TurnGoods

tl;dr: Starting a consignment business in Australia takes 4–6 weeks: register an ABN, choose your niche, set commission rates (50/50 standard), find consignors through social media and local networks, track everything in consignment software, and sort out GST and TPAR compliance from day one. Most new consignment stores start from home or a small retail space with under $2,000 in upfront costs beyond software and shelving. Last updated: June 2026 ...

If you’re listing the same item across multiple platforms, the difference in fees can cost you hundreds of dollars a month. A $500 handbag will net you $432 on Vinted but only $415 on Depop. A $2,000 watch varies by more than $100 depending on where you list it. Most AU resellers check their main platform’s fee structure once, then never revisit it. That’s a mistake. Here’s exactly what each marketplace charges — and how to compare them in seconds before you decide where to list. ...

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. ...

Every multi-marketplace seller has had the moment. You listed a rare jacket on eBay, Depop, and Gumtree. It sold on Depop at 11pm. By the time you checked your phone in the morning, it had also sold on eBay. Now you have two buyers, one item, and a cancellation to manage. That’s not a minor inconvenience — it’s a damaged seller rating, a refund, a wasted postage label, and a buyer who might never come back. Multiply it across 50 active listings on 4 platforms and it becomes a permanent source of anxiety. ...

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 resale business in Australia hits the same wall. You start because you love the hunt — finding great items, listing them, selling them. Simple. Then it’s not simple. You’re managing 100 items and can’t remember what’s listed where. You’re jumping between eBay, Gumtree, and Facebook Marketplace with sticky notes on your monitor. Consignment sounded like a great way to get more stock without buying it, but now you’re tracking payouts in a spreadsheet that’s lying to you. ...

Every second software product claims to have AI these days. A spreadsheet with a random number generator could call itself “AI-powered” and nobody would blink. Consignment store owners are right to be sceptical. You’ve been pricing items by hand for years — checking eBay, tweaking based on what moves, building intuition about your local market. Can a computer really do better? Short answer: yes, in specific and measurable ways. Here’s the honest version of how it works, where it helps, and where it still needs a human eye. ...

If you’re listing consignment stock manually, you already know it’s slow. The question is how slow — and whether the difference actually matters for your bottom line. Let’s run the numbers side by side. The Manual Workflow — Minute by Minute Every item that comes through your door follows the same path. Here’s what the manual version looks like for a typical consignment store listing one handbag across two marketplaces. ...

Pricing secondhand items has always been more art than science. You look at an item, think about what you paid, check a few eBay listings, and pick a number that feels right. Sometimes you nail it. Sometimes you leave money on the table. And sometimes the item sits for weeks because you priced it too high. AI pricing is changing that. Instead of gut feel and a handful of eBay searches, you get a recommendation based on thousands of actual sales — adjusted for condition, seasonality, and marketplace fees. ...