Reruns Consignment Thrives with New Intake and Sales Strategies

At 14 years old, Reruns The Consignment Store in small-town Illinois just had its best sales day ever: an 80%-off clearance event that brought in $3,400 in only five hours. How did owner Jacque Holder achieve this milestone, even as rising costs squeezed her margins? It took a mix of community spirit, process overhauls, and leveraging modern consignment software. In an industry that’s booming – the U.S. secondhand apparel market grew 11% to $43 billion last year (seven times faster than broader retail). Jacque shows how a forward-thinking consignment shop can turn challenges into record-breaking success. Jacque candidly shared how she built her store from scratch, the mistakes she learned from, and the game-changing strategies (like same-day processing and strategic sales) that revitalized her business. Below, we distill her journey into actionable insights for consignment store owners and prospective entrepreneurs.

Building a Local Resale Business from Scratch

Jacque didn’t start out in retail – in fact, she spent 21 years in data operations at a bank before a merger eliminated her job. After a brief break “playing mom,” she felt the itch to work again. Opening a consignment store began as a joking idea with her sister, but when an empty building opened up on Main Street, Jacque took the leap. She negotiated a lease-to-buy deal (not knowing if the concept would fly) and in 2008 opened Reruns The Consignment Store in her hometown. “It worked out… I bought [the building] the following January and I’ve had it ever since,” she says, still sounding a bit amazed at her intense beginning. Fourteen years on, Reruns has become a beloved community fixture, saving locals a 30-minute drive to the nearest city for what they need. Jacque’s pride is evident: providing a service that keeps dollars in the community and gives neighbors a convenient place to buy and sell quality used goods is deeply rewarding to her.

Setting Inventory-Quality Boundaries

In the beginning, Jacque was “too giving, too accepting” with consignors. “I let my consignors walk all over me,” she recalls. With a desire to please, she accepted items she shouldn’t have and bent her own policies. The result? Cluttered backrooms, sub-par merchandise slipping onto the floor, and a growing sense of frustration. Eventually, she realized the lack of clear boundaries was as much her fault as the consignors’. This was a turning point – she decided to tighten up her intake rules and communicate them firmly yet respectfully.

Jacque started by establishing clear quality standards for what the store would take. Consignment experts agree that maintaining high quality inventory is crucial for a store’s reputation and customer satisfaction. If an item had stains, holes, heavy wear, or an outdated style, she learned to say “no.” But just as importantly, she learned to do it politely and proactively educate consignors. Instead of posting a huge list of “Don’ts” on the wall (as she once did), Jacque now takes the time to explain why certain pieces can’t be accepted – pointing out the stain or damage, or noting an item is off-trend – and offers friendly suggestions for next time. This positive, teaching approach leaves consignors feeling respected rather than scolded. Industry advice echoes this strategy. Thanking consignors and encouraging them to try again with better items keeps them motivated to bring in great inventory.

Jacque’s shift from a rule-enforcer to a coach has paid off. Her consignors now bring in higher-quality items, saving everyone time. Jacque can attest to that: once consignors realized she would simply hand back anything with pet hair or smoke odor, many started pre-sorting at home. “The drop-offs have gotten better,” Jacque says – folks now clean, fold, and present merchandise nicely, because they know anything unsellable will be returned to them anyway.

She also set some reasonable limits: for example, consignors may bring up to 25 items per visit (ensuring the staff isn’t overwhelmed processing one huge batch). Such limits are common in consignment to balance supply and demand. The key is consistency and communicating the rules upfront. Jacque posts a simple “How to Prep Your Items” sign by the drop-off counter and personally walks new consignors through the process. By “setting expectations in advance” and being upfront about her standards, she has dramatically reduced misunderstandings and rejections.

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to enforce quality standards—in fact, your success depends on it. But enforce them with a smile and a helping hand. Jacque’s advice is to ditch the negative “DON’T do this” signs and instead kindly teach consignors what you do and don’t accept. Consignors know that items in Reruns will be top-notch, which attracts more shoppers in the long run.

If you're looking for more tips on retaining consignors, check out this article.

Adapting to Rising Personnel Costs with Efficiency and Training

As the years went by, external pressures mounted. In Illinois, the state minimum wage began climbing $1 each year, reaching $15/hour by 2023. “All of a sudden I need to pay all of my staff $1 an hour more,” Jacque notes – a hefty jump in a small business’s biggest expense. Despite healthy sales, her profits were shrinking due to higher payroll. She faced a hard reality many small retailers know too well: when costs increase, you either find new efficiencies or see your bottom line evaporate.

