Hey Wolfgang,
Aria here, I’m on the Social Care team at Shopify. ?
The easiest way to set up a consignment store would be to use a marketplace app. We have the following options in our app store:
- Multi Vendor Marketplace
- Multi-vendor marketplace by Marketcube.io
- Multi Seller Marketplace by Shopiapps
Each one works differently but the potential is there to automatically pay ‘commission’ to your consigner’s. You could also let them set up an account to make it easier for them when they return.
I don’t have any personal experience of running a consignment store but I would imagine one of the toughest parts of an online consignment store is dealing with shipping. Your consigner would be paying to ship the items to you and then you’d ship it to your customer, or possibly back to the consigner if it doesn’t sell. Often the stores that work the best only accept local consigners to cut down on shipping costs.
I would check directly with the app developers with regards to how the commission is paid out. I believe they use Paypal for that but they may not all be the same.
I don’t believe you’d need any external apps for any of this. If you do find there’s an important function you can’t find a solution for, please let us know so we can help you with that.
I hope you get some merchants weighing in who have some experience in this department. Let me know how you get on.
We’re always here for support if you need it!
Aria
Social Care Guru
Shopify