For Retailers

Run consignment without running it. Vendors own the shelf; we run the settlements.

Vendors stock the shelf and you pay on what sells. Weekly settlements reconciled to Metrc and your POS, a shared vendor portal, capital freed from slow inventory — run for you.

How the done-for-you works

You connect once. We run the settlements. You approve the check.

01

Flip a vendor to consignment

You pick which deliveries are consignment at receive time — each vendor is set up for both lanes, so nothing gets renegotiated.

02

We settle weekly on what sold

Reconciled to Metrc and your POS, category splits applied, and the vendor’s portal updated — every week, in your name.

03

You approve the check

Approve and we cut it. The vendor is paid their split of what actually sold — and unsold product goes back, never bought.

Brands paid through ShelfSpace every week
Step 1 / 12 · What Is Consignment

Consignment is selling product you don't own.

Vendor delivers product. You sell it. You pay them after.

Wholesale ties up your cash before a single customer walks in. Consignment flips it: the vendor owns the risk, you own the shelf, and the money moves only after the SKU earns its keep.

How cannabis consignment works
Step 2 / 12 · Proven Model

Major retailers do it. Now cannabis can too.

Grocery, hardware, apparel — they all moved to consignment decades ago. In those aisles it's called scan-based trading; it's the same model that stocks a cooler with Coca-Cola before a single can is paid for.

Big retail figured out long ago: buying inventory upfront is brutal. The supplier owns the risk; the retailer owns the shelf. We brought that playbook to cannabis, with a team that knows Metrc and the math.

Why general consignment software doesn't work for cannabis
Step 3 / 12 · Easy Onboarding

Flip a vendor live in minutes.

Add them in ShelfSpace, set the split, and settlements run the next week.

No spreadsheets to chase. No shared docs to maintain. Add the vendor, pick the split, and the settlement engine takes over weekly from there.

Getting started with consignment
Step 4 / 12 · Payment Terms

Every vendor, both lanes.

Consignment and wholesale are set up for every vendor from day one. Your team picks which one each delivery is when it arrives.

Consignment isn't all-or-nothing, and it isn't a switch you flip per vendor. There's nothing to propose and nothing to convert — the split and the payment terms both sit on the vendor from the start, and whoever receives the truck marks that delivery consignment or wholesale. The same vendor can ship you their proven movers wholesale and float you their new SKUs on consignment in the same week.

Cannabis vendor management guide
Step 5 / 12 · Weekly Settlements

Pay every week on what actually sold.

The platform reads your Metrc and POS sales data. Runs the math. Queues the check. You approve. You send. Every week.

No quarterly reconciliation. No "we'll figure it out next month." The vendor sees the same numbers you see, every package, every sale, every week. Download a real settlement (PDF).

Anatomy of a cannabis consignment settlement report
Step 6 / 12 · Promos + Returns

Promotions and returns baked into the math.

Run a BOGO. Take a return. The settlement reconciles both.

A discount needs no adjustment at all on consignment — the vendor is paid their split of whatever the item actually rang up for, so a BOGO is shared the moment it rings. Returns and any credit memo you've built get netted off the same week's payout as ordinary line items, instead of becoming a conversation next quarter.

How consignment settlements work
Step 7 / 12 · Metrc Integration

Reconciled to Metrc, line by line.

Every package on your shelf, every sale at the register — traced and matched.

Cannabis is the one industry with a state-mandated package ledger. We use it. Vendors can't dispute the numbers, because the regulator already signed off on the manifest.

How Metrc verification works
Step 8 / 12 · Vendor Dashboard

Every vendor gets their own portal.

Live sell-through. Inventory aging. Next payment date. All in one view.

When the vendor can see what's selling and when they get paid, the phone stops ringing. You save the back-and-forth; they get the data they actually need to plan replenishment.

How vendors get paid through cannabis consignment
Step 9 / 12 · Payments

Paid by digital check, every week.

Check 21 compliant. Mobile-deposit ready. Mailed or downloaded.

Cannabis banking is a mess. Wire fees, ACH limits, returned checks. Check 21 sidesteps the whole circus, because the vendor downloads the image and deposits from their phone.

How check payments work
Step 10 / 12 · Cash Freed

Cash back in your bank account.

