Amazon To Shut Down 'Try Before You Buy' Rival To Stitch Fix

Amazon is shutting down its "Prime Try Before You Buy" service on January 31, according to a notice on its website. The offering operated similarly to apparel subscription services like Stitch Fix and Rent the Runway, allowing Prime members to try out apparel-related products and only pay for items they wanted to keep. CNBC reports: An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the move, which was first reported by The Information. "Given the combination of Try Before You Buy only scaling to a limited number of items and customers increasingly using our new AI-powered features like virtual try-on, personalized size recommendations, review highlights, and improved size charts to make sure they find the right fit, we're phasing out the Try Before You Buy option, effective January 31, 2025," the spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.

Amazon rolled out the service, which was previously called Prime Wardrobe, in 2017. It was only available to members of Amazon's $139-per-year Prime subscription program, which also includes perks such as speedy shipping and access to streaming services. Users could test out a mix of luxury, staple and Amazon-owned brands, and return whatever they didn't want to keep for free within seven days of receiving the items. The service operated similarly to wardrobe subscription services including Stitch Fix and Rent the Runway, as well as newer entrants such as Urban Outfitters' Nuuly.

Never made much sense to me anyway

[cascadingstylesheet]

Anything I would buy from Amazon already has free returns ... never really saw the use of Try Before You Buy.

Re:Never made much sense to me anyway

[Local ID10T]

I thought those other services were offering more anyway: style-guidance (for those of us with no sense of style), and help figuring out fit and sizing vs just "free returns of what you don't want". Amazon was never really competing in this space.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Anything I would buy from Amazon already has free returns

Amazon will ban users who have too many returns.

Amazon doesn't disclose the criteria, but if you return more than 10%, you risk a ban.

The tolerated return rate might be higher for clothes.

Disclaimer: I buy my clothes from the clearance rack at Walmart.

Re:

[cascadingstylesheet]

Anything I would buy from Amazon already has free returns

Amazon will ban users who have too many returns.

Amazon doesn't disclose the criteria, but if you return more than 10%, you risk a ban.

The tolerated return rate might be higher for clothes.

Disclaimer: I buy my clothes from the clearance rack at Walmart.

Um, okay? I'm sure they do. Don't blame them.

I buy tons of stuff from Amazon. I would have to work very hard at it to return anywhere near 10% of it. Even if I needed frequent returns of clothes, which I don't (I mean most of us figure out our size after awhile).

Re:

[ayesnymous]

But how is "Try before you buy" different from returns? Amazon bans for too many returns because they have to spend time and money on return shipping and having employees restock or dispose of items. They have to do the same thing for "Try before you buy". They might have a similar ban policy if you utilized "Try before you buy" too often.

Re:

[ayesnymous]

My thoughts exactly.

Totally not just to save costs

[GrahamJ]

no sir

Screw 'em all...

[b0s0z0ku]

One-by-one, the in-person clothing stores are falling out of business. Makes me want to punch the wall in frustration. I want to go to the store, try things like shoes or jackets on to feel if they're comfortable, maybe try on several different things. I don't want to go online, order 3x the number of items that I'd actually buy in person, hope that one will fit, then wait to get my money back if I return the other two. Plus, I might forget to return them ... poor executive function sucks. And no guara

Good.

[Computershack]

This kind of wasteful practice needs to stop whether it be Amazon or any other clothing company doing it. Ignoring the additional mileage from transportation the returned items cannot be sold as new, many will end up in landfill. It's a stupid idea and whoever thought of it should be shot for the damage it's caused.