‘Buy and try’ schemes — are they right for your business?

Now more than ever, resellers are faced with the challenge of offering new products to highly knowledgeable but less loyal end-users. Although customers may have the budget, they still worry about spending it on products they have not had a chance to experience firsthand.
Even though we’re coming to the end of the recession, customers are much more wary about spending money on products that may simply not be up to the task. The result of this is that customers either don’t purchase a new product, or decide to stick with a tried and tested brand. At this point, many resellers will be asking themselves what exactly they can do to combat this. How can they encourage customers to try different products that will lead the resellers themselves to better sales?   

One way is to give customers the security of knowing they are not making a long term mistake by letting them buy products and then return them if they are not satisfied. Although resellers in isolation might be sceptical towards implementing a programme of this sort, the factors influencing customer purchasing decisions mean that often this can be the right approach.
For both businesses and consumers, buying IT is more than a simple commodity purchase, and can be a highly personal decision. Customers want to see how the product they are thinking about buying will fit into their lifestyle or their business, and can only do this if they can actually use the product within their environment.   

As well as fitting in with the way that most people purchase technology, this kind of programme can provide resellers with two important benefits. Firstly, a programme of this sort can have a positive impact on your customers’ attitude toward your business.
If a customer is burdened with a product due to an inflexible returns policy, then they are not going to have a favourable attitude towards the manufacturer and the reseller who sold them the product in the first place. This will reduce the chances of the customer using the supplier again, and have a negative impact on its future profits by reducing customer loyalty and retention.
Secondly, letting customers ‘buy and try’ will help to increase sales. If customers don’t have the choice of using a product before committing to buy it, then they may take the safe option of buying a brand they have used before. For a reseller, this can mean losing out on sales if the customer decides to buy from another reseller that can offer that product or provide flexible purchasing options.