For partners
How we plug in.
Another sales opportunity for graded stock, before it moves further down the recovery chain. Everything else stays exactly as it is, because trialcove.com does not replace any part of your operation — your warehouse or your reverse-logistics provider holds the stock, ships it and receives it back, exactly as now.
We are the layer that sells the item, not another building it has to pass through. Whatever does not sell goes straight back to grading, at the same grade.
What already happens
The customer returns itIt arrives at the returns centre.
Exactly as it does today. Nothing about the inbound leg changes, and nothing is routed anywhere new.
Inspected, tested and cleanedThen graded A, B or C.
Your own standard, on your own benches, by the people already doing it. We do not ask anybody to regrade into our language — the three published consumer grades map onto yours at the point an item is listed.
Where trialcove joins
Listed on the marketplaceFrom wherever it already sits.
The unit does not move buildings and does not change hands. It stays yours, at the grade you gave it, and stays eligible for every route it had before — this is one more attempt, not an exclusive one.
A customer pays to trial itTwo or four weeks at home.
They pay the trial fee and a refundable deposit up front, and we verify who they are before the order is released to you. The trial contract is between them and us.
They keep it, or it comes backEither way you are paid.
If they keep it, the sale is yours less one transaction fee. If it comes back, your share of the trial fee covers the return handling, inspection and regrading, and the unit rejoins your flow at the grade it left at.
Tap any step for the detail.
You do not build anything.
We plug into the APIs you already run
Reverse logistics providers carry on operating exactly as they do now. We integrate with the systems already in place — stock, condition, despatch, returns — and our layer does the translating. There is no new process to run and no parallel system to keep in step.
We do the work
trialcove.com leads the integration and maintains the connection. We agree the technical requirements, responsibilities and testing process with you before work begins.
Or offer trials on your own site
Brands and retailers can integrate trialcove directly, so a trial sits on your own product pages as an option alongside buying outright. The customer never leaves your site; we run the trial behind it.
- 01
Connect
A category, commercial terms, and a link into the system that already holds the stock.
We agree which category to start with and what the terms are. Then we connect to wherever your stock and its condition data already live — your own systems, or your reverse logistics provider’s.
Nothing physical happens at this stage, because nothing physical happens at any stage. trialcove is the layer that sells the item; it is not another building it has to pass through.
If you do not have the handling in place, that is not a blocker. We work with a number of reverse logistics providers and can bring one in, so the operation exists without you having to build it.
- 02
Your stock is listed
From where it already sits. It never comes to us.
Units are listed on trialcove from wherever they are held — your warehouse, or your reverse logistics provider’s facility. We do not hold stock, do not run a warehouse, and never take title to a unit.
That is the whole point of plugging in rather than handing over. Your existing storage, systems and provider relationships carry on unchanged.
- 03
Graded where it is graded now
Your standard, mapped to the condition descriptions the customer reads.
Condition is already assessed in your returns operation. We map that assessment onto the condition descriptions a customer sees, and each product is priced against its own retail value according to the condition it is actually in.
We audit the accuracy rather than redo the work. A grade has to mean the same thing on every listing regardless of who graded it, and a pattern of over-grading is grounds for removal. That audit is what makes any of the grades worth anything to a customer.
- 04
A customer takes it on trial
They pay us the fee and the deposit. The item ships from where it is.
The customer pays a trial fee and a refundable deposit, both worked out from retail. The item is despatched from your facility or your provider’s, on the carriers already used for it.
The trial starts the day it arrives with them rather than the day they ordered, and runs for two or four weeks depending on what the item is. The trial contract is between the customer and trialcove, not between the customer and you.
The customer is responsible for damage beyond ordinary use, and their deposit is held against it. That is settled between them and trialcove rather than coming back to you as a claim.
- 05
They keep it, or it goes back
A sale, or a return to exactly where it came from.
If they keep it, they pay the balance and the sale is yours. If they do not, the item is collected and goes back to the same facility it left — not to us, and not to a new place in your chain.
A returned unit rejoins your operation at the grading step it would have been at anyway. A new unit that comes back as it went out can be re-boxed and listed as new again — customers here judge the item rather than the seal, so an opened box does not force the discount it would in normal retail.
- 06
Settlement and reporting
Paid on what sold, with the reasons behind what did not.
Sales settle on the agreed cycle, per unit, so you can see what each item made rather than one line for a lot.
Reporting covers what sold by grade and by category, and what customers said when they sent something back — which is the part a clearance channel cannot tell you at all.
Commercial terms are agreed per partner and depend on category, volume and grade mix. We will put a written proposal in front of you before anything is listed.
Book a meeting.
We build the integration and we maintain it. Tell us what you hold and how it is handled now, and we will come back with a written proposal.