Amazon has officially announced that it will discontinue its Prime Try Before You Buy program on January 31, 2025.
The service, which allowed Prime members to order select clothing, shoes, and accessories, try them on at home for seven days, and return what they didn’t want, was Amazon’s attempt to replicate the in-store shopping experience in the digital space.
However, the company is shifting its focus toward AI-powered shopping tools, signaling a significant change in how consumers interact with Amazon’s fashion marketplace.
Why Is Amazon Ending ‘Try Before You Buy’?
The program, while innovative, had a limited adoption rate among customers. Amazon confirmed this in a statement to APNews:
“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… we’re phasing out the ‘Try Before You Buy’ option.”
Over the last few years, Amazon has introduced AI-driven shopping enhancements, including virtual try-ons for shoes and apparel, personalized size recommendations, and enhanced product visualization.
These tools aim to eliminate the need for physical product trials, reducing shipping costs, return rates, and logistical challenges.
How Are Customers Reacting?
The announcement has sparked mixed reactions from Prime members. While some rarely used the program and won’t notice its absence, others valued the convenience of trying on clothes at home without immediate commitment.
One longtime Prime user shared on Reddit: “I didn’t even know this program existed! I always just relied on free returns.”
Meanwhile, another shopper voiced disappointment: “I loved ‘Try Before You Buy.’ Now I feel like I’ll have to order multiple sizes and deal with more returns.”
For those who relied on the service, Amazon emphasizes that free returns will remain available for apparel purchases.
The company believes that with AI-powered size recommendations and virtual try-ons, customers will have a smoother, more accurate shopping experience without needing to physically handle items before purchasing.
The company has been aggressively implementing AI across its platform in fashion, search recommendations, inventory management, and customer support.
This shift also reduces Amazon’s operational costs. ‘Try Before You Buy’ required more logistics and warehouse space to handle returns, additional packaging and delivery costs for items often sent back, and longer transaction timelines, as customers had up to seven days to decide on their purchases.
By phasing out this return-heavy model, Amazon can streamline operations and encourage faster purchasing decisions while leveraging AI to make online shopping feel more intuitive.
For Amazon shoppers, this means more AI-powered size recommendations, expanded virtual try-on features, continued free returns on apparel, and faster order processing with fewer logistical delays.
For the retail industry, Amazon’s move could influence competitors like Walmart and Target to double down on their AI and augmented reality shopping experiences. The success of AI-powered try-on tools could reshape how we all shop online in the coming years.
While some customers may miss the ‘Try Before You Buy’ program, Amazon is betting that AI will make online shopping more seamless than ever before. The question is: Will shoppers embrace it?
