Sampling has been crucial to shopper buy-in for decades. It’s a testbed for food brands trialling new flavours and has helped beauty giants encourage consumers to experiment with myriad products. And there’s no question that this legacy strategy was missed in lockdown - our research found nearly half of us (47%) missing physically interacting with products before we invested.

Some retailers - like The Perfume Shop - have instinctively pivoted to include samples as part of their online fulfilment. But testers and samples have the propensity to get much smarter. Online AR try-ons are commonplace on platforms like Pinterest, giving brands a deeper understanding of a shopper’s likes and dislikes.

Combined with the current resurgence of in-store sampling, tech can help bridge that online and offline to create a fuller, holistic picture of consumer preference. The right tech can join up consumer data across all channels, and connect it in a meaningful, potentially profitable way.

How to turn sampling into a data touchpoint

We’ve all seen it: that box of whatever it is, near the shop door or on stand, full of help-yourself product. We’re curious creatures (and who doesn’t love a freebie?) so we help ourselves, popping it in the bag. And when it disappears, brands and retailers have no idea who picked it up or if it was ever tried.

A better, more effective way is to harness our natural curiosity and propensity for the new is to introduce tech and blend it with what’s familiar. A QR-code that grants access to product teasers already feels exclusive, but it’s also instant in the way shoppers expect with this type of tech - scan-and-sample. It’s a no-frills affair that still feels premium.

And where the end-cycle of sampling was once virtually impossible to monitor, data captured from a QR-code will share insights with retailers on what cohorts are curious about the product, if it was purchased through a different channel at a later time, and even the platforms where consumers are most likely to buy the full product from.

If sampling is becoming a retargeting tool, it needs to prove its worth

Taking advantage of product sampling for a well-informed view of shoppers will go a long way in building relationships. Again, to quote Outform’s research, 43% of Millennials say personalisation matters to them in categories like health and beauty.

But many customers remain reticent to sharing their data (and so cut themselves off from personalisation) because they’re worried about how that data is going to be used.

Shoppers are averse to programmatic website banners barely scratching the surface of what they’re looking for. And while discounts on full products and exclusive access to new ranges do demonstrate the initial value exchange, making it work in the long-term means making a better job of retargeting.

Sampling provides another window into customers’ journeys, offering up an upfront incentive in exchange for an insight into how they explore different categories and what inspires a purchase. It’s a transaction that means brands and retailers can make recommendations more granular, more personalised.

The growing subscription market is one model that shows how sampling could play a part in customer retention. Two-in-ten consumers now want this as standard, and in categories like personal care where men are likely to stick to the same brand for skincare regimes, a repeat order works in their favour.

Brands and retailers can connect sampling data with search history and past purchases to form bespoke bundles, combining what customers are already using and what additional products benefit them based on their interests.

And effective retargeting doesn’t just have to exist online. A cross-channel window can lead to tangible advice from staff on shop floors based on what shoppers have already tried and tested.

There are huge benefits to data-led sampling, but the onus is on brands and retailers to make retargeting appealing - particularly to those who’ve had negative experiences in the past.

Sampling that bridges the online-offline divide

This more modern approach to sampling will create a digital handshake that connects on-and-offline shopping channels, something which sampling has struggled with in the past.

Shoppers now expect to browse and buy in almost any environment, making it harder to monitor the ROI of sampling - whether the brand objective is to drive customer acquisition or retention, loyalty or trail -  in its traditional guise.

Sampling still has significant relevance in retail. But like everything else, it needs to evolve, and to make data capture central to its role as part of the consumer transaction at a time when purchase journeys no longer begin and end in store.

Simon Hathaway is Group MD EMEA at Outform.