By mid-2022, she knew something had to give. “I was 13 years into it... I sure as heck should not be losing money,” she thought. “It’s time to either fix it or get rid of it.” Rather than quit, Jacque sought out fresh ideas. She invested in professional training by joining Sarah Marshall’s “Four Corners” consignment coaching group. This decision was itself a smart move – industry experts often stress the importance of continuous learning for small business owners. The result was “eye-opening,” Jacque says. The program introduced her to a suite of best practices and systems to modernize her store. Chief among them were: Same-Day Processing of inventory, Seasonal Sales Events to clear old stock, and a data-driven pricing strategy. These changes would radically improve her store’s efficiency and profitability.

Same-Day Processing to Reduce Backlogs

One of the first things Jacque tackled was the logjam in her back room. Under the old model, consignors would drop off bags of items and “drop and run.” The staff would get to them “as soon as we could,” which often meant days or weeks of backlog. Jacque would come in on Monday to shelves full of unprocessed inventory (sometimes 100+ batches representing thousands of items) and feel overwhelmingly behind. It wasn’t unusual for her to temporarily halt accepting new consignments for a week or two just to catch up – a move that frustrated consignors and stalled the inflow of fresh inventory.

No more. In October, Jacque switched to Same-Day Processing, a method she learned from the Four Corners coaching group. The concept is simple: only accept what you can process today, and process it today. Now, consignors still bring up to 25 items per visit, and they can come as often as they like – but each consignor waits in-store while their items are sorted and entered into inventory on the spot. If Jacque’s team can’t get through all items brought in a given hour, they stop intake when they hit their comfortable limit. The rest will have to come back another day. “We only accept what we can physically price during that day,” she explains. This ensures that by closing time, all accepted items are tagged, entered, and out on the sales floor – zero backlog for tomorrow.

What seemed like a radical change has yielded huge benefits. Here are some of the key advantages Jacque has seen from same-day processing:

• Constant Fresh Inventory: Items hit the sales floor immediately, instead of languishing in the back room for days. Regular shoppers notice new arrivals each time they visit, which encourages them to visit more often. Many consignment veterans suggest that faster inventory turnover leads to stronger sales. “We priced these plastic containers this morning, and in less than two hours they were sold and out the door,” Jacque recounts.
  
  

• Higher Sell-Through and Turnover: By eliminating “storage time” before an item is available for sale, Jacque has effectively increased her inventory turnover speed. This is crucial for consignment profitability. A backlog of unprocessed goods slows that rate. Now, items spend more time on the sales floor and less time in limbo, which naturally boosts the sell-through percentage.
  
  

• Consignor Engagement and Increased Foot Traffic: A pleasant side effect of the new process is that consignors stick around and often become shoppers. When someone comes in with a bin of clothes, Jacque’s team now asks them to browse the store for 5–10 minutes while they sort and enter the items. “We send them out on the sales floor… some of them still don’t shop no matter what you do, but some do,” Jacque laughs. The ones who do shop essentially become customers on the spot, boosting sales.
  
  

• Immediate Feedback and Happier Consignors: Because Jacque or her team reviews items with the consignor present, they can gently explain on the spot if something isn’t accepted (for instance, “this shirt has a small snag here, so we’ll pass on it”). Initially, Jacque worried people might be upset at not being able to just drop and run. But she found that consignors actually appreciate the transparency.
  
  

• Lower Stress and Better Staff Morale: Perhaps the biggest benefit Jacque felt was psychological. The mountain of unprocessed inventory was gone, and with it a huge weight off her shoulders. “It is so much less mental stress,” she says of life after same-day processing. No more dreading Monday mornings or feeling constantly “behind.” Her staff isn’t demoralized by an ever-growing backlog.

Jacque’s story illustrates how operational innovation can solve cost problems. By implementing same-day processing, she actually reduced the effective labor cost of intake–her team spends far fewer total hours dealing with each batch (no re-handling, storage, follow-up), so they accomplish more with the same or slightly more staffing. It also increased revenue (due to more items selling faster), helping offset the higher wages. This is exactly how experts suggest businesses handle rising minimum wages: increase productivity and efficiency rather than simply cutting staff.

And what about consignors who preferred the old “drop and go” model? Jacque admits a handful were resistant to change, but most adapted quickly. Her friendly coaching at the counter has actually strengthened consignor relationships. Many consignors now feel more connected to the store – they chat with the staff during those 10 minutes, maybe find something to buy, and leave feeling confident about what they brought. It’s turned consigning into more of an experience than a transaction.

Implementing a Pricing Guide

The next major challenge Jacque tackled was pricing. To streamline her process, Jacque developed a Pricing Guide that brings more rigor to the process. The idea was to categorize brands and item types into tiers with preset price ranges. For example, a Target or Walmart brand shirt might be “Category 1” with a range of say $3–$5, whereas an Anthropologie or high-end boutique brand shirt might be “Category 5” with a range of $22–$26. They researched dozens of brands and clothing types to slot everything into about five pricing tiers, plus a special Category 6 for truly exceptional items that require individual research. Within each category, they set a low, mid, and high price for each item type (tops, jeans, dresses, shoes, etc.), and guidelines for when to add or subtract a few dollars based on condition or desirability.

