Shopify Style Series: Try Before You Buy Is the Hottest Item You Can Offer This Year

Ditched the mall for online shopping? You’re not alone. But even though 80% of Americans shop online, our relationship with eCommerce is far from perfect. Enter: try before you buy.

This article is part two in the 4-part “Shopify Style Series” powered by Klarna and Sellry. Read the first part here.

Try before you buy is a relatively new ecomm phenomenon that helps retailers’ improve the overall online shopping experience by encouraging shoppers to test drive items before they commit to purchase. Here’s why it works wonders for both you and your customers.

1.Try Before You Buy Eliminates Risk

Unsurprisingly, 43% of American shoppers have reported feeling frustrated by the lack of product details available online. And even if the measurements, materials, and fit are displayed loud and clear on your site, there is still no guarantee that the garment or product will meet your shoppers’ expectations “IRL”. Offering the option to pay later virtually eliminates the limitations of the online world, turning your customers’ home into a dressing room (minus the weird fluorescent lighting).

And for the retailer? Today’s top flexible payment options always pay you right away, even if the shopper is late or defaults on their payments. By working with a third-party payment provider, retailers can rest assured that they are protected just as well as their customers.

2. Fast and Easy for Shoppers

Try before you buy only requires a few simple details in order to complete a purchase. And the faster the checkout, the lower the risk of cart abandonment. Implementing this innovative payment option has the power to alter the customer mindset, encouraging them to add more items to their cart, without stressing about buyer’s remorse.  Pick, click, done!

3. Makes Returns a Breeze

Bad return experiences that take too long, cost too much, require action within a short window of time, or (worst of all) force online shoppers to go to a physical store have scared people away from buying large-ticket items online. Try before you buy removes one of the biggest checkout hurdles of all–the dreaded return. When trust is broken by an unclear or unfair return policy, it’s hard to repair it. Offering more flexible payment options can help your customers, even lapsed ones, take a chance on you. And that chance could pay off big time.

4. Proven to Increase Conversions

Speaking of paying off, savvy online retailers like Warby Parker and Zappos have found tremendous success by encouraging customers to order first and pay later. Research shows that when customers are put in control of their shopping experience, the chance of conversion increased sales goes up. In fact, in a survey of 2,000 consumers from Klarna and Retail Connect, 71% said they would consider ordering goods and paying for them after they were delivered (and only if they decided to keep them), while 72% said they would consider ordering goods and paying for them later. Bottom line, the more flexible you are, the more confident your customer feels.

5. Helps Bridge the Gap Between Online and In-Store

We may be spending more time online than we do in stores, but that doesn’t mean that online shopping has completely replaced the brick-and-mortar experience. It has, of course, changed it. Today’s customers demand synchronicity between your site and your store.  Recreating a comfortable “in-store” experience at home shows customers that you are adapting and evolving to their preferences in order to deliver the best possible customer experience, no matter what the future holds.

Including a try before you buy option on your checkout page builds trust and boosts sales by putting the control back into your customer’s hands, all at no risk to you.

This article is part of a 4-part series about sustaining and growing your ecomm business in 2019. Insights are brought to you by the ecomm and payments experts at Sellry, Klarna, and Shopify.