One of the most important benefits of ConsignCloud is the time that it saves you while processing inventory. An average resale store can spend many thousands of dollars in wasted time every year if it doesn't process inventory efficiently.
There are three types of inventory in ConsignCloud which behave slightly differently. This can be selected using the Inventory Type field on item forms and imports.
Consignment items are associated with an account, and if the item sells a portion of the sale price is added to the account balance. Consigned items have a Split field that determines the portion belonging to the consignor.
Buy Outright items are owned by the store and credited to their associated account based on the Cost Per field.
Retail: Retail items are owned by the store and don't need to be associated with an account, as no credit is given either at entry or after the item is sold — it's up to you to remit any necessary payment for the purchase.
Normally, resale inventory is unique, but ConsignCloud includes a quantity field on item forms so you can track any kind of inventory. To opt out of tracking quantity (for example, for a service rather than a physical good), just clear out the quantity field.
To add inventory to your account, click + Add Item at the top of your screen. Whenever you enter an item, you'll be presented with the following fields:
Account determines who gets credited for sales or buy outright purchases. It also allows ConsignCloud to fill in defaults for other fields, including Inventory Type, Terms, and Split.
Category, Description, Brand, Color, and Size are used to help you fill in the item's Title, which is used whenever displaying the item on receipts, emails, or your online store. If that doesn't work for a particular item, that's fine! Just type whatever works.
Images can help you find missing inventory in case an item gets separated from its tag. They're also synchronized with Shopify for use on your online store.
Quantity defaults to "1" because resale items are most often unique, but you can enter any number here. To opt out of tracking quantity (for example, for a service rather than a physical good), just clear the quantity field out.
Price is the amount the item will sell for. If your store uses any inclusive taxes or consignor surcharges, it's a little more complicated. In those stores, splits are calculated using Split Price, which is Tag Price minus any inclusive taxes and consignor surcharges. Which of these prices is used can be configured in your Policy Settings.
SKU is auto-generated by the system, but you can feel free to enter your own SKU if you prefer.
Tags can be used to support many kinds of custom workflows or additional categorization. They are not used by the system in any way, so put whatever you want in here.
If you've set up any Discount or Surcharge Schedules for your store, Schedule Start will help you adjust where in the schedule your inventory should be. By default, this field gets set to the date the item was created.
Expiration Date is set based on the number of days to expiration configured for an item's category. Note that ConsignCloud does not automatically expire items, or mark them as donated or returned. Expiration is designed as a tool to help you find inventory that needs to be rotated — we leave the policy decisions up to you, since exceptions are common here.
A Shelf can be selected to help you organize your inventory. These can be configured in "Operations" section of your store's Settings.
Split determines the percentage of item sales credited to the item's account. Just like Inventory Type, ConsignCloud uses the Split for whichever account you've selected. When no account is selected, ConsignCloud displays the default Split set for the store in Settings.
Terms controls whether the item should be returned or donated at the end of its consignment period. ConsignCloud first looks to the Account default to fill in this field. If no account is selected, the default Terms set in store settings is used instead.
Tax Exempt and Surcharges modify price calculations for items when sold at point of sale.
While you're filling out this form, keep an eye on the suggestions that pop up below your cursor. ConsignCloud provides these suggestions to make entry go more smoothly. The more you use ConsignCloud, the better the suggestions get!
Custom Fields
Sometimes, there are things store owners like to track about an item that ConsignCloud doesn't have built-in support for, like MSRP or Condition. In cases like this, it's very easy to add your own custom fields from Settings » Policy » Inventory.
eCommerce Fields
If you've enabled our Shopify integration, you'll be given a few additional options to fill in:
Weight — ConsignCloud syncs this field with Shopify for the purposes of calculating shipping charges for online sales.
List on Shopify — whether this item should get listed to you online store.
In either case, defaults for these fields can be configured in your eCommerce Settings.