Consignment

If you’re paying every consignor the same commission rate, you’re leaving money on the table with your high-volume sellers and probably undercharging for the overhead that casual drop-offs create. The standard 50/50 split works as a starting point. But once you’re managing 20 or more consignors, a one-size-fits-all rate stops making sense. Your best consignor — the one who drops off 40 items a month, sells fast, and never disputes a payout — is worth a better deal than the person who brings in three overpriced t-shirts twice a year and emails you weekly asking about them. ...

If your consignment store still uses paper intake forms, you’re one disputed item away from a problem you can’t prove your way out of. The consignor says their commission was 65%. You’re sure it was 50%. The agreement form is in a filing cabinet somewhere — assuming it wasn’t lost, illegible, or never collected in the first place. This scenario plays out in Australian consignment stores more often than anyone wants to admit. ...

Every consignment store has one. The rack in the back corner that nobody opens. The shelf of items that arrived with such promise six months ago and have been collecting dust ever since. The pile of things you keep meaning to mark down, return, or do something with, but somehow never get around to. In reseller communities, it’s called the deathpile — inventory that sits so long it becomes a liability instead of an asset. It costs you floor space, it frustrates your consignors, and the longer it sits, the less it’s worth. ...

Running a consignment store on a single channel was manageable. Running one across Shopify, eBay, and Whatnot simultaneously — while tracking whose item it is, what the split is, and whether it’s sold anywhere — is a different beast entirely. And yet that’s exactly where the Australian luxury resale market is heading. Buyers are everywhere. The stores that aren’t where their buyers are will lose sales to the ones that are. The question isn’t whether to expand to multiple marketplaces. It’s how to do it without your backend collapsing under the weight. ...

A $6,000 Hermès Birkin sitting in your store has two types of potential buyers. The first can pay in full today. The second loves it, wants it, and will absolutely buy it — but needs eight weeks to pull together the funds. Without a laybuy option, you only sell to the first type. With one, you sell to both. For luxury consignment stores in Australia, laybuy isn’t a fringe payment option. It’s a mainstream expectation — particularly at the $2,000 to $15,000 price points that define the high end of the market. The stores that manage it well consistently report higher average order values, lower browse-to-buy friction on premium pieces, and stronger consignor relationships. The ones that manage it manually report headaches. ...

Running a consignment store without proper software is like running a restaurant without a kitchen — you can do it, but it is going to be messy, slow, and you will lose money. Here is what you actually need, what is available for the Australian market, and how to choose. What Consignment Software Has to Do At minimum, your software needs to handle: Consignor management — Track who consigned what, their commission split, and contact details Inventory tracking — Know what is in stock, what has sold, and what is ageing Payout calculation — Calculate commissions, generate payout reports, and track what you owe consignors Pricing — Set and adjust prices based on age, demand, and market data Multi-marketplace listing — Push items to eBay, Shopify, and other platforms Reporting — BAS/GST reporting, sales analytics, consignor performance If your current setup (probably a spreadsheet) does not do all six, you are leaving money on the table. ...