The questions partners actually ask.

No. We do not hold stock, we do not take title and we never take delivery. Your items stay yours and stay where they are. Title passes from you direct to the customer at the point they buy, and we collect as agent — nothing sits on our balance sheet and nothing moves off yours.

It simplifies things. We integrate with the APIs those providers already run, so they carry on operating exactly as they do now — same benches, same people, same internal grading standard. If you do not have that handling in place, we can bring a provider in.

Very little. trialcove.com leads the integration and maintains the connection, whether that is into your systems or into your provider’s. We agree the technical requirements, responsibilities and testing process with you before work begins.

It rejoins your flow at the grade it was listed at, in the same place it left, still eligible for every route it had before — open-box, outlet, a clearance lot, liquidation. Listing something for trial is not exclusive and forecloses nothing. It is the first attempt, not the only one.

Yes, where you turn that on. At the end of a trial on a graded item the customer can keep the one they have at its graded price, or ask for a brand new one at full retail — we re-despatch and collect the trialled unit on the same visit. It is optional and set per line, so a category where you would rather not offer it simply does not. Where it is on, a graded unit that would have recovered a graded price has instead produced a full-price sale on new stock, and the trialled unit rejoins your flow at the grade it left at.

Three published consumer grades — new, refurbished and pre-used — set the discount off retail. That is separate from the A, B and C standard a returns centre grades against, and we map one onto the other when an item is listed. You grade to the standard, we audit accuracy, and a pattern of over-grading is grounds for removal.

Yes. You choose what is listed and you can withdraw a line at any time. Nothing is listed that you have not sent us.

Somebody verified before the item leaves the warehouse. Every customer, every trial: a live biometric identity check against a government-issued document, fraud screening across device, behavioural and identity signals, and payment screening — all before the order is released. Nothing ships until all of those have passed.

The customer is responsible for damage beyond the marks and wear that come from genuinely using an item, and a refundable deposit of 10% of the retail price is held for the length of the trial. Before any deduction is made we contact the customer, show them what was found with evidence, and give them a chance to respond. There is no separate damage cover included in the trial fee.

An item that is not returned is chargeable to the customer, as are missing accessories or parts, and the deposit is held against exactly that. Any claim is limited to the reasonable cost of repair or, where repair is not economic, the value of the item at its grade.

Brand new items carry the manufacturer’s own warranty, which starts when the customer buys rather than when the trial started. Refurbished and pre-used items carry a 12-month warranty from the seller, covering faults but not wear or accidental damage. The customer’s statutory rights sit on top of both and are not shortened by either. How specific duties are allocated between us is set out in the agreement.

No, and that is the point. Returning an item is the ordinary outcome of a trial rather than a complaint. The trial fee is not refunded when somebody simply decides against an item, because the round trip and the return handling, inspection, regrading and any work needed to put it back where it was were real either way.

Two or four weeks, and it is a property of the item rather than something the customer chooses — two weeks for things judged in a weekend, four for anything that has to survive a real routine. It starts the day the item arrives, never the day it was ordered, so time in transit is never counted against the customer.

The integration includes a store or brand page built to your branding. Product titles on the marketplace stay generic and unbranded unless you have agreed otherwise, which is deliberate — it avoids us using a name we have not been given permission to use.

What sold, what came back, and what customers said when they returned it. That last part is the one you cannot buy: a channel tells you a unit went, a trial tells you why it stayed. It arrives as a by-product of the model rather than as a research exercise.

The trial contract is between the customer and trialcove, not between the customer and you. Where you referred the customer, the 8% rate reflects that you brought them. Any sharing of customer data is governed by the agreement and by data protection law, and we do not pass on personal data we have no basis to share.

Both are offered at checkout by third-party providers. Commission on those sits with trialcove and does not affect what you earn on an item.

There is no minimum. Start with one category and add more when you want to — we do not ask for a volume commitment up front.

Anything a customer wants to be sure about before committing, and anything hard to judge from a photograph. Larger appliances, fitness equipment, bikes, baby gear, tools, audio, instruments and furniture all trial well. Low-value consumables do not, and below a certain price the trial fee stops making sense for anybody.

Yes. Brands and retailers can integrate directly so a trial sits alongside buying outright on your own site. The customer never leaves your pages and we run the trial behind them.

What you hold, how it is handled now, and whether a trial is the right answer for it. If it is not, we will say so. Then we scope the integration against your catalogue and put the terms in writing before anything is listed.