How Buttercloth Boosted New Customer Acquisition, Reduced Discounts, and Grew Profitably with Try Before You Buy

"While return rates have increased, TryNow customers buy more and they keep more. Obviously, return rates can be scary. But TryNow orders generate incremental revenue to pay for the incremental costs by far. The fact is that when we look at the net sale from TryNow vs. buy now after returns, TryNow always wins. An added benefit is that TryNow customers use discounts far less often, which is yet another profit driver."
— Bob Stevens, COO at Buttercloth

About

Buttercloth is a menswear brand redefining comfort and sophistication through groundbreaking fabric technology. By combining luxurious materials with cutting-edge design, Buttercloth delivers shirts that feel as soft as a T-shirt while offering a polished, stylish appearance. The brand has earned a dedicated following of discerning customers who value innovation, quality, and style.

Challenge

Rising Customer Acquisition Costs on Meta

As digital marketing expenses, especially on Meta, continue to rise, Buttercloth sought a sustainable solution to significantly and reliably reduce customer acquisition costs.

Drive Sales Without Relying on Discounts

While discounts can boost sales in the short term, they erode both margins and brand value. Buttercloth’s focus was on driving sales with an emphasis on increasing bottom-line profits. To achieve this, the brand strategically reduced its reliance on discount codes.

Grow Customer Base with High-Quality, High-Lifetime-Value Customers

Buttercloth aimed to consistently grow its customer base each month while also increasing customer lifetime value. This was achieved by raising average order value and improving repeat purchase rates.

"One of the biggest wins with TryNow has been the impact on our margins. Fewer discounts have led to a significant reduction in our average discount rate—from 11% to just 6%—resulting in a substantial improvement in overall profitability.
— Bob Stevens, COO at Buttercloth

Solution

Buttercloth implemented Try Before You Buy to address key challenges around size, fit, and trust, resulting in profitable new customer acquisition and an elevated shopping experience.

To boost online conversion rates, customer lifetime value, and overall contribution margin, Buttercloth partnered with TryNow. Their Try Before You Buy program allowed customers to experience the unparalleled comfort and quality of Buttercloth’s garments in their own homes, paying only for what they decided to keep. Shoppers could try up to 6 items at home for 7 days after delivery, eliminating barriers to purchase and generating the confidence required for shoppers to convert at higher rates.

Buttercloth strategically integrated the TryNow button across all product categories to maximize conversion rate and lifetime value improvements. A dedicated TryNow collection page was also created, serving as a targeted landing page for marketing campaigns and making it easier for customers to explore eligible products.

The Try Before You Buy program encouraged higher-value orders by enabling:

• Shoppers to check out with Try Before You Buy options.
• A seamless trial process where customers could try up to 8 items at home for 7 days.
• Shoppers keep what they love and pay for what they keep.

Results

TryNow increased conversion rates, reduced customer acquisition costs, and drove a strong ROI after return costs.

In their first 12 months since launching TryNow, Buttercloth has acquired customers more efficiently, these customers have become more valuable, and they use discounts less frequently.

• Acquire new customers: TryNow acquires customers at a 60% higher rate. New-to-brand shoppers are 70.8% for TryNow vs. 44.3% for buy now.
• Reduced CPAs: TryNow reduced CPAs by 34%. TryNow campaigns had a CPA of $66 vs. $100 baseline. 
• Discount rate reduction: discounts as a % of gross sales is 11.1% on buy now orders and 4.9% on TryNow orders. This reduction of 6.2 percentage points pays for TryNow fees twice over.

"TryNow reduced our customer acquisition costs by 35%, bringing them down from $100 to the mid-$60 range. This has allowed us to reinvest those savings into expanding our marketing efforts."
— Bob Stevens, COO at Buttercloth

TryNow is the essential component of Buttercloth’s customer-centric approach:

"The idea of not having to pay unless you decide to keep is helpful. Makes it feel like you are just going to the store to try things on and you keep what you like. The TryNow service was perfectly fine,  I clicked one button and returned them."
— John C.

"So easy and convenient. Show that the brand really stands by the quality of her product”
— Josie W.

"The TryNow process was very simple and well-explained in advance. It is a bit unique, in my experience, which was pretty great to have in going for a brand I hadn't heard of before. I will be purchasing more shirts in the future."
— Jonathan D.