ConsignPro

Running a consignment shop, most of the people we hired were not very familiar or comfortable overall with computers or programs. However, my background is in IT project management. ConsignPro is perfect for us! It has all the functionality we need to run our business, so it's very powerful. However, the simplicity of use was what really impressed me. That's the secret. Creating a powerful application isn't the hard part, in my opinion, creating an application that virtually anyone can use to harness that power is where ConsignPro shines. It's extremely easy for our employees to use and understand, but yet does everything we'd need (and much more I'm sure we don't utilize).

The other thing that surprised me about ConsignPro is how much they do for support. I've had communication and conversations directly with Brian Wilson (owner/creator) as well as many of the other knowledgeable support folks (who are all great by the way). Where can you get that type of support, where you are speaking with the software creator, with other companies? I'm sure as they continue to grow that won't always be the case, but that type of customer support is what great companies are built on.

I'd highly recommend using ConsignPro in your resale/consignment shop.

A very good company that respects their customers and a great response time on helping if you do have questions. You feel valued as one of their customers so you can help your customers!

We are a buy, sell and trade business that has been in business for many years. We have been using CP for many months now and have been astounded at the poor performance and inaccuracies in the reports. Recently, after a software update that CP did, the cost of goods sold on most of our clothing items simply stopped populating on our income statement. After multiple refusals to even look into the problem, and after letting them know that we were considering legal options, they finally fixed the problem. When we let CP know that we had no other choice but legal action, this was the response: "Read your End User License Agreement before wasting money on an attorney". This was only one of many many issues we have had with this system. We are willing to work with all of the technical issues but what has made this company so difficult and stressful to work with are the rude and dismissive responses that we have become accustomed to when we request technical support. Unfortunately, many of these issues did not become apparent until several weeks after the system was set up and we had already spent a lot of time and money on the system and the setup. I can not recommend this software to any business but especially not to a buy sell trade business.

I have a gallery selling handmade in America items, by artists in small studios. For the first few years, we were entirely consignment. A tip from a similar shop about ConsignPro led us to purchase that software about 10 years ago, shortly after opening our shop. Until then, we did all receipts and calculating by hand, which of course, led to a number of mistakes.

We wanted software that would:
a) track inventory
b) make it easy to keep one artist's inventory list clean and easy to find
c) make month-end commission check writing easy
d) be easily updated, allowing for easy returns and easy input of new work
e) have some mechanism for customer tracking
f) be easy to train staff to use
g) make it easy to track daily, weekly, monthly, annual sales numbers

The implementation was about as easy as it can get. We purchased the software, the receipt printer, and a cash drawer. I'm not too bad with computer installations, but don't do it often enough to be anything like an expert. I found it very easy to install everything, and get all those pieces to work with each other.

Over the years, when problems have come up, the support staff have been very quick with help and response. The annual service plan is absolutely worth it. We would've been lost without it several times over the years. And they've never made me feel stupid, either. I value that.

The ConsignPro system was also easy to expand, as I moved beyond only selling works on consignment. The system makes it easy for me to determine the number that relates to the seller and the item. I created a system in which consigned artists all have a 100 number assigned to each individual. An additional three numbers relate to the specific item that artist made. The commission amount is automatically calculated. With purchased items, I assign a 500 number to each artist, plus the specific three-digit number relating to the specific item. These are marked at a 100% commission rate so I can correctly track those sales. Easy as pie!

I can also track customer purchasing, but only in amounts. I figured out a way to track each customer's purchases with a given calendar year by adding the last two digits of that year to the customer's last name. Without doing that, it can only calculate the total, accumulated sales of a customer. This new method helps me offer customer rewards more effectively. This is the only element of the software that I wish had improvement, but I like the other aspects so much that I continue to use it.

I really cannot run my business without this. It keeps everything in its place and organized.
I do not have one negative thing to say about consign pro. I love, love, love this software. I have seen others and this is in my opinion the best and easiest out there. Some folks are not computer savvy, well you don't have to be to it really easy to use. They will walk you thru anything you do not understand.