What used to be inventory is now liquid.

Modeled at $3M annual revenue with a 90-day inventory turn.

Inventory is your biggest balance-sheet item. Start taking a chunk of your deliveries on consignment and that money stops leaving your account in the first place — funding payroll, marketing, new locations, or just breathing room.

Case study — $27K freed at a Massachusetts dispensary
Step 11 / 12 · Margin Protection

Profit margins, locked at the SKU.

Mark it down to move it — your margin percentage doesn't budge.

In wholesale you already paid for the unit, so every dollar you discount comes straight out of your margin. On consignment the vendor is paid their share of what the item actually rang up for — so a markdown is shared the instant it rings, in the same proportion as the split you set. Sell that $50 eighth for $40 and a 50/50 split still pays you $20 on $20. You never have to chase the vendor for their half, because they never got it.

How cannabis consignment profit splits work
Step 12 / 12 · The Split

We run the engine. You run the relationships.

You own the vendor conversation. We own the settlement cycle.

Most operators try consignment in spreadsheets and quit by week six. The math, the category splits, the returns, the Metrc reconciliation, the payment cycle — none of it fits in Excel. We built the engine that does.

See full consignment docs

Slide to see how consignment software transforms your cash flow

See what you're owed

Annual Revenue $3,000,000
$500K $10M
Conservative
$46,233
25% on consignment
Typical
$92,466
50% on consignment
Aggressive
$138,699
75% on consignment
Waste: $0 write-offs
Margin: per contract
Expirations: vendor's cost
EBITDA impact 15.0% → 17.0%

Cash freed + zero waste + locked margins. Straight to your bottom line.

See what you're owed

Seeing your settlements is free. We scope the rest to your operation — software you drive, or done for you.

Scoped to your operation.

Seeing your settlements is free. We scope the rest to your operation — software you drive, or done for you. Every engagement is custom, priced in a quick consult around your locations, your vendors, and how hands-on you want to be. Talk to us →

See what you're owed

Your cash flow could change this quarter.

Seeing your settlements is free. We scope the rest to your operation — software you drive, or done for you.

Chris Mitchem

"I've been a cannabis operator since 2015, and I have the scars to prove it. ShelfSpace is the product of everything I learned the hard way."

— Chris Mitchem, Founder

Seeing what you're owed is free. Everything else is scoped to your operation in a quick consult.

Frequently asked questions

Will my vendors agree to this?

Most do — and most are eager once they see the structure. They get weekly settlements with sell-through data on every package, instead of chasing payment for months on Net 60. You handle the vendor relationship and the contract; the platform runs the weekly settlement cycle.

Does anything change about how I run my store?

Nothing. Same deliveries, same POS, same Metrc, same staff. Customers can't tell the difference.

What if product doesn't sell?

You haven't paid for it. It goes back to the vendor. That's the entire point.

How fast can I start?

First vendor agreements within 14 days. Settlements start the following week.

What does this cost?

Pricing is custom, scoped to your operation. Seeing what's owed — tracking transactions and receiving settlement reports — is free. We scope the rest, running the weekly settlement and cutting the check, to how you work: software you drive, or done for you. Talk to us.

Can you just run consignment settlements for me?

Yes — that's the done-for-you lane. You connect Metrc and your POS once, and we run the whole weekly cycle in your name: reconcile the week's sell-through, apply each vendor's category split, update the vendor portal, and queue the Check 21 payment. You approve the check; we cut it. Prefer to drive it yourself? The same platform is yours to run. Talk to us.

How do settlements actually work?

Weekly. The platform reads your Metrc data and the POS sales export you upload, calculates what each vendor is owed for the week's sell-through, and queues a Check 21 payment with a settlement report showing inventory, units sold, and amount paid. You approve and send. The vendor sees the same data you see. See a full sample.

What if a vendor won't ship on consignment?

Then that delivery is simply received as wholesale, on whatever terms you already have — COD, Net 30, Net 60. Nothing has to be renegotiated and nothing gets turned off: every vendor is set up for both lanes, and each delivery is marked consignment or wholesale as it's received. Start by asking the vendors most likely to say yes (high-velocity SKUs, growing brands, anyone tired of chasing payment) — we'll help you sort them.