Amazon is dropping its ‘Try Before You Buy’ purchasing alternative: What to recognize

Amazon is no longer giving customers the alternative to “Try Before You Buy.”

The retail giant is dropping its “Try Before You Buy” service, which allowed Amazon’s Prime members to try on select clothing items, shoes and accessories at home before making a purchase.

In a statement to USA TODAY Tuesday, an Amazon spokesperson said the program’s limited reach and the growing use of artificial intelligence-powered recommendations on the e-commerce platform prompted the selection.

“Given the combination of Try Before You Buy only scaling to a limited number of items and customers increasingly using our recent AI-powered features like virtual try-on, personalized size recommendations, review highlights, and improved size charts to make sure they discover the correct fit, we’re phasing out the Try Before You Buy alternative, effective January 31, 2025,” the spokesperson said.

Amazon has rolled out four AI-powered innovations to address size and fit challenges and enhance customer encounter.

The spokesperson added phasing out this purchasing alternative will enable the retailer to provide customers “a single, simplified encounter with wider selection and faster delivery speeds,” compared to the narrower selection and longer delivery times for “Try Before You Buy” items, based on customer feedback.

What is Amazon Prime’s ‘Try Before You Buy’ service?

Prime’s “Try Before You Buy” service, which officially launched in 2018, allowed customers to order up to six select apparel items on a trial basis, after which they had seven days following the receipt of the merchandise to profitability any unwanted items without being charged.

Amazon said the last day of the advantage is Jan. 31 and customers can continue to avail the service until then.

Amazon to keep ‘convenient returns’

While Amazon is dropping its “Try Before You Buy” service, the Seattle-based corporation will continue to propose “convenient, hassle-free returns,” which can be done at Amazon stores, including Whole Foods, as well as local stores like Staples, Kohl’s and The UPS Store.

“Of course, customers will continue to enjoy quick, free shipping, with straightforward, free returns on our packed apparel selection,” the statement added.

Saman Shafiq is a trending information reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and pursue her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.