A guide for consignment and resale shops

How to price and tag consigned items on Shopify

The counter is where a consigned item becomes something you can sell: a price, a code that says whose it is, and a tag the register can scan. This guide covers pricing at intake, SKUs that carry the consignor's number, setting up the product in Shopify, and printing barcode tags that Shopify POS reads. The last part shows how Still Works Consignment makes the product and the tag in one step.

1. Price it with the consignor there

Agree the price while the consignor is still at the counter, and write it on the intake sheet they sign. A price set later, after they leave, is the one they argue with on payout day.

Price from condition and from what similar things have sold for in your own shop. Your own history is the best guide you have: search Products for similar items, or look at past orders. If your shop marks items down over time, say so now, so the consignor knows the first price is a starting point and not a promise.

2. A SKU that names the consignor

Give every item a SKU built from the consignor's number and a running count, like C142-007: consignor 142, their seventh item. It is unique, staff can read whose it is at a glance, and a list sorted by SKU groups each consignor's items together.

Keep the running count per consignor in your consignor list, and never reuse a number.
Use the same value for the barcode, so a scan and a search find the same item.
Print it as a Code 128 barcode. Code 128 carries letters and dashes. UPC and EAN barcodes carry digits only, so a SKU with a "C" in it will not fit them.

3. Set up the product in Shopify

Go to Products and choose Add product. Make the title say what it is, with the size or brand if it matters.
Enter the price you agreed.
Under Inventory, turn on quantity tracking, set the quantity at your location (one, for a one of a kind item), and leave Continue selling when out of stock off, so it cannot sell twice.
Tick This product has a SKU or barcode, then fill in the SKU and the barcode with the same value.
Put the consignor's number in Vendor or as a tag, like "consignor-142".
Check the product's sales channels (the Publishing section in most admins) and make sure both Online Store and Point of Sale are on.
Set the status to Active and save.

For a large drop off, Products, then Import, takes a CSV of many products at once. Fill in the same fields in the file.

4. Print tags the register can scan

A good tag carries the price, the consignor's number, and the SKU as a barcode, with the SKU printed as text underneath in case a scan fails. A label app from the Shopify App Store can print these from your products. You can also print from a spreadsheet with a Code 128 font, but most of those fonts need the text encoded first, so scan a test tag before you print a batch.

Shopify POS scans with the device camera or a connected barcode scanner. Before the day's tags go on the floor, scan one at the register and check that the right product comes up at the right price.

5. When the price changes

The register rings up the price in Shopify, not the one on the paper. After a markdown, either reprint the tag or mark it in a way your staff and customers understand. If a tag and the register disagree, decide your policy ahead of time and tell your staff.

6. Honest limits

Done by hand, each item takes several screens, and the usual misses are a skipped barcode, tracking left off, or a product not on Point of Sale. Any one of those turns into an item that will not scan, sells twice, or sells without anyone knowing whose it was.

The same steps in Still Works Consignment

In the app, the Intake screen does steps 2 and 3 together. Pick the consignor, type the item and the price, set how many (it starts at 1), and leave the SKU blank to have the app make one from the consignor's number, like C12-004. If you have more than one location, pick where it is. Press Create the product.

The product is created in Shopify with that price and SKU, the barcode set to the same value, the tags "consignor-12" and "consignment", and stock that is tracked and refuses to oversell. It is put on your Online Store and Point of Sale. The consignor's share is fixed on the item at intake, like the agreement it came in under. A link in the banner opens the product in Shopify to add photos.

Each intake adds a tag to the print list, and Intake shows a Print price tags link while tags are waiting. The sheet prints from your browser: every tag has your shop name, the item, the price, a Code 128 barcode of the SKU, and the consignor's number and SKU as text, with one tag per unit. Press They printed: clear the list when they are done. From a consignor's page, Print tags for their items reprints everything of theirs in the store at the current price, which helps after a markdown.

The app is free for up to 15 active consignors. It is on the Shopify App Store.

Where to go from here

The Still Works Consignment page has the plain description of what the app does and does not do. If something here does not match what you see, email the studio and it gets fixed the same business day.