Brand new stock
Help customers decide without discounting the product.
Getting a product into somebody’s hands is the most persuasive thing you can do, and normally the most expensive. A trial does it for the cost of a delivery — and the customer pays that, not you.
You are not buying a click and hoping. The customer has the product at home for two or four weeks, and the ones who keep it have chosen it having actually used it. That is a customer acquired without ad spend, and one worth considerably more over their lifetime than one bought through advertising.
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Why new stock trials well
Handing somebody the product beats any advert
Every pound of marketing spend is trying to do one thing: convince somebody the product is worth having. A trial does not convince them — it lets them find out. Nothing in an advert competes with a fortnight of using the thing.
And it costs less than the advert. The customer pays the trial fee, so the item reaches their house without you buying the impression, the click or the visit first.
A customer who has used it is worth more
Somebody who buys after a trial has not been talked into anything. They have had the item in their routine for weeks and decided to keep it, which is a decision that does not unwind a month later.
That is a different customer from one acquired through a click — better matched to the product, and worth considerably more over their lifetime.
Full price, and an opened box is not a discount
New stock lists at full retail. We do not ask you to cut the price to be here, and the customer pays what they would have paid you anyway.
A new product that comes back is no longer new, and that is worth saying plainly: it is inspected, reboxed and graded, then offered again at its grade price. The trial fee covers that handling.
What it does not take is the discount a returned unit normally takes on top. Retail marks one down because the next buyer cannot check inside a re-sealed box; here they can, because they have it at home before they pay.
What a customer costs you before we say anything.
These are not our figures. They are what marketing costs as a share of revenue across ten UK ecommerce markets, measured on real stores in a single month. The categories where it costs most are the categories where a customer most wants to try the thing first — baby equipment, fitness, appliances, bikes. That is not a coincidence. Expensive acquisition is what it looks like when people are unsure.
- Baby & Child12.29%
182 visits per order · £737.47 order value · £91.00 marketing per order
- Health & Wellbeing11.93%
28 visits per order · £51.55 order value · £6.00 marketing per order
- Pet Care9.22%
34 visits per order · £80.79 order value · £7.00 marketing per order
- Fashion, Clothing & Accessories9.10%
55 visits per order · £82.08 order value · £7.00 marketing per order
- Cars & Motorcycling9.02%
55 visits per order · £212.96 order value · £19.00 marketing per order
- Kitchen & Home Appliances8.22%
30 visits per order · £53.73 order value · £4.00 marketing per order
- Sports & Recreation7.90%
47 visits per order · £107.12 order value · £8.00 marketing per order
- Toys, Games & Collectables7.38%
58 visits per order · £64.81 order value · £5.00 marketing per order
- Food & Drink4.16%
68 visits per order · £106.77 order value · £4.00 marketing per order
- Arts & Crafts1.56%
19 visits per order · £122.78 order value · £2.00 marketing per order
| Market | Visits per order | Order value | Marketing per order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baby & Child | 182 | £737.47 | 12.29%£91.00 |
| Health & Wellbeing | 28 | £51.55 | 11.93%£6.00 |
| Pet Care | 34 | £80.79 | 9.22%£7.00 |
| Fashion, Clothing & Accessories | 55 | £82.08 | 9.10%£7.00 |
| Cars & Motorcycling | 55 | £212.96 | 9.02%£19.00 |
| Kitchen & Home Appliances | 30 | £53.73 | 8.22%£4.00 |
| Sports & Recreation | 47 | £107.12 | 7.90%£8.00 |
| Toys, Games & Collectables | 58 | £64.81 | 7.38%£5.00 |
| Food & Drink | 68 | £106.77 | 4.16%£4.00 |
| Arts & Crafts | 19 | £122.78 | 1.56%£2.00 |
The median is 8.6% of revenue, and it is spent whether or not the sale happens. Our transaction fee is 8% where you referred the customer and 12% where we found them, charged only when one does.
And that is before anything comes back.
A return is the one event that destroys the acquisition cost and the margin at the same time. You paid to find the customer, the sale unwound, and the unit that comes back is worth less than the one that went out.
A trial that ends the same way has already earned its fee, and the unit rejoins your flow at the grade it left at.
A normal sale that is refunded
A customer buys a £500.00 item through your own channels, then sends it back
The refund itself is not on this list — that is the customer’s money going back to them, revenue that never happened rather than a cost you incurred. These are the four things the round trip costs you on top of it.
- Carriage back, inspection and restocking£13.00
Cash out · what retailers surveyed put one return at; £10–£25 is the usual range, more for a two-man collection
- Card and gateway fees, not refunded with the order£13.00
Cash out · 2.5% of order value stays with the processor
- The marketing that produced the order£43.00
Already spent · order value at 8.6%, the median marketing share of revenue across the ten UK markets IRP reports
- The markdown, because it can no longer be sold as sealed£100.00
Value lost · 20% — the bottom of the 20–40% the trade puts on a return once markdown is counted
Cash out
£26.00
leaves the business
Already spent
£43.00
spent, and bought nothing
Value lost
£100.00
the unit will not earn it
A trial that ends in a return
The same item goes out on trial and comes back.
- Cash out · None. The customer paid a £30.00 trial fee up front, and it covers the round trip and the return handling, inspection, regrading and any work needed to put it back where it was.
- Already spent · None. No media bought the trial — the customer came to the item themselves.
- Value lost · None. The unit rejoins your flow at the grade it left at, and no commission is charged on a return.
Your share of the trial fee, which you keep either way£22.00
Why the markdown does not follow it here. The item has had the same journey either way — out to somebody’s house and back. What changes is why the discount existed. A returned unit is marked down because the next buyer cannot check what is inside a re-sealed box. On trialcove they can: they have it at home for a fortnight before they pay for it, so the price no longer has to carry their doubt.
Marketing: 8.6% of order value, the median across the ten UK markets reported by IRP Commerce, July 2026. Handling: ZigZag Global, Annual Returns Report — true cost of returns survey, 2025. Markdown: 20%, the bottom of the 20–40% the trade puts on a return once markdown is counted (Trade estimates, compiled, 2025–26) — you know your own number better than we do, and it is the one line here worth replacing with it. Non-food online returns run at 19.5% of orders (ZigZag Global and Retail Economics, 2025 forecast).
The new stock that trials best.
Anything substantial enough that a customer wants to be sure, and anything whose appeal does not survive being reduced to a photograph on a white background.
- Current-line new stock
- New-in-box overstock
- Seasonal and end-of-line
- Launch and pre-order units
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.
Get your products into customers’ hands.
We integrate with your systems, or with the reverse logistics provider you already use, and we do that work. You can also offer trials directly on your own product pages.