Picture this. You enter a retail store and see a product sampling stand of a brand. The stand is manned by a store employee who is carrying free samples to provide all the customers that visit the stand. Would you not go to the product sampling stand and claim your free sample? Of course, you would. Most of us will. This is why it is very important for brands and store managers to know about product sampling, which is one of the most effective store execution strategies.
Customers that visit a retail store would never miss out on this opportunity whether the free sample on offer is something that like or something that they wouldn’t have paid for. Everyone likes gifts or freebees. This is a very good opportunity for brands to promote their products.
So what is product sampling exactly? It is nothing but a store execution strategy for brands to introduce new products to visitors of retail stores. They do it by offering free samples of the new products. It is a great strategy because it helps brands to make customers test their products out without requiring them to pay for them. If they like what they see or experience with the sample products, they can pay to buy those from the next time onwards.
Having a product sampling stand inside a store can offer the store as well as the brand several benefits. We already alluded to one of the benefits. You don’t ask the customers to pay to test out a new product for the first time. This takes away the risk of losing money on something, which they didn’t like. There won’t be any buyer remorse here even if they don’t like the product. However, if they like what they see, you will have a prospect turned into a customer. Also, you will offer a great shopping experience to them.
Even with its advantages, brands and stores don’t consider product sampling as a good way to reach out to new customers and increase sales. There are many out there that aren’t doing it because they don’t believe that it works. Well, it turns out that it does. And there are others that are making the most of this store execution strategy.
There is so much data available out there that sys that product sampling works wonders. It is an effective way to showcase your products, get them out to customers, make them thinking about your products, and build customer loyalty amongst other things.
It is easy to understand that why you don’t want to do it if you are a luxury car manufacturer or something of that sort. Product sampling is not the right way to market your product in this case. But there are so many brands and products that can turn their sales numbers around by adopting this strategy.