sale or return

a sale of goods that allows the buyer a period of time to return the merchandise. With sale or return agreements, ownership passes to a buyer, while providing a window of time for the return of the goods to a seller. Compare sale or return to a sale on approval in which ownership only changes on approval of the merchandise by the buyer. In businesses such as book retailers, sale or return agreements are a common arrangement, allowing the vendor to return unsold merchandise for a refund.