For a UK shop the order is ConsignCloud, then SimpleConsign, then Ricochet, and the reason is payments rather than features. ConsignCloud (Basic $139 a month, Pro $189 per location) lets you take cards through Stripe or any processor you like at no extra charge; Ricochet ($199 a month) has charged $100 a month since 1 May 2026 to any store not using Ricochet Pay, a US processor, which makes it $299 a month from the UK; SimpleConsign ($159 to $359 a month) is a strong multi-location system with a US-based support team and no statement that it serves stores outside North America. On the question in the title - which copes with UK VAT on consignment - the answer is none of them: all three model tax as a US-style percentage added at the till, and none records whether a sale is an agent sale, a margin scheme sale or a standard-rated sale.

Prices are as of August 2026 from each vendor's pricing page, linked under Sources. The three are direct competitors and publish comparisons of each other; where we rely on one vendor's claim about another we say so.

Side by side

ConsignCloud Ricochet SimpleConsign
Monthly price (USD) Basic $139; Pro $189 per location; Enterprise custom $199 all features ($159 for the first 3 months); no annual option shown Basic $159; Standard $259; Professional $359 (intro $99 for 6 months or first $50k sales)
Extra fees PayPal bulk payout $1 each; Checkbook ACH $1.79 (ConsignCloud's figure, US only) $100/month non-integrated processing fee if not on Ricochet Pay; Ricochet ACH $2 per payout (ConsignCloud's figure) ACH consignor payments from Standard; no setup fee
Contract Month to month, cancel anytime "No contracts. Cancel Anytime." "No long-term contract - cancel anytime"
Users / locations Basic up to 3 users; Pro unlimited users, up to 3 locations Unlimited accounts and devices Enterprise for multi-location; per-plan limits not published
Card processing Stripe, Gravity, or non-integrated at no extra cost Ricochet Pay (powered by Fullsteam) or pay $100/month Integrated processing from Basic; provider not named on pricing page
Consignor splits Defaults by account, category, price point or SKU Per consignor; payout all at once or individually Vendor splits; "simple price book" from Standard
Consignor portal Pro plan and above "Ricochet Go" for consignors and vendors Standard plan and above
Online selling Shopify and Square integrations on all plans; eBay, Facebook, Instagram via Shopify Own webstore (Ricochet Web), free for 3 months then paid Shopify integration on Professional and above
Accounting export Not stated on pricing or features pages QuickBooks (per ConsignCloud's comparison) QuickBooks on Professional and above
Currency and tax "Configure your currency code and time zone"; "Multiple Tax Types"; "Apply Taxes by Location" Not published Not published
UK VAT: agent vs principal, margin scheme No No No
Serialised items Item-level records; no dedicated authentication field found Item-level; no authentication field found Item-level; AI item entry on Professional; no authentication field found
Support "100% Human Customer Support"; Slack on Enterprise Help centre; hours not published "U.S.-based support team"; hours not published
UK presence None; international use claimed via currency setting None; Boise, Idaho None; 3,100+ shops, US and Canada implied

What does each one actually cost a UK shop?

Take the plan a single-site luxury reseller would need: consignor portal, online channel, card processing.

  • ConsignCloud Pro: $189 a month, about £145 at $1.30. Add Stripe's UK rates on cards. PayPal payouts at $1 each if you use them.
  • Ricochet: $199 a month plus the $100 non-integrated fee, $299 a month, about £230. Ricochet Pay is described on Ricochet's help centre as the way to avoid the fee; we found no statement that Ricochet Pay is available to a UK merchant, and its processing rates ($2.60 plus 10 cents in person, per a third-party report) are US card rates. The webstore is free for three months and then paid; the price after that is not on the pricing page.
  • SimpleConsign Professional: $359 a month, about £276, after the six-month $99 intro. Standard at $259 gets the portal and ACH but not Shopify or QuickBooks.

So over a year, after intros: ConsignCloud Pro about £1,750, Ricochet about £2,760, SimpleConsign Professional about £2,900 (roughly £1,900 in year one with the intro). Whether UK VAT is added to any of these invoices is not stated by any vendor; check the first bill.

Which one handles consignor payouts best from the UK?

All three were designed around US bank transfers. ConsignCloud and Ricochet both offer ACH payout runs with a per-payout fee; SimpleConsign adds ACH from its Standard plan. ACH does not reach a UK bank account.

