5 Best POS Systems for Consignment Stores in 2023

To use the POS system, you need a Shopify plan. Plans run from $39 to $399 per month, with discounts in payment processing and shipping that get better with the higher plans. A three-day free trial is also available.

If you are OK with logging consignors as vendors, then this is the cheapest option after Square. If you need special consignment tools, such as account credit and a consignor portal, then you need to add third-party apps, which may come with their own monthly fees. Shopify does have a vendor portal, however.

Shopify’s transaction pricing is competitive, especially for in-person sales. It does not have a flat fee but charges a straight percentage of the sales amount. This is to your advantage if you primarily do small ticket sales.

* Shopify collects sales taxes in certain states where it is required by law. The prices stated here do not reflect such taxes.

Apart from the option to pay monthly, Shopify also offers a 10% discount on one-year plans and a 20% discount on two-year plans (lump-sum payment).

Shopify POS works on Android or iOS and can be used on smartphones or tablets. (Source: Shopify)

• Integrated POS: Shopify’s POS system integrates fully with the online store; whether you sell an item in person or online, it’ll be accounted for in inventory and sales reports. The POS is customizable, with shortcuts and saved carts as well. Shopify makes our list of the top POS systems along with Square.
• Online sales: In addition to being able to create an online store easily, you can make sales online and have customers pick up items in person. This POS system also lets you sell on social media sites via solid integrations with Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Shopify is our No. 1 recommendation for ecommerce platforms.
• Inventory management: Shopify has excellent inventory features, including low stock alerts and variants, purchase orders (POs), and even the ability to forecast product demands.
• Hardware: Shopify works on tablets, but offers hardware systems that include stands, cash drawers, card readers, and more. You can even rent individual devices or hardware bundles for a few days, such as for a fair or community event. Hardware rentals start at $9 per day, and Shopify alone offers this capability.
• Mobile app: Like Square, Shopify has a full-featured mobile app that lets you take your sales anywhere. It earned a 3.5 out of 5 on Android and a 4.5 out of 5 on iOS.

At its most basic, Square only charges you for transaction fees; there are no monthly software fees to worry about, as you’ll get the POS system and the online store for free. This makes it the cheapest of the consignment store POS systems on our list. However, as you grow, you may want to add more features, like loyalty or payroll tools:

• Square for Retail (baseline plan): Free
• Square for Retail Plus: $60 per month, per location―adds vendor management, automatic inventory tracking, inventory counting, and purchase orders
• Ecommerce: $0–$79 per month
• Square POS Payment Processing Fees:
  • In person: 2.6% + 10 cents
  • Online: 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction
  • Keyed-in payments: 3.5% + 15 cents per transaction
  • Volume discounts: Square will create custom packages (software pricing and processing rates) for businesses processing more than $250,000 per year.
• Square additional services:
  • Marketing: Starts at $15 per month for up to 500 customer contacts
  • Loyalty program: Starts at $45 per month, per location, for up to 500 loyal visits
  • Payroll: $35 per month, plus $6 per employee
  • Team management: $0–$35 per month, per location

Square’s register is clean and easy to use. (Source: Square)

• POS system: Square’s POS system is very easy to use and, unlike many POS systems, lets you take credit card payments even if offline. It processes them once you have a connection again.
• Omnichannel sales: Like Shopify, Square has an online store component, but Square’s is free. This includes a store, the ability to order online and pick up in-store, and to sell via Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.
• Hardware: Square works on tablets, but Square also has registers, handheld registers, and other equipment that is designed specifically for the Square system. The others on our list work with multiple hardware vendors, and Shopify has tablet stands and peripherals.
• Customer management: Square can recognize customers by their payment methods, and customers can save their payment preferences for future sales. You can ask customers for feedback right after the sale via text or email receipt. One drawback is that email campaigns and loyalty programs cost extra. For these functions, we suggest Rain or SimpleConsign.
• High user satisfaction: Square has excellent user reviews; the app scores 4.8 out of 5 on both Android and iOS. Users praise its adaptability and how easy it is to use.

Ricochet’s plan costs $129 per month or $1,199 for an annual subscription. This is expensive relative to other software on our list, but if you consider that Ricochet will handle all your consignment needs, POS sales, and online sales, it can be cheaper than, say, Shopify, which requires paid add-ons for consignment features.

This POS currently uses Ricochet Pay for payment processing and has recently become more transparent about its processing rates. While this is comparable to Square’s and Shopify’s rates, note that Ricochet also charges additional PCI and admin fees; other POS systems on this list do not require these additional charges. If your credit card sales are infrequent, this may be an expense you don’t want.

