Today, we announced the future of Ricochet. New branding, a new website, stronger company direction, and a drive to stretch the capabilities of Ricochet further, there is a lot going on.
When we began our 2019 planning, we had just launched Ricochet 3.0 and were carefully looking at what to prioritize next. Together, we decided that our biggest goal of 2019 would be to build a complete and comprehensive iPad solution for consignment.
While the development of an iOS and Android version of Ricochet will officially begin development this summer, today we are announcing a major update that will be the foundation for the app development. When the app is published, it will be the first time that a tablet can be properly used in a consignment or retail hybrid operation for all business operations. Everything from label printing to receipt printing, to scanning and creating inventory, seamlessly from a handheld device.
The first step of this was the overall design of the software. So that’s where we began. Every component of the program was redesigned specifically to fit beautifully within a standard iPad resolution and size. In fact, every screenshot you see in this blog post is from an iPad Air.
In brief, this latest update to the software is primarily a front-end, visual update. There are a lot of places where we streamlined navigation, cleaned up clutter, and just made everything more user-friendly. We have additional features launching with this update as well, and we point those out below.
Welcome and Main Menu
In the last update, we added the ability to switch users and open and close registers. This was well received and we’ve built on it a bit more. We have moved the current user and store information to the bottom of the main menu. When using the POS, there will also be a third icon to open/close and change the register being used.
Not only do these now group nicely together, but a ton of screen space is also saved, allowing tables and other views to be much larger.
Point of Sale
The POS had lots of changes, most of which were cosmetic. The screen now fits completely on a standard iPad resolution with no text or buttons overlapping or breaking. While there are no receipt printer drivers available at the moment, this does mean that sales can be easily run on a tablet POS with emailed receipts.
The layout was also slightly altered. Buttons of similar function were moved to build a clearer user experience. Retrieving a hold or layaway has been moved from the top navigation to the bottom left.
We removed the appearing and disappearing payment buttons depending on if you had selected a customer or not. The buttons are always visible but clearly marked as not selectable if there is no customer added to the sale, something that often confused new users.
The payment area of the POS is also now a fixed width and height, furthering the consistent look and feel across devices and making your checkout routine even quicker.
Sales notes have now been added to the POS. All notes recorded for a sale are viewable and editable in the sales detail report.
Accounts
Account details have been switched from a folder to a tab-style layout. Having to open and close vertical folders could quickly get out of hand with too much information, particularly on smaller screens. The information is all the same, now just viewed in tabs within the account. For most cases, you should now be able to navigate to any account tab and see all of the information presented without scrolling.
This also applies to the consignor login. So the changes you see as a user, are also reflected for your consignors.
Inventory Management
This screen, as usual, shows your entire store’s inventory. It also now acts as your hub for adding retail items. Consigned items can no longer be added from this view. To add a consigned item, you go to that consignor’s account and add it to their inventory.
The ability to search for an item also has been redesigned. The search field is now expandable to allow you to search specifically in one column if the results you are looking for aren’t showing up.
We’ve added the ability to refine your search and add filters to your inventory table. You can now create table filters to help narrow down to the specific products you want to see. For example, you can filter all of your high-ticket items by filtering products with a sale price less than $1000.
New Variant System
This change was, by far, the largest change to the platform in this update. In Ricochet 3.0, we added the ability to add product variants, but they were on an individual basis and adding or managing products with multiple variants got out of hand.
We updated the variant system to its own inventory table. To use variants, you will continue to create your attributes and their values in the software preferences. This populates the system with what variants you can use. From there, you can go into a product’s details, toggle on the variants, pick and choose what variants you want active.
As you add variants and attributes, the software will automatically populate all of the different possible options and their relative attributes. If there are any specific variants you don’t carry, you can toggle those off.
Additionally, there is a great “copy to all” function in the variant system. If your variants all have the same price, inventory, or other value, you can just enter the data for one and copy it to all other variants instantly.
We often get requests for some sort of attribute system. This was originally built into our variant system but we have since revised it. Now that variants act as true variants of a parent product, you should only create variants if necessary. If you want to use attributes to describe an item, such as a wood table, you no longer select “wood” as a variant. It is best to use the description field instead. Variants should be used specifically for when a single item comes in multiple different versions such as size or color.
Preferences
The settings and preferences system has been completely rebuilt to just three different categories: Admin, Product, & Integrations.
Admin controls all of your store and account-specific settings such as your taxes and returns policy, user roles, and contact information.
Product controls product and inventory-related preferences such as your categories, attributes, labels, item fees, and more.
Integrations are simply the status of the integration connections to Mailchimp and Quickbooks. Any new integrations we release will be tabbed into that view.
Label Printing
When printing product labels, you can now print multiple SKUs, select which variants to be printed, and customize the quantity you need. Additionally, the quantity will automatically default to the in-stock quantity of that SKU.
It’s all going live this May.
All of this is scheduled to go live in early May. We are in the final stages of bug testing and making sure there aren’t any weird glitches or problems.
This update requires absolutely no effort on your behalf. The update will occur instantly the first time you log in after we push it live.
While most of the changes are just visual, we understand that you may want some time to look over everything and make sure you and your staff are prepared. We have YouTube videos going live with more detailed information on each section, as well as several Facebook posts going live for the next several days. Follow us on Facebook to stay the most tuned in.
