Progress Update No. 03 - No More Trial Packs

Everyone Loves Trial Packs

Or so I thought.
When I first launched the Vegan Omega-3 product, it was just one size - 60 capsules.

When it came to improving the packaging and doing a larger PO (more tips here before you commit to that though!) I thought it'd be great to offer a smaller trial size.

The reviews were good, so a lower entry price should help get more people in the door.

The Reality in Numbers

Here's what happened though:

It wasn't terrible but people overwhelmingly ignored it - 83% to be precise.

But even worse was that it's a lower price and margin, so it represented just 9% of revenue.

Hidden Costs

Turns out there are a number of drawbacks which I learned the hard way.

1. Subscribers get stuck on it - even though I'm viewing it as a 'trial', customers who buy this SKU aren't giving it as much thought. If they buy via subscription they will mostly stick with it. If you don't have some slick post-purchase flows to get them to switch upwards, you'll face the issue of...
2. Higher COGS - I had to ship 2x the number of trial packs for the same number of normal packs. I knew the product margin was slightly worse, but the extra pick + pack fees ate into the bottom line. Moreover, beware free shipping... If I was shipping them roughly twice as often, that's double the shipping costs which adds up fast for a low Average Order Value product.
3. Fiddly Stock Management - forecasting demand perfectly is impossible, so I ended up in a situation where my normal packs were running low but there were still plenty of trial packs left.
   I solved it by re-wiring the 3PL logic to ship out 2 trial packs for every 1 normal pack bought and putting a heads up in the confirmation email to the customer.
   No one complained but it's a bit hacky and was extra faff to sort out.

What I'd Do Differently

I should have tested this beforehand to see whether customers actually wanted it.
Luckily it's pretty simple to do.
Just create the trial SKU and choose whatever pricing you want.
Then hook that up to the normal pack so even if a customer chooses the trial, they get sent the normal one.

I've since done this for other products and received exactly zero complaints about it :D

It takes 10mins to setup and then you can sit back and wait a month or so to see what the uptake is.
Once you have a feel for it, you can sketch out some calcs to work out whether the above drawbacks are worth it.

If you're feeling fancy you can even AB test it. But you probably aren't getting enough traffic to do this with much statistical validity (unless you're happy waiting a year or two).

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