What a UK shop will actually do on each:

  • ConsignCloud has PayPal bulk payouts ($1 per payout) which do work for UK consignors with PayPal accounts, plus "Custom Payout Types" for recording a Faster Payments transfer made from your bank. Balance accrues automatically as items are stocked, sold or returned, and "Payout As-of a Date" lets you pay what was owed at month-end rather than today.
  • Ricochet offers direct deposit (ACH), cheque printing, or conversion to store credit. From the UK that means store credit or a manual bank transfer recorded by hand.
  • SimpleConsign offers ACH and the consignor portal from Standard; otherwise manual.

ConsignCloud's split rules are also the most granular of the three - defaults by account, by category, by price point or by SKU - which matters for a luxury shop whose split on a £4,000 watch is not the split on a £60 scarf.

How does UK VAT on consignment work, and why do all three miss it?

A UK consignment shop has to decide, for each item, whether it is selling as the consignor's agent or as principal, because the VAT is different:

  • Selling in the consignor's name, the goods are the consignor's supply (no VAT if the consignor is a private individual) and your commission is a standard-rated service: 20% VAT on the commission if you are registered.
  • Selling in your own name, section 17 of VAT Notice 718 treats you as buying and selling, and lets you use the margin scheme with the commission as your margin. Paragraph 17.7 requires an invoice with the paragraph 5.3 details.
  • Buying outright puts you in the ordinary margin scheme, with a stock book.

ConsignCloud's "Multiple Tax Types" can be configured so that a commission line carries 20% and a goods line carries 0%, which is the closest any of the three gets. But the choice is made outside the software and nothing on the item record says which regime applied, which is what HMRC will ask for. Ricochet and SimpleConsign publish nothing on tax configuration beyond US sales tax. For the bookkeeping, see consignment accounting and VAT.

This is the gap our own product, Milleso, is built around: VAT treatment decided at intake and applied by the till, consignor payouts, serialised stock, and Xero and Sage export. It is our product, so weigh that accordingly; it is also UK-only and does not do vendor-mall booth rent, which is Ricochet's strength.

Which is best for a luxury reseller rather than a clothing consignment store?

All three are item-level systems, which is the right shape for one-of-a-kind stock. Differences that matter for watches, bags and jewellery:

  • Authentication record. None of the three describes a dedicated field for an Entrupy or other certificate. Photos and notes on the item are the workaround.
  • Online channels. ConsignCloud's Shopify integration on every plan, with eBay, Facebook and Instagram through Shopify, is the widest at the entry price. SimpleConsign needs the $359 plan for Shopify. Ricochet's own webstore is the only channel listed.
  • Intake checks. None has a stolen-goods check or an AML file against the consignor. For watches, check the serial before you take the piece in.
  • Multi-location. SimpleConsign Enterprise and ConsignCloud Pro (up to 3 locations at $189 each) handle it; Ricochet is per location at $199 according to ConsignCloud.

The verdict

  • ConsignCloud if you are in the UK and want one of these three. Lowest entry price, Stripe, Shopify on every plan, the most flexible splits, and a currency setting that makes it usable. You will still do VAT by hand.
  • SimpleConsign if you are a US or Canadian multi-location store. From the UK it costs more and adds nothing ConsignCloud lacks.
  • Ricochet if you run a US vendor mall and will use Ricochet Pay. From the UK the $100 surcharge removes the case for it.

What we could not verify

  • Ricochet's $100 non-integrated processing fee. Ricochet's help centre refers to "a non-standard fee" after 1 May 2026; the $100 figure comes from ConsignCloud's and Circle Hand's reports of a Ricochet support announcement. Ricochet's pricing page does not mention it. Confirm in writing.
  • Ricochet Pay availability outside the US. Not stated anywhere we could find.
  • Ricochet's webstore price after the free three months, and its ACH payout fee. The $2 ACH figure is ConsignCloud's.
  • ConsignCloud's trial length and Checkbook fee. "Start for Free" with no duration; the $1.79 Checkbook figure is ConsignCloud's own blog, not its pricing page.
  • SimpleConsign's card processor and rates, and its position on non-US stores. Not published.
  • Whether any vendor adds UK VAT to the subscription. Not stated.

Sources

This is general information, not tax advice, and vendor pricing is not a quotation. Prices were read from the vendors' pages on 19 August 2026 and change without notice. Confirm the VAT treatment of your consignment sales with your accountant before you configure any till.

Milleso is our product and appears above with that disclosure. It exists because none of these three decides the VAT treatment of a consigned piece at intake; it is built for UK luxury resale and is not a substitute for a US vendor-mall system.