How to Add Try Before You Buy to Shopify (Guide)
How to Add Try Before You Buy to Your Shopify Store (Step-by-Step)
Adding try before you buy to your Shopify store is simpler than most merchants expect. The whole process, from signing a contract to going live, takes about 2-3 weeks. Most of the heavy lifting happens on the implementation side, not yours.
This is the practical guide. No theory on why TBYB works (we covered that here). Just the steps to get it running on your store.
Before You Start: Prerequisites
You need four things before adding try before you buy to Shopify:
- A Shopify Plus store. TryNow is built on Shopify Plus checkout extensibility and is exclusively available to Plus merchants. The native checkout integration requires Plus-level API access.
- Physical products that ship. TBYB is for goods customers receive, try at home, and decide on. Digital products, gift cards, and subscriptions don't apply.
- An existing returns process. You don't need a perfect one. But you need some way to handle returns, even if it's manual today. Your TBYB partner will help you optimize this.
- A credit card processor that supports authorizations. If you're on Shopify Payments or any major gateway, you're fine.
That's it. No custom development on your end. No minimum order volume.
Step 1: Decide If TBYB Fits Your Brand
Try before you buy works best when your product has a "will this work for me?" problem. The customer is interested but hesitant because they can't test the product on their own skin, hair, or body before committing money.
Strongest fit:
- Beauty, skincare, haircare (will this shade match? will it break me out? will it work on my hair type?)
- Color cosmetics (will this foundation oxidize on my skin tone?)
- Wellness and supplements (will I notice a difference after two weeks?)
- Food and beverage (will I like the taste?)
- Home goods (will this match my space?)