Kiri Gorter has run Use-Ta!, a preloved maternity, baby and kids clothing store in Melbourne, since 2014. Today the business spans two stores in Thornbury and Brunswick, a Shopify online shop and a team of 12, processing thousands of items on consignment. In this story you will learn what a decade of kids consignment taught the team about pricing, processing speed and consignor policies — and why the software behind the counter decides whether a children's resale store is profitable or not.

Source: Kiri Gorter - Instagram of @Use-Ta!

1. From cleaning houses to Melbourne's best-known preloved children's wear store

Use-Ta! started with an observation without a business plan. Kiri was a house cleaner when her first son was born. In home after home she saw the same thing: mountains of outgrown baby clothes, too good to throw out, too time-consuming to sell one by one. 

Parents wanted their kids' old clothes to find new homes. They just didn't have the time to make it happen. The idea of Use-Ta! was born. 

In November 2014 Kiri opened Use-Ta! - Parents book a drop-off, bring in their outgrown clothes and the store takes care of the rest: sorting, pricing, photographing, selling and paying out.

A decade later, Use-Ta! has sold hundreds of thousands of items across two stores plus an established online resale brand that ships Australia-wide. The range covers baby, toddler and kids clothing, plus maternity and nursing wear, from everyday brands to Australian labels like Purebaby, Gorman and Wilson & Frenchy.

It quickly turned into an operational business: Keep stock organized so slow movers get flagged and marked down fast, freeing up space for what actually sells. When nappy bags kept selling out, that was the signal to expand into maternity wear. Data over gut feeling, even in a store full of tiny knitwear.

2. The operational challenge of running two children’s consignment stores

Growth brought a challenge familiar to many children’s resale stores: lower priced items require almost the same amount of work as high-value ones. A $20 jumper typically goes through the same process as a $300 designer item:

1. Intake

2. Sorting

3. Pricing

4. Tagging

5. Photography

6. Listing

7. Selling

8. Consignor payout

Source: Google Maps entry of Use-Ta!

For years, Use-Ta! operated on ConsignCloud. The system worked well, but as the business expanded to two stores and a growing online operation, small inefficiencies became more noticeable. Discounts did not sync smoothly between systems, pricing workflows required more manual work than the team wanted, things added up. 

The business began looking for software designed for a high-volume, multi-location consignment operation. That search led them to Circle-Hand.

3. A workflow shaped by 10 years in kids consignment resale 

After more than a decade in children’s resale, Use-Ta! knew exactly how it wanted the business to operate. Rather than evaluating software feature by feature, the team focused on whether a platform could support the workflow they had already proven at scale.

Step 1: Appointment booking and consignor onboarding
- Consignors book a 15-minute drop-off appointment through the website.
- Register through the client portal.
- Sign the store's terms and conditions digitally
- Each appointment is limited to 50 items.
- No-show policy: after two missed appointments, future bookings are blocked.

Step 2: In-store drop-off and item review
- When consignors arrive items are reviewed and sorted immediately.
- Unsuitable items are returned on the spot.
- Accepted items move into processing.
- Most accepted items are processed within 48 hours. 

Step 3: Pricing
- Items are priced at 30–40% of their original retail value.
- Circle-Hand provides price suggestions and marketplace comparisons
- The pricing algorithm considers: Historical sales performance, Brand, Condition, Current customer demand
- Once pricing is complete, consignors receive an email with approved items, SKUs and selling prices.

Step 4: The item lifecycle
- Each item is listed on consignment for 56 days.
- Consignors receive 35% of the final sale price, minus a $0.95 processing fee per item.
- Items are sold at full price during the first six weeks.
- Unsold items enter a discounted sale period during the final 2 weeks.
- Consignors can choose cash payment or store credit (+10% bonus)
- Unsold items become store property and donated through charity partners.

Source: Instagram of @Use-Ta!

4. Why Use-Ta! switched to Circle-Hand

By the time Use-Ta! evaluated new software, the team was not looking for more features. They were looking for ways to support and accelerate an established workflow.

Circle-Hand provided tools that reduced manual work throughout the process, including:

• Client self-registration and digital signatures

• AI-assisted item entry from photos

• Automatic background removal

• Pricing suggestions based on historical sales data

• Real-time consignor communication through the consignor portal

Circle-Hand supports parallel processing. Multiple team members can intake items simultaneously on different devices, while the system automatically manages unique barcodes and listings. An essential for high volume consignment businesses. 

Switching systems should not disrupt your operations

Changing software is often the most intimidating part of modernising a resale business.

Use-Ta! approached the transition methodically. The team completed training, selected a quieter trading day and imported their data into the new system.

The results highlight the scale of a well-run children’s consignment operation.

Within the first three months of using Circle-Hand, Use-Ta! processed more than 20,000 items. Today, the business manages over 5,000 consignors and sellers, making it one of Melbourne’s largest children’s consignment stores.