Add a sample request page: an order button on each product page, a stated limit, a short address form, the cost and timing, and a confirmation that lists every sample with a link back to its product.

Samples available on request

A flooring shop's product pages each show a plank in a photograph, a price per square foot, and one line underneath: samples available on request.

A couple choosing between two greys, browsing on a tablet after the children are in bed, has no way to request anything at that hour. The line assumes they will phone tomorrow.

Some will. Others will order from whichever shop let them ask for a sample that evening, or let the decision drift until it fades.

What a photograph cannot carry

Screens change colour. The same grey looks warm on one monitor and blue on another, and neither matches the plank under the buyer's own lights.

Texture, weight, sheen and thickness are harder still. The feel of a fabric, the grain on a tile or the edge of a countertop settles questions that a paragraph of description cannot.

And the commitment is large. A room of flooring or a sofa's worth of fabric is expensive to get wrong, so careful buyers want to decide at home, beside the walls and furniture they already have.

What the page needs to cover

A sample request page is a small checkout for things that cost little or nothing. It should offer:

The cost and the timing are the parts most often left vague. A buyer with an installer booked needs to know whether samples arrive this week or next.

Each sample tied to its product

Put the sample button beside the price on each product page, so a request begins at the moment of interest. A separate form that asks buyers to type product names invites mistakes.

Each sample should carry a label with the product name and code, and the confirmation email should link back to each product page.

A week later the buyer is holding a small square of oak and wants to order it. The label and the link take them straight back to the right page, not to a search.

Limits that keep requests real

Samples cost money to cut, pack and post, and a few requests will ask for every colour in the range. A limit per order, often four to six, keeps each request about a real choice.

Say what happens beyond the limit: a second request, a small charge, or a call to talk it through. Designers and trade buyers may need their own arrangement, such as a sample book on loan.

A couple of optional questions help as well: what the project is and when it is planned. The answers separate the buyer choosing now from the one gathering ideas.

Free, paid or credited

Free samples remove every obstacle, which suits a range where each sample is cheap to cut and light to post.

A small fee suits heavy or costly samples, such as stone or a countertop offcut. Crediting it against the order turns the fee into a deposit, and the page should say so plainly.

Whichever you choose, show it before the address form, not at the end. A charge that appears only at the last step reads as a trick, even when it is fair.

What a request tells you

A general enquiry says someone is curious. A sample request names three or four products, an address and a rough date, which means the buyer has narrowed the field and is close to deciding.

That makes the requests worth reading as a list, not just packing as orders. They show which products draw interest, where the buyers are, and who to contact next.

Following up without pestering

One follow-up, about a week after the samples should have arrived, is reasonable: did they arrive, are there questions, would a measure or a quote help.

Ask on the request form how the buyer prefers to hear from you, by phone, by email or not at all. Keeping to that answer is part of the service.

A newsletter sign-up, if offered, belongs in its own unticked box. Asking for samples is not the same as asking for the newsletter.

A worked example

A banner printer in a Cranbrook industrial park makes vinyl banners, mesh fence wraps, fabric backdrops and pull-up stands for events, shops and builders.

Its material pages showed a photograph of each one and the words: samples available, just ask. Customers asked by email in vague terms, or phoned to find out whether the fabric was see-through.

Several trade show customers chose glossy vinyl by default and only saw the glare under hall lighting once the banner was up.

Each material page now has a swatch button. The request page allows up to six swatches, free, posted the next working day in a folder labelled with each material's name and page.

Requests go to the estimator, not the shipping desk, since a swatch request means a customer is choosing. A week later she follows up as the customer asked, starting from swatches they have held up under real lights.

The counter-case

Some products do not suit samples: a piece made to order, a cheap item where buying one is the sample, or goods sold to trade buyers who already hold sample books.

A shop whose buyers are mostly local may also prefer them in the showroom, where staff can help and the full range is on display.

Those businesses should still say online how to see the material before committing: showroom hours, a sample book on loan, or a cut piece for a fee. Every buyer arrives with the same question.

Building the request page

  1. Add a sample button beside the price on each product page.
  2. State the limit before the buyer starts choosing.
  3. Keep the address form to what the label needs.
  4. Say the cost and timing in plain words.
  5. Label every sample with its product name and code.
  6. Send the requests to the person who will follow up.
  7. Follow up once, the way the buyer asked.

Step six turns a packing job into a conversation. Requests that reach only the shipping desk get posted promptly and then forgotten, while the buyer is still deciding.

When a business has more than one location, sending each form to an inbox that someone reads is the problem solved in one contact form for three locations.

Frequently asked questions

Why do buyers want samples before ordering?

Screens change colours, and texture, sheen and thickness do not photograph well. A sample lets the buyer judge the product at home, in their own light, beside what they already have.

Should samples be free?

Either can work if the page says which. A small fee credited against the eventual order keeps requests serious without putting genuine buyers off.

How many samples should one request allow?

Enough for a real choice, often four to six. State the limit before the buyer starts choosing, and say how to ask for more if they need them.

Where should the sample button go?

On each product page, beside the price, so the request starts where the interest is. A separate form that asks for typed product names invites mistakes.

When should we follow up on a sample request?

Once, about a week after the samples should have arrived, by phone or email as the buyer chose on the form, offering to answer questions or prepare a quote.

Does a sample request mean the buyer wants our newsletter?

No. Offer the newsletter in its own unticked box on the form. A request for samples is a request for samples, and the follow-up should be about them.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Samples available on request, but only by phone?

Send us one of your product pages, and we will sketch a sample request page that suits your range and your shipping.

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