Which Products Should Offer Samples? A Guide for Shopify Stores

Offering samples on every product sounds generous. In practice it usually isn’t the best setup. Some products sell fine without one, some cost too much to sample, and some are where shoppers really get stuck. A sample does the most good on those last ones.

This guide is about the decision itself: which products in your Shopify store should get a “Get a Sample” button, and which should do without. If you already know your list and just want the setup steps, skip to the end. There’s a short video and links to the help docs.

Why “samples on everything” isn’t always the right call

Every sample you send has a cost: the piece itself, packing, shipping and your time. When samples are on every product, you pay that cost on items people would have bought anyway. You also make your product pages busier for no real gain.

Being selective lets you:

• Spend your sample budget where it changes decisions, not where it just adds a freebie.
• Keep pages clean on products that don’t need a sample option.
• Learn faster, because a short list of sampled products is easier to watch and adjust.

Product Samples lets you switch from offering samples on all products to offering samples on some products only, then pick exactly which products get one. So the question is which ones to pick.

5 signs a product should offer a sample

1. Colour, texture or finish is the main question

Tiles, fabric, flooring, wallpaper and paint look different on every screen. If customers often ask “Is it really this shade?” or “How does it feel?”, a sample answers that better than any photo.

2. The full-size item is expensive or hard to return

The more a product costs, or the more awkward it is to send back (heavy, bulky, cut to size), the more a shopper hesitates. A small sample lets them check before committing to the big order.

3. You see lots of questions or slow sales on it

Look at your support inbox and product questions. Products that get the same “What’s it like?” questions again and again, or get plenty of views but few orders, are good places to start.

4. Returns on it are mostly “not what I expected”

If a product comes back because it looked different in person rather than because it was faulty, a sample targets exactly that gap.

5. It’s easy to sample

Some products split nicely into a swatch, offcut, chip or mini size. Others don’t. Start with the ones you can sample cheaply and consistently.

Products you can usually skip

• Low-priced items, where the sample costs about as much as the product.
• Things customers already know, like repeat purchases, standard parts or well-known brands.
• Items you can’t sample well, where a small piece wouldn’t tell the customer anything useful.
• Products with steady sales and few returns. If it isn’t broken, a sample won’t add much.

A simple way to build your first list

1. Pull your shortlist. List the products that match two or more of the signs above.
2. Start small. Pick a handful, enough to learn from but few enough to manage.
3. Decide free or paid. Samples can be free or offered at a lower price. Our guide to pricing and shipping samples covers that choice in detail.
4. Turn samples on for just those products (setup below).
5. Watch and adjust. Use the app’s metrics to see sample activity, then add or remove products. Here’s how to read the analytics.

Your list doesn’t have to be perfect on day one. You can change which products offer samples whenever you like.

Fine-tuning beyond the product list

Once your list is set, a few related options help keep sampling focused:

• Specific variants only. If only certain colours or sizes need a sample, see how to set up sample buttons for specific variants.
• Limits per order or per customer. Sample limitation settings stop one shopper from ordering too many. There’s a video walkthrough.
• Free samples for trade customers. If you sell to designers or contractors, you can offer free samples to trade and professional customers.

Keep samples apart from the main cart

When only some products offer samples, it helps if customers can clearly see what’s a sample and what’s a full-size order. With the separated sample box, samples a customer adds go into their own Sample Box instead of the regular cart. The checkout button in that box only includes the samples listed inside it.

Merchants have asked for this kind of control for a long time. One review on the Shopify App Store, from Ammonite Living, says: “We had an issue where we did not want specific products to offer samples and he assisted us in being able to do this.”

Set it up in about a minute

In the app, open Settings, change the product option to Offer Samples to some products only, click Choose Product, tick the products from your list, and click Save Settings. Then open one of those product pages and check that the Get a Sample button is there.

New to the app? Start with the Getting Started and Configuration help articles.

Start with the products that need it most

Samples work best when they go where a shopper would otherwise hesitate. Pick a short list, switch it on, and adjust as you learn.

Product Samples by Luke costs $12/month and comes with a 7-day free trial.

Try Product Samples free on the Shopify App Store →

Questions about your setup? Get in touch.