The concept isn’t far off from the classic “one-third rule” of consignment pricing – a common rule of thumb is to price items around 1/3 of their original retail value, then adjust up or down for factors like brand, condition, and age. Jacque’s guide essentially formalizes that: it uses original retail prices as a reference and compresses items into standardized brackets. Now her staff can price quickly and confidently by consulting the guide rather than hunting down each item online. This also ensures greater consistency. “I have three people who price, and it feels like it’s more consistent now,” Jacque says. It also helps train new employees in pricing.

Jacque’s pricing transformation was aided by her switch to ConsignCloud software as well. When Reruns moved from her old desktop system (ConsignPro) to ConsignCloud in August 2022, one new feature she gained was an automatic pricing suggestion tool. ConsignCloud’s item entry screen can display three suggested prices for an item based on data from across many consignment stores (it takes into account the item category and brand field). As Jacque populates the Brand field for each item, the software’s suggestions become more tailored.

In addition to base pricing, Jacque has embraced markdown schedules and sale pricing to make sure items sell within her 60-day window. Reruns uses a color tag system to track item ages – for instance, the newest items might have green tags, which aren’t discounted in the current clearance sale, whereas anything older than two months gets included in progressive markdown sales. ConsignCloud’s POS makes it easy to apply discounts to entire categories or tag colors during a sale. (More on that in the next section.) The key is that pricing isn’t a one-and-done decision – it’s an ongoing process. Jacque prices items to sell, and if they don’t sell after a month or two, the price drops automatically or via sale events. Jacque’s quarterly blowout sales perform this function in a big, exciting way. Check out how to use ConsignCloud's automatic, scheduled discounts.

Check out how to use ConsignCloud's automatic, scheduled discounts to start having promotions like Jacque's!

With solid intake and pricing practices now in place, Jacque saw her store’s performance improve within months – higher sell-through, more consistent cash flow, and fewer frustrations for all involved.

Promoting Huge Clear-Outs for Record Sales

Every consignment store faces the issue of what to do with items that don’t sell after a while. Jacque decided to hold periodic storewide sales events that not only clear out old stock, but also create excitement and draw in crowds. “I have started implementing… four big quarterly sales,” she explains – roughly one per season. These events are deliberately dramatic: deep discounts, short duration, and lots of promotion beforehand to build anticipation. They have effectively become community events for her town, where customers line up for bargains and the store buzzes with energy.

One format Jacque uses is a progressive multi-day sale. For example, she ran a Thursday–Saturday event where everything older than 60 days was 40% off on Thursday, 60% off on Friday, and 80% off on Saturday. Only the items tagged as new (under 60 days) remained full price (ensuring she’s not practically giving away current inventory). By the final day, nearly the entire store was 80% off, which drew a huge crowd of deal-hunters. “We had one tag color in the store that was regular price – everything else was 80% off,” Jacque says. The result? “I did $3,400 in sales in five hours [on Saturday].” That shattered her previous single-day record in 14 years of business. In those five hours, Reruns sold 830 items–an astonishing volume for a small shop. Jacque proudly reports that 620 of those items were the deeply discounted 80%-off ones. It was truly a clearance BONANZA: items that had been sitting for weeks found new homes, customers walked away thrilled with bargains, and consignors still earned their percentage on hundreds of sales that might not have happened otherwise.

Beyond the raw numbers, Jacque turned the sale into a fun experience. “We had a line of people waiting to check out,” she recalls. With her characteristic enthusiasm (and self-described “loud” personality), she made a point to announce each customer’s savings at the register for all to hear: “You saved $180 today!” she’d shout, before handing over the goods. “I wanted everybody in the store to know.” The excitement was infectious, and people didn’t seem to mind the wait. (Jacque’s team also served snacks and drinks to those in line, and generally made it a party atmosphere.)

You can use tags to organize, analyze, and apply price changes or discounts like Jacque did.

Jacque leverages her ConsignCloud POS heavily during these sales. For the percentage-off events, she uses the software’s Discounts feature to automatically apply the correct discount to each item at checkout (based on its tag color/age). ConsignCloud allows stores to set up flexible discount rules – e.g. “items with Tag Color X: 80% off” – which takes the manual calculation out of the equation. That reduces cashier errors and speeds up the line. In the heat of a busy sale, the last thing you want is to be doing math on each item or accidentally over/under-charging someone. Jacque was impressed that her sale receipts showed each customer’s total savings (a feature of ConsignCloud’s receipts), which made it easy for her to announce those fun stats. Overall, having a robust POS that handles discount rules, multiple sales tax adjustments, and real-time inventory updates was crucial to running these events smoothly.

