Shopify ‘Try Before You Buy’: How Custom App Can Drive Sales

In offline retail, customers can touch and feel the product. In several beauty stores, you can also try the product. In apparel stores, there is a trial room. Online shoppers also expect a shopping experience where they can try out a product before they buy it. That’s where the “Try Before You Buy” (TBYB) model comes in. In your Shopify store, this functionality allows customers to try products at home before committing to a purchase, increasing trust and reducing friction in the buying process.

Enabling TBYB on your Shopify store significantly increases your conversion rate and revenue on your website. This is specifically useful to increase the first time buyers.

But here’s the catch: Shopify’s native TBYB options are limited. They work well for basic use cases, but most growing brands need custom logic, workflows, and integrations to truly make this model work.

At Growisto, we help brands unlock the full potential of Try Before You Buy on Shopify with custom development solutions tailored to your business.

What is “Try Before You Buy” in Shopify?

TBYB allows customers to order products with no upfront payment, try them at home, and pay later for what they keep. This is ideal for:

• Beauty and Personal Care
• Fashion & apparel brands
• Eyewear or accessories retailers
• Luxury and high-involvement purchases
• Home furnishing, mattresses
• Jewelry
• Lingerie

Limitations of Default TBYB Implementations on Shopify

Shopify’s Try Before You Buy functionality is a framework, which works best with third party apps and custom apps. While several third party apps work well for several brands, there are some limitations of these third party apps:

• Payment flows: Most third party apps allow limited payment flows. 
• Inventory logic: The options for logic for handling inventory is limited 
• Third party integrations: These apps integrate with a limited number of CRM, ERP and other third party systems. 
• A third party app can go out of business: Recently, a third party app is going out of business, leaving several brands that were using their app stranded.
• Trial durations, terms, or product types: The options of trial durations, terms and product types are also limited
• Business rules (e.g., trial caps per customer): Often these apps also do not allow customizations in the business rules
• Page Speed: Often third party apps do not consider the number and size of the javascripts and content they are pushing on your website, slowing down your website

That’s where Growisto comes in.