Product Sampling
Get more reviews for your products.
Send samples to shoppers who look like your customers, and each one agrees up front to post a review on your site by your deadline, in the format you choose, whether that's text, a photo or a video.
Example campaign
Hydrating face serum
Jamie R.
Matched on age, category, state
You publish every review, and each reviewer mentions that the product was free.
What you get
Product Sampling That Ends in a Review on Your Site
With SamplePact, product sampling comes with a commitment, because before you ship anything, each shopper agrees to post a review on your website, in the format you picked, by the deadline you set.
Reviews on your own site
Shoppers post on your product pages, next to your other reviews, where buyers are already deciding. It's your own website only, and never Amazon, Google or any other store or review site.
Matched shoppers
You can target by category, age range, gender and state. Gender is optional for shoppers, so gender targeting only reaches the shoppers who chose to share it.
Your choice of review format
Ask for text, text + photo, text + video, photo only or video only, and set a review window of 7, 14, 21 or 30 days that starts when the package is delivered.
You Choose Who Gets Product, or Let Us Match
Shoppers pick the categories they want to test from the same list you pick your product category from, so the category match is one to one. From there, you decide how hands-on to be.
I want to approve each reviewer
We'll send you shoppers who fit your targeting, and you look at each profile and decide who gets product. This works well for higher-priced products, or when fit matters, like shade ranges or pet sizes.
Match reviewers for me
We'll pick shoppers who fit your targeting and the places you ship. You don't have to approve each one, but you can still see every reviewer's profile before you ship.
Either way, we only match shoppers who said yes to the review format you asked for, so a campaign that wants video never goes to someone who only writes text reviews.
See Who's Reviewing
Every reviewer has a short profile you can see before you ship anything, so you know who your product is going to.
Brands reviewed
How many brands they've reviewed through SamplePact so far.
Categories and formats
The product categories they chose and the kinds of reviews they're happy to write.
Social content
Whether they create content for social media, and if so, on which platforms.
Name
Their first name and the initial of their last name.
You never see a reviewer's ratings or whether their past reviews were positive or negative. New reviewers start at zero brands reviewed, and you'll see that too.
Example reviewer profile
Jamie R.
Matched on pet, ages 35 to 44 and Illinois
3
brands reviewed
- Categories
- Pet, Home
- Creates social content
- Yes, regularly
- Platforms
- Instagram, TikTok
Review formats they'll do
You'll never see a reviewer's ratings or whether their past reviews were positive or negative.
If a Shopper Doesn't Review
Every shopper puts a card on file when they accept your product, and if they keep it without reviewing it, the shopper is charged the retail price, and we pass that payment to you (payout terms at launch).
A shopper who'd rather not review your product can send it back instead, in any condition, as long as they return the whole product. They pay the return shipping, and once the tracking shows it's on its way to your return address before the deadline, they aren't charged.
If a package is late, lost or damaged, the shopper taps "Report a delivery problem" in their account, which notifies you and SamplePact. Their review deadline pauses until it's resolved, and a shopper is never charged for a package that never arrived.
The card on file starts with live campaigns, so requesting early access doesn't involve any payment at all.
The Rules Behind Every Review
A review page only helps shoppers if the critical reviews are on it too, and two rules make sure they are.
You publish every review, regardless of rating
Positive, negative or mixed, every review a SamplePact shopper posts for your campaign goes up. You agree not to edit, hide or filter any review on your site, apart from narrow exceptions you bring to us first, so it's worth checking that your review app doesn't auto-hide low ratings.
Reviewers disclose the free product
Each review says the shopper received the product free, as FTC guidelines require. You'll leave that disclosure in place, never label these reviews "Verified buyer", and never present them as coming from paying customers.
Both rules are in the draft brand terms you'll agree to before your first campaign.
How a Campaign Works
Step 1: Set up the campaign
Tell us about the product, its retail value, how many samples you'd like to send, where you ship, your target customer, the review format and the review window.
Step 2: Pick or approve shoppers
You can approve each reviewer yourself, or let us match shoppers to your target customer.
Step 3: Ship the product
You ship a sample to each shopper and cover the shipping, just as you would for any order.
Step 4: Reviews go up on your site
Each shopper posts on your own website by your deadline, in your format, with a note that they got the product free, and you publish every one.
Step 5: Products kept without a review are charged
If a shopper keeps your product without posting a review or sending it back, the shopper is charged the retail price, and we pass that payment to you (payout terms at launch).
Built for Stores That Need Their First Reviews
A product page with no reviews is a hard sell, and SamplePact is built for brands that need honest reviews on their own site, especially small Shopify stores and newer products.
