Amazon Is Killing Off One Of Its Prime Features, And The Reason Is Unexpected

It's only a matter of days until Amazon Prime Try Before You Buy shuts down for good. The service will no longer be available after Jan. 31, 2025. 

Try Before You Buy was introduced in 2017, when it was known as Prime Wardrobe. The service was a perk of Amazon Prime membership, and users could select up to six items from categories such as clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories without having to pay for them upfront. There was a seven-day try-on period at home, after which you could decide which items to keep and pay for, and which to send back.

The service was available in multiple countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, and Amazon is now calling time across all regions. If you haven't tried this service before, you've left it a bit too late to discover it now. However, Prime members can place orders right up until the end of the month.

It looks like the increased availability of Amazon artificial-intelligence tools is the main factor here. An Amazon spokesperson told the Associated Press, "Given the combination of Try Before You Buy only scaling to a limited number of items and customers increasingly using our new AI-powered features like virtual try-on, personalized size recommendations, review highlights and improved size charts to make sure they find the right fit, we're phasing out the Try Before You Buy option."

However, this probably isn't the full story, given that Amazon has been known to be cutting costs for some time. Axing the service will decrease Amazon's costs and reduce the number of returns it needs to deal with. 

While many people will mourn the loss of the Try Before You Buy service, it was not without its problems. Some users — like a few on the Reddit thread r/amazonprime – found that they were charged for items they had tried on and returned. Other people found that Amazon put a preauthorization hold on their cards for the full value of the goods as soon as they were shipped, which negated the benefit of using the service.

You can still purchase items from Amazon, try them on, and then return them for a full refund if they don't fit. Even with Try Before You Buy gone, many users will still find purchasing clothes items on Amazon more convenient than going to a physical store and using the changing rooms, especially as there are so many easy ways to save money when shopping on Amazon. The biggest difference will be that you'll be charged for the item before you try it, and refunded later on.

So, what features has Amazon introduced to make the shopping experience easier? Many products now offer a View in 3D feature, shown in the screenshot above, which sort of re-creates the experience of holding an item in a shop. Amazon also now has an AI assistant called Rufus, who will answer questions about a product and make shopping recommendations. For example, we asked if some sunglasses were comfortable to wear, and it responded quoting user reviews.

Amazon also includes an AI round-up of customer reviews in the review section. This includes tags like quality, style, fit, and value. When you click these tags, you'll see how many reviews mention this feature in both positive and negative reviews. You can click on the edited snippets shown to read the full reviews. All these features can be accessed on your laptop or phone via both the Amazon app and the webpage, unlike virtual try-on.

Virtual try-on is only available on the Amazon phone app on iOS phones. It is also very limited in what brands and products are available. You can snap a picture of yourself wearing some Adidas sneakers or Ray-Ban sunglasses, but the feature is a long way from letting you virtually try on all your clothes and accessories purchases. Also, it doesn't help with sizing. You'll still need to use the sizing guide to determine what you think will fit. If you're a regular purchaser of clothes, Amazon will provide personalized size recommendations, but these just compare your usual size with whether other customers have found that things come up small or large. It's no help if you have recently gained or lost weight.

Amazon has not improved the virtual try-on feature much in the two years since its release. There's still no Android version, for example. There's no word yet on whether the closure of the Try Before You Buy service will lead to improved AI features. However, by explicitly mentioning virtual try-on in its official statement, Amazon has focused people's attention on both its benefits and many limitations.