Why Product Trial Is so Important for Beauty Brands

If you’ve ever worked in beauty or skincare, you know that return rate is a big concern. These days, many retailers have lenient return policies, encouraging customers to return products that they are not satisfied with - and for the majority of instances, brands carry a large burden.

Particularly with some channels, such as online or Direct TV purchases, customers don’t have access to product testers or product packaging, increasing the chances that they second guess their purchase.

To be fair, as brands, regardless of the channel, we don’t have full control over the entire purchasing journey. 

But let’s review a few things to make sure that you are thinking about the bigger picture to discourage product returns:

• Is  retail staff properly trained in your products? Do they understand the benefits? What makes the formula unique?

• If you have a visual merchandising display, are your products easy to navigate? Are the testers replenished and kept clean?

• If you purchase a product online, does your packaging do a sufficient job to explain the best way to use your products? Precautions to beware of?

• Do you have a customer service team (or person) available to answer customer questions and help select the right products for their needs?

Here’s the big catch with product returns: even the strongest brands have returns. The best strategy is to decrease the likelihood of a customer to return a product. And the fundamental formula is to ensure that your product + brand is a great fit for her/him. 

One of the best solutions for this is Product trial.

Brands must understand that offering customers opportunities to “try before you buy” is in your brand’s favor. 
So encourage your customers and prospective customers to try your products.

If you have any success stories without product trial drop me a line - I’d love to hear your stories!

-Christina