A good fit if
- You sell on Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or another platform with a review app on your product pages.
- You have products with few or no reviews.
- You can ship samples to shoppers in the places you choose.
- You're comfortable publishing whatever shoppers honestly say.
What SamplePact isn't
- A review app, because shoppers post through the one your store already runs.
- A way to get reviews on Amazon or Google.
- A service that writes reviews or filters out the bad ones.
- A paid-influencer program, and social handles are optional for shoppers.
Product Categories
You pick one category per campaign, and shoppers choose from this same list when they sign up.
- Skincare
- Haircare
- Makeup
- Fragrance
- Health and wellness
- Food and drink
- Pet
- Home
- Kitchen
- Baby and kids
- Fitness
- Tech accessories
- Fashion
- Outdoors
Estimate a Campaign
Put in your own numbers to see what a campaign would cost you in product and shipping. The estimate only uses what you enter, so it won't guess at how many shoppers post or compare SamplePact with other channels.
What each unit costs you. If you leave it blank, we'll use the retail price.
Enter your product's retail price, and your estimate will appear here.
This only uses the numbers you enter. It doesn't predict how many shoppers will post, and it doesn't include SamplePact's fees, which we'll share before your first campaign.
Request early accessWe'll carry your price and sample count into the form below.
Request Early Access
Tell us about your store and what you'd want from a first campaign, and we'll email you about next steps and share pricing before your first campaign. Requesting access is free and doesn't commit you to anything.
Product Sampling FAQ
How does product sampling with SamplePact work?
You tell us about the product, its retail value, how many samples you'd like to send, where you ship, your target customer, the review format and the review window. We'll match shoppers who fit, or you can approve each one yourself. Then you ship the product, and each shopper posts a review on your site by your deadline.
How do I get customer reviews when I don't have many customers yet?
Send product to people who look like your customers and ask for an honest review in return. SamplePact takes care of the matching, and every shopper agrees before you ship to post on your site by your deadline. You then publish what they write, whether it's glowing or critical.
How do I get reviews on Shopify with SamplePact?
Shoppers post on your Shopify product pages through the review app your store already uses, such as Judge.me, Loox, Okendo, Yotpo or Stamped. SamplePact isn't a review app and doesn't replace yours. Just tell us which app you use on the early-access form, and before your first campaign we'll confirm that it accepts reviews from SamplePact shoppers.
Do I need to be on Shopify?
You don't need to be. The early-access form covers Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and other platforms, so let us know which one you use and we'll confirm how reviews will get posted on your site.
How is this different from product seeding?
Product seeding usually means sending free product to creators with no promise that they'll post. With SamplePact, every shopper agrees before you ship to post a review on your site by your deadline or send the product back, and if they keep it without doing either, the shopper is charged the retail price, and we pass that payment to you (payout terms at launch).
Is SamplePact a review generation service?
In a sense, because it gets your product to shoppers who've agreed to review it on your own site. We never write reviews ourselves, though, and there's no way to filter out the negative ones.
Can I choose who gets my product?
You can. If you choose "I want to approve each reviewer", you'll approve every shopper yourself, and if you choose "Match reviewers for me", we'll pick shoppers who fit your targeting and shipping area.
How do you match shoppers to my product?
Shoppers pick the categories they want to test from the same list you pick your product category from, so the category match is one to one. From there we narrow it down by your target age ranges, gender and states, and by the review types each shopper said yes to. Gender is optional for shoppers, so gender targeting only reaches the shoppers who chose to share it.
Do brands have to publish negative reviews?
They do. Every brand agrees to publish every review it receives through SamplePact, whatever the rating, and without editing it.
Can brands edit or hide reviews?
Brands agree not to edit, hide or filter reviews. The only exceptions are reviews with someone's personal information, unlawful content or content unrelated to the product, and the brand has to bring those to us first. Brands can still reply publicly if their review app allows replies.
I'm a brand. What happens if a shopper doesn't post?
If a shopper sends the product back, they aren't charged and the product comes back to you. If they keep it without reviewing it, the shopper is charged the retail price, and we pass that payment to you (payout terms at launch).
Who pays for shipping?
You do, because you ship a sample to each shopper just as you would any other order. Under our draft brand terms, you'd ship within five business days of a shopper being approved or matched, with tracking.
What does it cost?
Brands pay SamplePact a fee for each campaign, and we'll publish our prices before launch. You'll see the fee for each campaign and approve it before that campaign starts, and requesting early access is free. Beyond our fee, your only other costs are the samples themselves and shipping them to each shopper.