Circle Hand for Consignment

The pros:
There are some great features, such as payout requests for consignors and a decent consignor portal - to be fair, consignors seem to really like it.

The cons:

- The AI descriptions are incredibly slow and patchy- there are some items that the software refuses to learn, such as baby jumpsuits (which we process hundreds of every week) and differentiating between jeans and other pants (among many others).

- The Photoroom background removal is very expensive compared to using Photoroom as a standalone. Even worse- staff can re-up the limit without so much as a password, leading to unexpected charges for hundreds of dollars randomly being charged to my credit card. Even after begging the team to remove the feature, or at least password protect it, they will not - which is pretty unethical if you ask me.

- Circle‑Hand has caused repeated oversold items and duplicate sales in my two‑location store, and isn't a reliable source of truth for multi‑location inventory. Despite being marketed as Shopify‑native, there are no effective safeguards (for example, +1 and −1 stock across locations still allows online sales), and I’ve spent significant time manually fixing errors and disappointed lots of customers.

- There is no community support. In my efforts to resolve some of the problems we were having, I reached out to the stores featured on their Instagram - some of these stores don't even sell online and had NEVER EVEN HEARD OF CIRCLE-HAND, awkward!

- Support has been inconsistent, impolite and often evasive: direct questions about what is synced, how, and when, as well as requests for documentation or for other multi‑location users, have not been clearly answered. Suggested “solutions” depend on perfect staff behaviour and manual workarounds rather than robust automation.

In conclusion:

Circle‑Hand might be great for simpler setups, but multi‑location sellers should be aware of the risk of overselling and the limited safeguards and support. I am considering going back to ConsignCloud (which is a little outdated, but was a lot more reliable), or finding a new option altogether. Unfortunately, having spent several months updating our processes and training staff, simply switching back just isn't that easy.

Fingers crossed they make the required improvements so I can avoid changing software again.

Circle-Hand has been a godsend for our company. Not only does it help us seamlessly enter new inventory [we're a brick and mortar thrift store that also cross-posts online], but it also provides barcodes that communicate directly with Shopify to make all modes of sales simple. The software is very customizable. For example, we don't list brands or include photos for items expected to be sold directly in our shop. We have most of the attributes turned off so that entering new items can be done quickly as we're entering 100s of items daily, each typically unique. We have our inventory screen honed down to one page that doesn't require scrolling to complete. When we are entering a batch of 'boutique' items that will be cross-posted, we toggle the other attributes back on. In addition, Circle-Hand's customer service is unmatched. Don't let the fact that they're based in Germany deter you. We're in Dallas, Texas. Max emails back in a very timely manner and can even remotely fix issues you're having when you're stumped. Software is super user friendly. 10/10 recommend.

We sell online and in store and do a mix of direct purchase, consignment and new goods. Circle Hand helps us manage all of that with an easy to use interface and integrates seamlessly with Shopify. Best of all, Max is always looking for feedback and constantly making improvements. It's really made a difference for our small business! Highly recommend!