Overview

ConsignCloud and Ricochet are two of the highest-rated resale/consignment softwares available. Both have POS systems for making sales as well as powerful features enabling resale and consignment stores to manage consignors, inventory, payouts, and e-commerce. Throughout this comparison, we highlight the most economical option for stores. You can also check out our comparison of SimpleConsign and ConsignCloud here.

Pricing

Ricochet has a single base price in addition to an e-commerce subscription fee. This means that many of Ricochet's features come at the basic price of $159/month, but if a store wants to include an e-commerce website, the cost goes up to $238/month. Compared to some other resale and consignment software, Ricochet is an affordable option for many stores. If a store has multiple locations, there is an additional, $129/month subscription fee.

ConsignCloud, on the other hand, has a pricing structure that is determined by the number of add-ons a store wants (add-ons are a set of powerful features). The disadvantage of this pricing structure is that it requires stores to pick and choose the add-ons they want, which is not as straightforward as Ricochet's fixed base tier and e-commerce fee. The advantage is that a store chooses which add-ons they want and does not have to pay for features they do not want. The amount of add-ons determines which pricing tier your store falls under. For most stores' needs, ConsignCloud is the most affordable option available.

Credit Card Processing

Ricochet has two credit card processing options: integrated and non-integrated.

Integrated: Ricochet offers in-house credit card processing called Ricochet Pay which is capable of receiving most or almost all payment types, advertises low rates, and can be used away from the store.

Non-integrated: if a store wants to keep a previous credit card processor, they are able to keep that processor, but will need to manually record the sale in the processor.

ConsignCloud does not differ from Ricochet and offers both integrated and non-integrated credit card processing.

Integrated: ConsignCloud partners with Gravity Payments which is capable of receiving most all payment types, advertises low rates, can receive next-day funds, and can be used away from the store.

Non-integrated: if a store wants to keep a previous credit card processor, they are able to keep that processor, but will need to manually record the sale in the processor.

Features and Integrations

ConsignCloud and Ricochet share many basic features with slight differences, but here we'll note where the software differ; the most notable difference is pricing between the two software and we will highlight the more economical option for each feature, and where each software is lacking a feature or integration.

Accounts and Consignor Management Features

Both ConsignCloud and Ricochet offer consignment management tools that enable resale store owners to track consignor account balances, consignor inventory, sort through consignor data, and allow consignors to see their own inventory and account balance.

Ricochet gives store owners control over the essentials of consignor management. Consignors are able to access a portal to view their inventory and, when enabled, add and edit items as vendors. This feature is especially useful for consignment malls that have multiple vendors, as the vendor can enter their own items and item details.

ConsignCloud offers more advanced filtering features, allowing stores to find and edit groups of consignors with ease; additionally, ConsignCloud offers automated emails as an additional way of communicating with consignors. ConsignCloud also has a consignor portal, allowing consignors to see their balances, items active and sold, as well as payout history. Lastly, ConsignCloud also allows vendors to enter their own items and item details. Both the consignor portal and vendor item entry are available as add-ons.

Integrations

Time management, cost, and simplification are important to running a consignment store. Integrations are one of the main ways stores can save time and simplify their workflows.

Ricochet's many integrations make it easy to connect services like Quickbooks, MailChimp, and more. While many small businesses may not be interested in these additional softwares, stores that want to use them will save time and effort with the integration capabilities of Ricochet. While most of the integrations come at Ricochet's Basic price of $159/month, Shopify and Square have an additional $77/month subscription cost for a total $238/month cost.

ConsignCloud's Square and Shopify integrations mean you can utilize the powerful features of Shopify and Square when you need them. Additionally, NearSt is an integration that allows your in-store products to show up on Google and Facebook, allowing them to preview your inventory, and driving traffic to your store and your store website. ConsignCloud's integrations are all counted as add-ons, which could move a store's monthly subscription to the $149/month or $179/month spending tier.

Inventory Management Features

Ricochet offers a simple inventory entry workflow. It also allows for bulk item editing for a limited number of categories and importing items via a spreadsheet. Ricochet also has a good system for items with variants. While pictures can be added, they cannot be taken by the local device's camera but must be uploaded as a file.

ConsignCloud enables stores to enter items one at a time or enter using autosaving batches so stores can create multi-step intake processes (like one employee entering the items and another employee pricing the items). Additionally, ConsignCloud gives stores the ability to bulk edit inventory at just about any level. Taking pictures of inventory can conveniently be done upon item entry using a computer camera or phone.

Point of Sale Features

Ricochet's point of sale (POS) is easy to use. It can easily pause/park sales, handle the layaway process, and can use consignor credit, reward credit, or store credit by customers for purchasing. Automatically applying discounts and manual discounting are available and flexible.

ConsignCloud's POS is also capable of handling manual discounting and automatically applied discounting for categories/tag colors/schedules and adjusting the price of items at the sale screen. While layaway is possible by parking and unparking sales, it is not as smooth as the Ricochet POS.

Reporting Features

Ricochet's reporting features have an easy-to-use interface and allow store owners to view essential reports. Most small businesses will be satisfied with the reporting features provided by Ricochet, but because of the lack of advanced report customization, it cannot be considered to have advanced inventory insights.

ConsignCloud provides an impressively detailed reporting list, whether profits summaries, inventory reports, or sales reports, etc. ConsignCloud also offers advanced inventory insights in two ways: 1. Our Data Explorer, which is a very powerful but somewhat challenging tool to navigate; it can provide data on just about any imaginable convergence of data points. 2. Our Inventory Insights reports views aspects (or fields) like performance by brand, category, consignor, etc. Both of these are part of the Advanced Insights add-on.

Consignor Payout Features

Ricochet's payout features will allow stores to easily payout their consignors and have a record of those payouts. Stores can pay out consignors individually or in bulk and can edit the date range of the payout. Payout options include check printing and Ricochet ACH, their direct deposit option at the cost of $2.00 per payout.

ConsignCloud likewise can pay consignors with ease, see those payout histories, and perform check printing and direct deposit. Since ConsignCloud partners with Checkbook.io to enable direct deposit, stores are charged $1.79 per payout. While this can add up quickly, many stores have passed the $1.79 onto their consignors by charging a "direct deposit" fee.

Printing Features

Ricochet gives stores the ability to print labels and receipts. While they are not able to provide custom designs to their labels, stores can add their logo and custom messaging to receipts.

ConsignCloud allows stores to customize the information and some small design features on both their labels and receipts, including the addition of logos, color, font, alignment, custom messages, and other designs. Cloud printing is available at the base cost of $119/month.

In Summary

ConsignCloud and Ricochet are both highly rated softwares that are great solutions for resale and consignment stores, and both will provide stores with the essentials they need for running a successful store. While both software offer terrific features for affordable prices (like consignor portals, discounting rules and schedules,

Ricochet has a great selection of integrations for stores that want to utilize other services like Quickbooks, MailChimp, ShipStation, and more. These will help stores save time by cutting down on manually connecting software.

ConsignCloud's powerful account and inventory tables allows for