Another clutch advantage of being on a cloud POS: when Jacque saw the massive line at her dollar sale, she quickly opened a second checkout station. With ConsignCloud, any device (laptop, iPad, etc.) with service (internet or data) can become a register, accessing the same live inventory and sales data. She simply set up a second computer behind the counter and had a staff member start ringing transactions in parallel. “I had one of my girls at a table right behind me processing sales just as fast as I was,” Jacque says.

Embracing Cloud Technology

We’ve touched on it throughout, but it’s worth focusing on Jacque’s transition to ConsignCloud and how technology enables all these improvements. After 13 years on an separate desktop software, Jacque chose ConsignCloud for her store’s next chapter and she hasn’t looked back. “We can’t function without it,” she says flatly. Here are some of the ways moving to a cloud-based consignment POS has benefited Reruns:

• Remote, Real-Time Access: With ConsignCloud, Jacque can log in from anywhere – at home, on vacation, even on her phone. This was impossible with her legacy system tied to a back-office computer. Now, if a staffer calls with an issue, Jacque can instantly pull up the live sale or inventory record to assist. “When my crew has a problem, I can get into the sale and see what’s happening to help them fix it,” she explains. If a customer messages the store’s Facebook page asking about a specific item, Jacque can search the inventory from her couch in seconds and respond accurately.
  
  

• Multi-Device Usage and Quick Scaling: As illustrated during the big sale, a cloud POS that multiple devices can use simultaneously gave Reruns greater throughput when it counted most. Jacque has a dedicated register computer in the store, but during events she can add an iPad or second laptop to split the line – all transactions sync instantly to a single database. There’s no cumbersome server or local network needed; just an internet connection. Modern cloud systems are designed for this kind of easy scalability and access for multiple users.
  
  

Jacque Holder’s story is one of resilience and adaptation. She took a mid-life career setback and turned it into a community-oriented business that has now thrived for over a decade. Along the way, she learned that saying “yes” to everything isn’t always good business – sometimes you have to say “no” (to low-quality items, to inefficient processes, to old habits) in order to grow. By setting higher standards and clearer boundaries, she improved her inventory and relationships rather than hurting them. By seeking out training and new ideas 13 years in, she proved it’s never too late to change course and improve. And by embracing a powerful tool like ConsignCloud, she equipped herself to work smarter, not harder.

For prospective consignment store owners or those looking to rejuvenate an existing store, Jacque’s experience offers several key takeaways:

• Invest in Efficient Processes: Time really is money in the consignment world. Eliminate backlogs and idle inventory. Aim to turn items around quickly – from intake to floor to sale – which keeps inventory fresh and customers engaged. Rethink any workflow that causes delay or clutter. Jacque’s shift to same-day processing and periodic clearance sales dramatically increased her inventory turns and sales volume, all by optimizing the flow of goods through her store.
  
  

• Maintain Quality & Teach Your Consignors: The cliché “quality over quantity” holds true. It’s better to have slightly fewer items in stock that are clean, current, and appealing, than a store jammed with stuff that won’t move. Set clear quality guidelines and kindly enforce them. When you educate consignors on what sells (and what doesn’t), you’re doing both of you a favor in the long run. High-quality inventory draws in repeat customers and builds your reputation.
  
  

• Use Data and Set Rules for Pricing: Don’t wing it on pricing every time. Whether it’s the one-third rule or a custom tiered guide, have a system that anyone on your team can follow for consistency. Leverage software tools for price suggestions or automated markdowns to take the mental load off. Remember that a slightly lower price today (that leads to a sale) is far better than no sale for weeks – price to sell within a reasonable timeframe. As one guide put it, focus on a formula for pricing and eventually you’ll be able to glance at an item and know what it should be.
  
  

• Leverage Technology (Especially Cloud POS): The right consignment software is like an extra employee (a very detail-oriented one!) that handles tracking, math, and grunt work for you. Features like remote access, real-time inventory, automatic discounts, and integrated reporting can save you countless hours and prevent errors. Cloud-based systems in particular offer flexibility, scalability, and peace of mind with off-site data backup.

  
  

• Engage Your Community and Have Fun: One of the joys of consignment retail is that it’s inherently community-driven – your inventory comes from your neighbors, and your customers are often the same people. Embrace that! Turn your store into a place where people feel welcomed and excited to visit. Jacque’s high-energy sales events and personal rapport with customers and consignors create an atmosphere that e-commerce can’t match.

Jacque’s journey shows that with the right mindset and tools, consignment stores can thrive even in challenging times. Her store’s story – from a backroom full of trash bags to a streamlined, celebratory resale experience – is truly an inspiration. If you’re looking to write your own consignment success story, take a page from Jacque: work smart, embrace change, and never lose sight of the people at the heart of it all – your consignors, your customers, and your community. Start a trial with ConsignCloud today!