A Settlement Record Service Idea for Consignment Clothing Stores

Some transactions require contract terms to be recorded in detail

Clothing consignment has two distinct models. When a brand headquarters places goods with an agency store, the headquarters pays the store a sales commission. When an individual leaves clothing with a vintage store, the store deducts its commission and sends the remaining money to the individual.

Korea’s Agency Transactions Act includes transactions in which goods are repeatedly consigned for sale under an ongoing contract. The contract items published in the law include the commission paid for consignment sales. Each contract should therefore record who receives the commission and which sales amount is used to calculate it.

In the Korea Fair Trade Commission’s 2018 survey, there were 10,158 clothing agency stores, and 91.2% dealt with only one headquarters. The survey does not cover vintage stores that accept clothing from individuals, but it shows the scale at which contract terms can matter in clothing consignment transactions. This is also why the Korea Fair Trade Commission, Korea’s competition regulator, expanded the standard contract for clothing consignment sales from 21 articles and 50 items to 24 articles and 69 items, strengthening terms such as contract periods and return conditions.

Korea’s Enforcement Decree of the Value-Added Tax Act separately sets out how tax invoices are issued in transactions involving a consignor and consignee. It cannot be assumed that the same method applies unchanged when a store receives used clothing from individual consignors. The actual issuer and VAT treatment should be checked with a tax agent after showing them the business model and contract.

Some private businesses publicly disclose tiered commission and price-reduction terms. For clothing and shoes accepted by GUGUS from March 23, 2026, its published commission is KRW 50,000 for items priced at KRW 150,000 or less, 19.8% for items above KRW 150,000 and up to KRW 1 million, and 13.8% for items above KRW 1 million. This idea is not a grant programme with a fixed deadline. It is based on the assumption that current requirements for contract and tax records remain in place and that small stores handle them directly.

Following a vintage store with three staff members

Consider a store with three staff members managing 800 garments from 120 consignors. When receiving clothing, the owner writes down a name and phone number on paper, takes photos, then re-enters the item number, sale price, commission rate, and collection date into Google Sheets.

Whether a price can be reduced is recorded in text-message conversations. One consignor agrees to a 10% reduction after a month, while another wants to be contacted for every price change. That difference depends on the staff member’s memory.

When clothing sells, staff check the sale record in the store’s payment system and find the matching item in the spreadsheet. They check whether the return window for an online order has ended, whether it was a store sale, and who bears any coupon discount, then mark it as sold.

At month-end, they collect each consignor’s sales amount, deduct the commission, and transfer the balance. If an item number is entered incorrectly or returned clothing remains marked as sold, the settlement amount will be wrong and the owner has to review bank records, sales records, and text messages again.

A lightweight settlement-record service changes the flow from intake. Each garment receives a barcode. Its sale price, commission, discount consent, and consignment end date are stored on one terms card. When terms change, the service also records who changed them and when.

When staff scan the barcode at sale, the expected payment to the relevant consignor is calculated automatically. If the service separately shows only items still within a return window, items missing commission terms, and items whose sales records differ from payment amounts, staff need to review only a few problem cases rather than the whole ledger.

At an address received by text message, consignors can see statuses including sold, awaiting settlement, payment completed, and return being prepared. People must still handle condition assessments, authenticity checks, agreement on an appropriate sale price, disputes over responsibility for loss, and tax treatment.

Overseas stores open their ledgers to consignors

Consignloop, which began at The Village Collective in Canning, Nova Scotia, Canada, is a sales and settlement programme for independent consignment stores. It stores each item’s commission rate and consignment end date, and lets consignors check sales status and balances directly.

Its USD 29 monthly product manages up to 150 active consignors. Its USD 59 product removes the consignor limit and provides a consignor-facing screen and self-service intake. The operator says it manages more than 300 consignors and more than 6,000 items at its own store, but its reported time-saving benefits are self-reported by the operator and store owner and need separate verification.

Home Ec. Market, a US clothing consignment store, uses ConsignCloud’s consignor-facing screen. Consignors can check items for sale, prices, sold items, and money due to them. The store’s contract provides for items to be sold for 90 days and collected within 10 days after the end of that period.

The store says it reduces prices by 15% after 40 days and by a further 20% after 60 days. Items not collected by the deadline may be discounted or donated. Its software can record items separately as “return being prepared” and “returned to owner,” and can send collection notifications. This connects return promises to actual store actions.

Four things that can be built now

1. Intake terms card

• What the service does: When receiving clothing, it stores the sale price, commission, discount authority, consignment period, and treatment of unsold items on one card, then obtains the consignor’s confirmation.
• Who uses it: A store with two staff members that receives vintage clothing from 30 to 100 individuals each month.
• Why now: Agency transactions and some consignment businesses’ public policies define contract and return terms in detail, while small stores may still keep those records across paper and text messages.
• First screen: Alongside items received today, it prominently shows “terms confirmed,” “awaiting consignor confirmation,” and “no return terms.”

2. Sales and transfer matching tool

• What the service does: When store sales records are uploaded, it applies item-level commissions and responsibility for discounts, calculates expected transfers by consignor, and finds only the records with discrepancies.
• Who uses it: A small curated store selling the same consigned items through both an offline store and an online shop.
• Why now: When actual sale prices, return timing, fixed commissions, and percentage commissions are mixed, settlement cannot be done simply by subtracting a percentage from the sale price.
• First screen: It starts with actions to handle immediately, such as “18 sales today, 15 amounts matched, 3 sales to review.”

3. Unsold-item collection calendar

• What the service does: It groups items approaching the end of consignment, obtains consent for price reductions or schedules collection dates, and records the actual return.
• Who uses it: A store that accepts coats, boots, and occasion clothing that become harder to sell after the season, in 60- to 90-day consignments.
• Why now: Public operating policies in Korea and abroad specify automatic price reductions and collection deadlines, so missed notifications can lead to money disputes.
• First screen: It shows “23 garments ending within 7 days,” “8 awaiting price decisions,” and “5 items to collect today.”

4. Consignor sales-confirmation screen

• What the service does: It lets consignors check their item status, sale price, expected settlement amount, and payment date on a phone without asking staff.
• Who uses it: A neighbourhood second-hand clothing store with many repeat consignors that answers daily text messages about whether an item sold and when payment will arrive.
• Why now: This is already a basic feature in software for overseas stores, but Korean small stores may not adopt it because replacing their whole sales system is burdensome.
• First screen: For each item, it shows “for sale,” “return window,” “settlement expected,” and “payment completed,” with an enquiry button only for items with an issue.

Why this matters where you are

Korea’s agency-transaction rules, VAT invoice rules, and the publicly disclosed policies of some consignment businesses are Korean conditions, so they may not transfer directly to another market. You can check whether local consignment stores also split records across paper, messages, payment systems, and spreadsheets, and whether their contracts define commissions, discounts, returns, and collection deadlines. If they do, a matching tool for sales and payments may be a narrower starting point than replacing a store’s entire management system.

What to check today

Find three clothing consignment stores on a map and call them. Ask only: “What did you use to calculate each consignor’s transfer amount last month, and did you have any cases that needed to be reconciled again?” If two of the three use spreadsheets, handwritten records, and text messages together, and have rechecked a settlement within the past three months, it may be worth narrowing the first product to a sales and transfer matching tool.