have no line to point to when you ask for a revision.
The lines of a garment cost sheet
Here is a cost sheet for one style, with figures that are illustrative only. Build one for every style in the order; a buyer's range of six styles is six sheets.
| Line | What it covers | Illustrative figure per piece |
|---|---|---|
| Fabric | Consumption per piece (with wastage) x rate per metre: 1.40 m x ₹180 | ₹252 |
| Trims | Buttons, rivets, zip, thread, labels, hang tags | ₹38 |
| Cut and make | Cutting, stitching, checking | ₹70 |
| Washing or finishing | The wash named, such as enzyme or rinse | ₹45 |
| Packing | Polybag, carton share, size stickers | ₹18 |
| Freight | To the buyer's warehouse, if the quote includes it | ₹8 |
| Overheads and margin | One line, not split | ₹60 |
| Price per piece | Ex-GST, at the size ratio below | ₹491 |
Underneath, write the conditions in two or three lines: the size ratio, the order quantity the price assumes, and the validity date with the reason, such as the mill's fabric rate.
Keep fabric description precise. "Denim" is not a fabric line; "12 oz cotton denim, 58 inch, from [mill or quality]" is. Buyers compare like with like only when you let them.
Size ratio changes the fabric line
Larger sizes use more fabric. So the average consumption per piece depends on how the order is split across sizes, and that split is the size ratio. A ratio of 1:2:2:2:1 across sizes 30 to 38 gives one average. A ratio heavy on 36 and 38 gives a higher one.
Work out consumption for each size, or at least for each band of sizes, from your own markers. Then build the fabric line from the buyer's ratio and print that ratio on the quote. If the final order comes with a different ratio, you have a stated basis for revising the fabric line, and only the fabric line.
Do not build your average on the middle size alone. That is one way a unit quotes a fair price and still loses money on a large order.
Let the buyer negotiate one line
When the buyer comes back asking for ₹15 less, ask which line they want to work on, or offer the line you can move. A lighter wash, a printed label instead of a woven one, a shared carton instead of a single-style one. Each saves on its own line. The rest of the price stands.
Decide before the call which lines you will move and which you will not. Fabric rate and cut and make should be the hardest to move, because they are your real cost. Packing and trims are where you have room. If a buyer insists on a cut to cut and make, reconsider the buyer. That cut ends in a stitching line that cannot pay its tailors.
For example: a denim unit in Ballari
Imagine a jeans unit in Ballari quoting 3,000 pieces of a five-pocket style to a regional retail chain based in Hyderabad.
The owner quoted ₹480 per piece, built on size 32. The chain asked for ₹465, and the owner agreed without knowing which part of the cost would carry the cut. Then the order came weighted to 36 and 38. Average fabric went from about 1.38 m to 1.46 m per piece. At ₹180 a metre, that is about ₹14 a piece, and around ₹43,000 across the order, gone from a margin already cut.
For the chain's next season, the owner sent a cost sheet like the one above for each style, with the ratio printed under it. The buyer again asked for ₹15 off. This time the talk went to the wash. The chain chose a rinse wash in place of the enzyme wash, which took most of the cut off the washing line. The fabric line was agreed on the buyer's own ratio, with a note that a different final ratio would revise it. It was only a partial recovery: the chain still pushed for ₹6 off the cut and make line, which the owner refused, and the order shrank by a third. The unit, the chain and the figures are invented.
When one price per piece is fine
For a repeat order of a style the buyer has bought before, at the same ratio and fabric, a single price per piece with a reference to the earlier cost sheet is enough. Small orders from a local boutique, where the owner decides on the spot, often do not need the full sheet either. The line-by-line quote earns its keep on new styles, large quantities and buyers with a merchandiser who builds a comparison.
A quote is one step in a longer sale, and the textile and garment manufacturing page shows the steps before and after it.
Rebuild one live quote line by line
Take a quote that is open now and split it into the lines above. Check which size the fabric line was built on. If it was the middle size, rework it on the buyer's ratio before they reply. If you want help deciding which lines you will move before the buyer asks, through pricing and packaging strategy, tell us what you need.
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