The Porch Pros Network

The Porch Pros Network lets you station product across the country at trusted neighborhood Pros — without driving anywhere. Pick a Pro, ship them inventory, they hand it off to local buyers on Thursday. You get paid the same way as your own sales.

How stationed inventory works

You ship a few units of a variant to a Pro. We track stationed quantity per (variant, host) pair. When a buyer in that Pro's coverage radius checks out, the unit comes off stationed inventory; the buyer picks up at the Pro's porch.

Each pickup pays the Pro $5 from the buyer's $8 pickup fee. Your product price flows to you on Stripe Connect, same as any other order.

The per-vendor cap

Every Pro has a per-tier cap on how much retail value they can hold for a single vendor. Trust tiers run T1 → T4. T1 caps at $200/vendor and 5 vendors; T4 grows that to $5,000+ and 50 vendors. The cap protects both sides — Pros don't get over-stationed; vendors don't get stuck with one broker.

When you ship inventory, the dashboard projects your new total against the cap. If the shipment would push you past, the form blocks it and asks you to wait for tier promotion or split the shipment.

How relationships start

Either side can request. From your dashboard:

• Hub → Porch Pros → Relationships → Find a Pro opens a search drawer of vetted Pros. Pick one, hit Request, the Pro gets an email.
• A Pro can also request you. The request lands in your "Sent to me" pending list with Approve / Decline buttons.

Pending requests count against your tier's slot cap. Cancel ones you don't want.

Vendor tier slot caps

| Tier | Active Pro slots | |---|---| | Free Porch | 0 (Pros not available on Free) | | Shop Founding / Standard | 5 | | Anchor | 25 per store (50 across two Anchor stores) |

At-cap vendors can buy a +5 Pack for $19/mo (stackable). Free Porch vendors must upgrade to a paid tier first.

Wind-down — how relationships end

Either side can initiate a wind-down. Stationed product keeps selling for up to 60 days, then auto-archives. At archive time, the vendor picks the disposition:

• Returned. We generate a label, the Pro packs it, the carrier picks it up. Vendor pays return shipping by default — except when the Pro initiated the wind-down without a clean reason, in which case the cost is clawed from the Pro's pending pickup-fee earnings.
• Abandoned. Pro keeps the inventory. This option is disabled when the Pro initiated the wind-down — that's the anti-abuse rule.
• Donated / destroyed. Ops handles the disposition; no return shipping.

Recall (emergency)

If something is wrong — quality complaint, Pro-side issue, an order disputes — you can recall. The Pro storefront stops selling immediately. Vendor pays return shipping. Then choose disposition (almost always "returned").

What you'll see in the dashboard

Active card grid with peer name, location, trust-tier badge, current consignment value vs cap, and View / Recall / Wind Down buttons. Pending requests split into "I sent" (cancellable) and "Sent to me" (Approve / Decline). The slot meter at the top tells you exactly how many active Pros you're carrying and your room to grow.

Tips

• Lead with bestsellers. Stationed inventory works hardest when the items have proven sell-through.
• Pick Pros in different metros. Geographic spread is the whole point.
• Watch the trust-tier badges. T3+ Pros have hosted enough successful pickups that the per-vendor cap is meaningful.
• Wind down before relationships go stale. The 60-day auto-archive is your safety net, not your strategy.

Questions? Reply to any system email — a human reads it.