How Sellers Can Benefit from Amazon's Try Before You Buy Program

With the rise of popular styling subscription services that allow shoppers to try on clothes before purchasing them online - Amazon launched its own “Try Before You Buy” program. Prime customers can select up to 4 eligible fashion items at a time without getting charged for 7 days. If you sell in a fashion category and want to provide more flexibility to your customers, Try Before You Buy could be a great feature to add on for your Amazon Prime customers!

What is the Try Before You Buy Program?

The Try Before You Buy program allows Prime customers to select up to 4 eligible fashion items to their Prime Try Before You Buy cart without getting charged for 7 days! During this time, the shopper can try the item(s) on and decide if they want to keep them before having to pay.

Once the seven days pass, if the customer has not opted to send back the items, their card will be charged for the item(s) selected. If the customer at this point decides they no longer want the item(s), a return can be set up as usual within 30 days. Eligible products include:

• Baby Clothing  
• Dresses  
• Exercise Clothes
• Footwear
• Handbags
• Jewelry
• Luggage and Travel Accessories
• Pants
• Sweaters
• Tops
• Watches

Depending on the product category, the referral fee rates and fees vary. Check the Try Before You Buy fee overview page for specific details.

How Can Sellers Opt into the Try Before You Buy Program?

Enrolling in the Try Before You Buy program is surprisingly easy. Visit the product enrollment page and click “Manage products in bulk”. From there, easily enroll your entire catalog in bulk with the click of a button under “Manage all products in one click”.

If you want to enroll only certain products, you can do so with the Manage products in bulk using a template, or manually by clicking the box to the left of the SKU(s) and “Enroll selected products”.  

Determining if the Try Before You Buy Program Makes Sense for Your Amazon Business:

To figure out if offering Try Before You Buy makes sense for your business, you will need to see if the pros outweigh the cons.

Pros:

• Provide more flexibility to your Amazon Prime customers.
• Build brand trust and loyalty.
• Boost consumer confidence.
• Offer a unique service.

Cons:

• Risk a higher percentage of unsellable inventory due to the potential increase of damaged returns.
• The program is not free, and depending on your margins, the added referral fees may not make sense in terms of profitability.

If you’re a client looking for more information, contact your account team! If you’re interested in learning more about how Blue Wheel can aid in your brand efforts in online marketplaces, schedule a consultation with our team, we would love to hear from you.