Apps for tailors and fashion designers in Nigeria: sketching apps vs business apps

For tailors and fashion designers in Nigeria · 9 minute read

Type “apps for fashion designers” into Google and you will mostly find apps for drawing. You can sketch a gown, pick colours and build a mood board. That is nice. But a sketch will not tell you who still owes you for the lace.

If you sew for customers, your biggest headaches are not drawings. They are lost measurements, forgotten balances and missed deadlines. This post explains the two kinds of app, gives you seven questions to ask before you choose a business app, and answers the questions tailors ask most.

Two kinds of app: sketching apps and tailor-business apps

Sketching and design apps help you create. You draw designs, try colour combinations, plan a collection and show ideas to a client. If you run a label and design every piece yourself, they can be useful. Most of the pages you will find online are lists of these.

Business apps help you run the shop. They keep your clients, measurements, orders, deposits, balances and due dates. They answer questions like “What size is Funke’s blouse?” and “Who must pay me this week?”

Many designers end up using both. But if you can only start with one, start with the one that protects your money and your customers’ trust. That is the business app. When you search for an “app for tailors”, check which kind you are looking at before you download anything.

What a tailor really needs: 7 questions to ask any app

Use these on any tailor-business app, including ours.

1. Does it keep measurements per client and per garment?

A customer does not have one set of numbers. Her gown, her trouser and her kaftan each need their own. A single “notes” box will not do. Look for measurements saved under each garment, with space for notes like “prefers loose sleeves”. If you are still working on your method, our guide on how to take body measurements for sewing will help.

2. Can you see who owes you, and how much, in one place?

This is where most tailors lose money. A good app shows every order with its price, deposit and balance. It also shows the total you are owed, without you adding anything on a calculator.

3. Does it work with WhatsApp?

Your customers are already on WhatsApp. They answer you there. An app that forces you to leave WhatsApp will slow you down. Look for one that lets you send receipts and reminders through WhatsApp from your own number.

4. Must your customers install anything or sign up?

Be careful here. Most customers will not download an app just to see a receipt. If they must create an account, many will simply not bother. The best case is that they tap a link and see what they need.

5. Does it work on a basic phone and a poor network?

Network can disappear in the middle of a fitting. Ask what the app does when data is slow. Can you still read your saved measurements? Does it eat your storage? A heavy app on a small phone becomes a problem of its own.

6. Does it remind you of deadlines and birthdays?

Missing a collection date hurts your name. Forgetting a birthday costs you a chance at a repeat order. A good app lists what is due this week and what is overdue, so you do not need to remember it all.

7. Is your data safe if the phone is lost?

Phones get stolen, dropped in water and swapped. If all your records live only on one phone, one accident wipes out your business. Before you commit, test it: sign in on another phone and see whether your records are there.

Business apps for Nigerian tailors

There is more than one. Some of the names you will meet are SewPRO, Tailora, BeSpoke and FittStitches. We have not reviewed them, so we say nothing about what they do. Their features and prices also change, so check each one’s own page on the day you decide.

What you can do is ask each app the same seven questions. Here is a score sheet you can fill in. We have filled in the TailorDesk row from what we know of our own app. The other rows are left for you.

Where TailorDesk fits

TailorDesk is a business app, not a design app. Here is what it does, in plain words.

• Measurements: it saves each client’s measurements by garment, in inches, with notes and a birthday.
• Orders and money: every order has a price, a deposit, a balance, a due date and a stage: New, In progress, Fitting, Ready or Delivered.
• Reminders: the Today screen shows who is owing, with a total, what is overdue, what is due this week and whose birthday is this week.
• WhatsApp: each order can show a branded receipt page. You share it to WhatsApp as a link. “Send payment reminder” and “Greet” open WhatsApp with a message already written. You can edit it and send it from your own number. The app never sends anything by itself.
• Your customers: they open the receipt link in their phone browser. They install nothing and sign up for nothing.
• Your phone: it works in the phone browser and you can add it to your home screen from the website. There is no app store. Saved data can be read offline.

Sketching apps for designers

If you design your own pieces, you may want a drawing tool as well. Names that often come up are Procreate, Sketchbook, Fresco and Canva for drawing and presenting ideas, and Seamly2D for drafting patterns. We have not reviewed these either. Test one with a single design before you spend time learning it.

Remember what they are for. A sketching app helps you show a customer what the outfit could look like. It does not remember her measurements, her deposit or her collection date.

Notebook, WhatsApp chats or a business app?

Let us be fair. A notebook has carried many good tailors for years. It is cheap, it needs no network and it never runs out of battery. WhatsApp chats are also a real system: everything is in one thread with the customer. The question is where each one starts to struggle.

So if you have only a handful of customers, a notebook may be enough. The trouble starts when you have many open orders at once, especially before Christmas and in the festive season. Read our December orders checklist for tailors and ask yourself honestly whether your notebook can carry that load.

How to choose: data, network and your phone

1. Think about your data. Ask how much data the app uses on a normal day. If you buy data in small amounts, this matters more than a long list of features.
2. Think about the network. Find out what you can still do when the network is bad. Reading saved measurements is one thing. Adding a new order is another.
3. Think about your phone. Check that it works on your kind of phone, Android or iPhone, and that it does not need a lot of storage.
4. Try it on real work. Enter five real customers and one real order. Do not judge an app on an empty screen.
5. Run it next to your notebook for two weeks. If you trust it, stop writing twice.

What to check before you trust an app with customer measurements

Your customers gave you their numbers in confidence. Before you load them into any app, check these:

• Who can see your clients’ details? Only you, or other people too?
• Can you sign in on a second phone and see the same records?
• Can your customers see what you share with them without making an account?
• What happens to your records if you stop using the app one day?
• Does the app send messages in your name without asking you first?

Ask these of every app, ours included.

Questions tailors ask about apps

What does a tailoring app cost?

It depends on the app, and prices change over time. Check the app’s own page on the day you decide, and do not choose on price alone. A cheap app that loses your measurements costs more than a good one. Run the seven questions first, then compare cost.

Can I take measurements directly in the app?

You still take the measurements with your tape. The app stores them so you can find them later. In TailorDesk, they are saved by garment, in inches, with notes.

Is my customer told when the outfit is ready?

That depends on the app, so ask. In TailorDesk, you move the order to the Ready stage and then message the customer on WhatsApp yourself. The app never sends anything by itself.

Which app should a fashion student learn first?

If you want to draw, start with a sketching app. If you already take orders, or plan to soon, learn a business app first, because it will teach you good habits: write down every measurement and every payment.

Do I need a laptop?

Not for a business app. TailorDesk works in your phone browser. Some sketching and pattern tools are built for bigger screens, so check before you invest time.

Do my customers need to install anything?

That depends on the app, so ask. With TailorDesk, a customer opens the receipt link in their phone browser. They install nothing and sign up for nothing.

If you are also worried about chasing payments, our polite payment reminder messages are a good place to start.