There is a point in every new store where you are close to launching, you have picked a product, and the idea of paying for a sample and waiting two weeks feels like dead time. Plenty of people skip it. Some of them get away with it. A lot of them find out what the product really looks like from a one-star review.
Ordering a sample is the cheapest insurance you will buy in this business. Here is a way to make it count.
What a sample order is for
It answers four questions, and the product itself is only one of them:
- Is the product what the listing shows, in size, color and materials?
- How long did the whole trip take, from payment to your door?
- What was the packaging like when it arrived?
- How did the supplier behave along the way?
That last one is easy to overlook. If the supplier was slow to ship, vague about tracking or hard to reach for a simple question, that is how your customers will be treated too.
Place the order like a customer would
Use the same checkout path and the same shipping option you plan to sell with, to an address in one of your target countries if you can. If you test with the fastest courier and then sell with the cheapest, you have tested nothing. Write down the date you paid and the date the parcel showed up. That number, and not the supplier's promise, goes into your shipping policy (see shipping times from China).
If you plan to sell several variants, order at least the one you expect to sell most and the one most likely to go wrong. Sizes and colors are where mismatches hide.
What to check when the box arrives
Before you touch the product, photograph the parcel as it came. Then open it on camera or at least with photos in hand, and go through this list:
- Condition of the packaging. Dents, torn corners, no padding. This is what a customer sees first.
- Match with the listing. Compare it to the supplier's photos side by side. Is the color the same under daylight? Is the logo or print crisp?
- Measurements. Take a ruler to it. Sizes in listings are often given for a different item or an unusual standard.
- Build and finish. Seams, zippers, stitching, battery life, weight. Use it for a few days if it is something to be used.
- Smell and surface. Strong chemical smells and sticky coatings are common complaints with certain materials.
- What is inside the box. Extra inserts, the wrong invoice, supplier branding you would have to hide.
Keep notes. A couple of lines per item is enough, and they become the basis of your product description.
Take your own photos
While you have the product, shoot it. Photos of the real item in your own light are better than a supplier's studio images for two reasons: they match what customers will receive, and they are not the same pictures used by twenty other stores. Even phone photos by a window do the job. If you need guidance on listing text afterwards, keep your measurements and notes next to you.
Decide with a simple scorecard
Give each of these a score from 1 to 5: product quality, accuracy against the listing, packaging, delivery time, supplier communication. Then look at the weakest score, not the average. A product with four fives and a one for quality is a refund machine.
A rough rule that works for many sellers: if anything scores a one, drop it or find another supplier. If anything scores a two, ask whether it can be fixed, for example with a different packaging option or a different variant. If everything is a three or above, list it and keep an eye on the first orders.
When it is okay to skip a sample
Honestly, rarely. If a product is cheap and from a supplier you have sold from many times, you can sometimes test with a few live orders instead. But the moment you add a new supplier, a new category or a product with variants, order the sample.
It also helps to test a competing supplier at the same time. Two parcels arriving a week apart tell you more than any comparison table. The next step after that is working out how to balance the options, which is what our comparison of supplier types is for.
What it really costs
A sample typically costs the price of the item plus shipping, so for most products a small amount. Compare that to a single refund, the lost product and the shipping you already paid, plus the review. One avoided problem pays for several tests.
Before you launch, do the test. When the parcel arrives, you will know something no supplier page can tell you.
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