How vetting works
Every shop on Retrove was checked by a person before its first piece went live. This page sets out the whole process: what an applicant has to show us, who reads it, the checks that gate a shop going live, and what takes a live shop down again. Everything described here actually runs, by hand in our review queue or in code at the point of sale.
What an applicant has to show us
The application asks different questions depending on the kind of seller, because the evidence worth checking is different for each. In every case we ask for something that exists outside the form, something we can go and look at.
A link to where the shop already lives online, their website, Instagram or seller profile. We go and look at what they actually sell.
A link to their seller profile and roughly how many sales they have made. Public feedback is a record in the open, so we read it: how pieces are described, whether orders ship on time, what happens when something goes wrong.
Their website, so we can see the collection itself.
What they plan to sell and where the stock comes from, in their own words, plus an Instagram showing actual pieces if they have one. Sourcing is the question that matters here: it is what separates a genuine vintage seller from a rail of fast fashion.
Every applicant also gives their shop name and the town or city they trade from, and accepts the seller terms at the point of application. We take shops in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. Each of these fields is enforced on our server as well as in the form, so none of them can be skipped.
A person reads it
Applications land in a review queue that the Retrove team works through by hand. There is no scoring model and nothing is approved automatically. We read what was sent, then go and look at it: the shop, the seller profile, the website, the pieces.
We are working out three things. That the applicant is real. That the stock is real and theirs. That their record elsewhere reads like someone who posts on time and answers messages. Where it is close, we email and ask instead of turning an application down quietly.
Some things end an application on the spot: replicas or counterfeits, stock the applicant does not yet have in their hands, and applications with nothing in them we can check.
A turned-down application is not held against you. The account is released, so you can apply again when there is more to show.
The checks that gate going live
Approval opens the seller’s dashboard and they can start loading stock straight away, because Stripe verification can take days and that waiting time is useful. None of it is visible to shoppers yet. Every piece is held off the storefront until the shop passes all of the following, and the gate is enforced in the database itself, so it cannot be got around from a browser:
- Stripe identity and payouts. The seller connects their own Stripe account and passes Stripe’s identity verification, which also means being 18 or over. Money from a sale is paid out to that verified account automatically, released 14 days after delivery to cover the returns window, and held longer only if a dispute is open.
- A complete sender address. Name, street address, town, postcode and a contact email. Postage labels are bought against this address, so a shop without a real one cannot ship an order.
- A town or city on the shop page, so shoppers know where the shop trades from.
- A shop photo and a written description of at least 60 characters, so the shop page says something real before the first piece sells.
The moment the last check clears, the pieces publish.
What takes a shop down
There is no per-item approval queue, on purpose: the seller is the thing that has been vetted, and their listings go live as they add them. The check on individual pieces is the report button.
- Any signed-in shopper can report a piece. Reports go only to the Retrove team. A seller cannot see who reported them or read what was said.
- A piece that breaks the rules is hidden. It comes off the storefront and cannot be bagged or bought while we look at it.
- An account that breaks the rules can be suspended for a set period, with the reason recorded against it.
- A shop that is removed disappears whole. The storefront only ever shows pieces from live shops, so when a shop comes down, every piece it has comes down with it in the same moment.
What earns removal is the same standard applied at the door, for as long as the shop trades: counterfeits or replicas, stock that was never the seller’s, descriptions that hide flaws, orders that repeatedly fail to ship. The seller terms carry the detail.
What we do not claim. Retrove does not inspect each individual piece before it lists, and we say so plainly. What stands behind a listing is the vetted seller who wrote it, backed by your 14-day return and your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 if a piece arrives faulty or significantly different from how it was shown.
Think your shop would pass?
Apply to sell →The full seller rules are on the application page, and fees, payouts and setup are covered in the seller FAQ.