Dictionary.net

When goods are sent from a manufacturer or wholesale dealer to a retail trader, in the hope that he may purchase them, with the understanding that what he may choose to take he shall have as on a contract of sale, and what he does not take he will retain as a consignee for the owner, the goods are said to have been sent on sale and return.

The goods taken by the receiver as on a sale, will be considered as sold, and the title to them is vested in the receiver of them; the goods he does not buy are considered as a deposit in the hands of the receiver of them, and the title is in the person who sent them. 1 Bell's Com., 268, 5th ed.