You can give consignors a username and password, and designate them as vendors to let them access their accounts through the portal as well as edit and add items. (Source: Ricochet)

• Consignment portal: Ricochet has a consignor/vendor portal, where consignors can log in to see their accounts, including items still unsold, pending payouts, and more. SimpleConsign has a similar feature, as does Shopify, but Ricochet offers more consignor tools.
• Consignment tools: Ricochet, unlike Square and Shopify, is designed specifically for consignments. You can assign consignor credits and awards, automate commission splits, and even let consignors create their own inventory and print their own tags.
• Ecommerce: Ricochet has its own webstore for selling online and shipping products. Unlike Shopify, there’s no additional charge for this tool. It integrates with your system for inventory and sales calculations, plus Mailchimp for collecting customer information for mailing campaigns. You can accept PayPal payments as well.

SimpleConsign has three plans, plus additional pricing for plug-ins. Pricing is by location. Every plan includes unlimited consignors, inventory, and cashiers; customer support; training; and backups. Every plan also comes with a rewards points system―something Square charges extra for―and integrated credit card processing. SimpleConsign did not specify card processing rates, which may vary depending on the processor you use.

• Basic: $159 per month, per location
  • QuickBooks plug-in is an additional $75/month
• Standard: $209 per month, per location
  • QuickBooks plug-in is an additional $50/month; plan also includes basic consignor access, price book, and automated clearing house (ACH) payouts through SimplePay
• Professional: $309 per month, per location
  • Includes everything in Standard plan, plus Product Connect for Shopify, free QuickBooks plug-in, application programming interface (API) for ecommerce, cloud printing, photo app, and dealer remote item entry

• Consignment tools: You can easily add vendors, designate contracts, and set consignment splits. Unlike Rain, SimpleConsign does not have a tool for recording signatures. It does, however, let you set and customize monthly fees, such as if you are renting space in your shop. As with Rain, you will need to pay your consignor manually.
• Multistore capabilities: You can use SimpleConsign in multiple stores, with the ability to see any location’s inventory and store credit. You can view reports and inventory for any location with a simple click, even from the register. This is great if you have a customer searching for a specific item that’s not available in one location but might be present in another.
• Ecommerce: SimpleConsign has an API for ecommerce integration or a direct integration with Shopify. However, we do not recommend SimpleConsign’s ecommerce simply because you will be paying more to integrate Shopify, in addition to Shopify’s own fees. Unless you are sold on SimpleConsign for its other features, consider Shopify with a different plugin, or Ricochet.

Rain does not list its pricing online; this lack of transparency cost it several points in our evaluation. You need to get a demo and then talk to a representative for a quote. The same goes for its payment processing, Rain Payments, which is built on Stripe’s infrastructure.

Third-party sources say Rain starts at $99 per month, which is on par with what most of the consignment-specific POS systems run.

• Full-featured consignment module: The consignment module includes the ability to collect contract signatures and set minimum pricing, net consignments, and more. This is far more than Shopify or Square can do on their own. Rain falls short of SimpleConsign, however, in that you cannot pay consignors from the module.
• Contracts: Unlike the other providers on our list, Rain lets you specify contracts and collect signatures. You can use multiple contracts, so that you can have separate ones for different product types—antiques, for example. Signatures can be collected by print, email, e-signature, or not at all, and you specify in the account how it was collected. SimpleConsign has contracts, but you can only print them.
• Work orders: You may have an item that could be worth a lot but needs some repairs done first. Rain is the only consignment POS system on our list that lets you create work orders for the repair of items. When a work order is out, the item is listed as reserved until the repair is completed, after which it is listed as for sale.

Consignor portals, like those in Ricochet and SimpleConsign, allow consignors to log in and see the status of item sales, payouts, and inventory. Some even let them edit information. This can save you time-consuming phone calls from consignors wondering if their items have sold yet.

Yes. Most consignment POS software have tools for regular item sales as well, with vendor accounts and regular inventory tools. We consider a few of the consignment POS systems in this list to be among the best retail POS systems in general.

Absolutely. You should have an ecommerce system that works with consignment software so that you can properly calculate your share vs your consignor’s share of the profits, and you need to determine how shipping costs are split. Both Shopify and Square have native ecommerce tools.

Yes. We recommend Square so frequently because of its ease of use and versatility; it’ll definitely work for consignment stores. Square for Retail is noteworthy for its free plan and native online store. Note, however, that some of the consignment-specific functions will need third-party add-ons.

In general, inventory management is fairly similar between consignment shops and regular retail stores. In both cases, you’ll benefit from features like low-stock alerts, variant management, and multilocation tools. One difference is that consignment stores will need to track inventory and sales by specific consignor; this is another reason that it’s beneficial to use a POS system with a consignor portal, as it makes it easier to do this.