Try Now Buy Later Programs will increase conversion. This means more orders.
They also increase cart size. This means more units per order.
More orders overall, with more units per order on average, is great for revenue -- but can sound overwhelming from an inventory perspective.
The truth is, a Try Now Buy Later program can help make your inventory more efficient. We know this sounds counterintuitive at first, but hear us out.
Think about your current return policy -- most of the Brands we work with offer a 30-day or longer returns window. Shortening it might help get inventory back to your warehouse more quickly, but it would negatively impact the customer experience. According to ShipBob, 49% of online shoppers are reviewing your return policies before even considering a purchase from your Brand. Shoppers want flexibility with returns, so inserting friction will decrease conversion rates.
By contrast, those same shoppers that expect 30-day return policies jump at the chance to try your product at home for 7 days. 7 days -- that’s a lot fewer than 30.
A Try Now Buy Later program reduces uncertainty in the purchase decision while simultaneously increasing the speed with which unwanted items are returned to your warehouse.
With a trial period that is shorter than your return policy, inventory will start coming back a lot sooner. Many brands find TryNow helps them ship more efficiently and improves their inventory turns. Here is what one CEO of a men’s activewear Brand had to say:
“We see this as a way to ship more efficiently - especially when you’re not sure about sizes. The customer gets to try two sizes faster. And for us, it compresses the cash conversion cycle for inventory.”
Today, you have to make purchasing decisions based on current inventory levels in the warehouse. You may not know when or if items that have been purchased are coming back as returns for 30 days or more.
With TryNow, not only are you getting more of your product in the hands of shoppers, you’re also accelerating your feedback cycle. You can learn the keep rate of a new product launch, understand what products perform better than others, and you can leverage these learnings to inform your replenishment and rebuy planning. Getting these insights sooner takes the guesswork out of the inventory buying process.
A Try Now Buy Later program certainly sends more of your inventory out the door, but it also accelerates the speed with which it returns, improving inventory turns. When you partner with TryNow, you can focus on growing your business, and stay confident that your operations can scale to support.