How to Simplify Fabric Sourcing: Ditch the Spreadsheets and Emails with AI.
For most of my career in fashion sourcing, my daily tools were Excel, Outlook, and Post-its. Every collection meant juggling a dozen supplier conversations, managing a growing spreadsheet of lead times and quotes, and digging through endless email threads trying to find that one fabric spec someone sent me two weeks ago.
Sound familiar? If you’ve worked in sourcing, you know this isn’t a dramatic retelling, it’s just how things have always worked. And honestly, for a long time, we didn’t question it.
But here’s the truth: fashion sourcing is broken, and it’s not because people aren’t working hard, it’s because the tools we’re using are stuck in the past.
The Real Cost of Manual Sourcing Workflows
Let’s break it down:
- 📥 Information gets scattered: Notes from meetings end up in Word docs, on paper, or in someone’s memory.
- 🧮 Spreadsheets become monsters: One mistake in a formula, and suddenly you’re ordering 500 extra meters.
- 📧 Email chains spiral out of control: Details get missed, misinterpreted, or buried.
- 🧠 You’re the central brain: If you’re out of office, no one else knows what’s going on.
I once missed a production deadline because a supplier replied to a thread I forgot to flag. Their MOQ had changed, and I didn’t catch it. That single error cost us an air shipment and several thousand dollars. It wasn’t for lack of trying, I was just drowning in disorganized information.
Why We Built Justly
We created Justly because sourcing teams deserve better. Point!
We asked: What if you could take all the messy notes from a design meeting and instantly turn them into a structured sourcing brief?
What if AI could read your emails, organize the data, and help you follow up automatically, so nothing ever falls through the cracks again?
That’s exactly what we built.
How Justly Works (and Why It’s a Game-Changer)
Let me walk you through how it feels to use Justly, especially compared to the old way:
✅ Step 1: Take Your Notes. Justly Does the Rest
Had a meeting with your designer or production team? Drop your notes: messy, bullet-pointed, half-baked into Justly.
The AI instantly identifies sourcing needs, categorizes them by project, and structures a supplier brief you can send out in one click.
✅ Step 2: Broadcast to Multiple Suppliers
Instead of copying and pasting into ten emails, you can send the same request to your supplier network instantly, and Justly will keep track of who has replied, what they’ve said, and how it compares.
✅ Step 3: Get Responses Organized Automatically
As suppliers respond (via email or the platform), Justly extracts the info: pricing, lead times, MOQs, certifications..and adds it to a clean, side-by-side table. No more Ctrl+F-ing through your inbox.
✅ Step 4: Ask OLI Anything
“OLI” is your AI sourcing assistant. Can’t remember if a supplier mentioned their fabric was GOTS-certified? Just ask.
OLI searches through every conversation and pulls up the exact answer, instantly. No more hunting through threads.
✅ Step 5: Place an Order in Three Clicks
Once you’re ready, you can select the product, quantity, and supplier, and place your order directly through the platform. All documents—POs, invoices, spec sheets—are automatically saved and organized.
What You Gain
📉 Fewer Mistakes
When you’re not manually typing quotes or digging through notes, errors go down.
🕒 Time Back in Your Day
What used to take me 3–4 hours of back-and-forth emails and Excel edits now takes less than 30 minutes with Justly.
🌱 Less Waste, Better Impact
Clearer communication means fewer wrong samples and fewer rush shipments. It’s not just efficient, it’s more sustainable.
The Future of Fashion Sourcing Is Finally Here
Fashion sourcing is no longer about keeping up with a messy inbox. It’s about working smarter, not harder. With tools like Justly, we can finally move from reactive to proactive sourcing, with AI organizing the chaos behind the scenes.
We didn’t build Justly to replace sourcing managers. We built it to empower them, to give them the tools they deserve.
If you’re still managing sourcing with spreadsheets and email threads, trust me: there’s a better way.
👉 Ready to join the future of fashion sourcing?
