Our Free Samples feature helps you to promote your brand in the marketplace and get new leads. Here’s how the feature works, plus some tips for converting leads into great customers.
How it works
Suppliers offering free samples are promoted to the top of the Upstock marketplace, including under each relevant category (alcohol, baked goods, etc). Their supplier profile is badged to show they offer free samples, helping it to stand out.
Prospective customers can request a sample as part of inviting you to trade. This delivers leads directly to you, to convert into customers.
Managing sample requests
When a prospective customer requests a sample, you’ll get an email notification with the customer’s details. They’ll also show under your pending customers in the app. Here’s what to do next:
1. Contact the customer
We highly recommend contacting the customer to determine if they’re a good fit for your product. This is the best way to understand who the customer is, why they’re interested in your products, and to establish a good relationship.
It’s also a great time to discuss any freight charges associated with the sample, your wholesale pricing, and any minimum order requirements.
2. Decide whether to send the sample
You can then decide if you want to send the sample. You’re not obligated to send a sample — it’s absolutely fine to decline a request.
Tip: Upstock no longer creates orders for sample requests, but you can do this yourself if you would like to have the order in your accounting or inventory system. See the section below for details.
3. Follow up
After you send your sample, don't forget to follow up with the prospective customer to get feedback and secure ongoing orders.
If you’d like to add them to your list of customers, you can accept the invite. You’ll need to follow your usual new account process to get them set up.
Keeping track of requests
You can keep track of requests in the app. Once you’ve sent a free sample, mark it as sent and update the invite to “waiting on customer”.
What products to offer
It’s up to you what type of sample to send. No specific product is mentioned to customers so you can tailor the sample to suit the customer.
Most suppliers offer their signature product because that’s the product buyers are most likely to stock.
Alternatively, many suppliers create a special sampler pack with a variety of flavours to give buyers more opportunity to try different things.
Pricing & set up
Free samples are a paid add-on, charged at $10 per month.
👉 If you are interested in adding Free samples, fill out this form to have the feature added to your account. Once it's set up, you'll automatically be shown in the Shop as a Free Samples provider.
Tip: The Free samples add-on requires a paid Logistics plan, so if you are currently on a Free plan you will need to upgrade first. You can view the pricing information here, and when you’re ready, simply chat with us in-app and we'll get you set up on your new plan.
Who can request free samples?
All buyers on Upstock can request a sample from you.
Upstock has a wide range of buyers…
Hospitality: restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, food trucks
Grocery: dairies, grocery stores, supermarkets
Online: gift boxes, online retailers, online supermarkets
Retail: gift stores, general retail, pharmacies
Personal care: hair salons, fitness centres, spas
Each of these has their own unique needs and may be based in different regions.
Some suppliers have opened entirely new customer opportunities through the sample store. For instance, Plant Projects unexpectedly received sample store orders from fitness centres, which became a completely new market segment they never considered. For more details, read the full case study
Creating orders for samples
If you want free samples to be tracked in your accounting or inventory, you may want to create an order for each request.
If you choose to create orders before accepting the customer invite, we recommend creating a generic customer to use for the order, e.g. “Upstock Sample Store”. You'll need to create this customer in Upstock and in your accounting or inventory app.
When you create an order, you can then choose "Upstock Sample Store" as the customer and put the real customer’s details into the reference field. This can be updated and reused for subsequent sample orders from different customers.
Steps to creating an order:
Using this method of ordering means you can add any sales notes as comments, and you can also place all the products in the order (at a $0.00 value) so you can see exactly what has been sent to who.
Create a customer called Upstock Sample Store (this allows you to create an order if the customer is not connected yet).
Create the order and add the products > Next
In the Address field at the top, you'll see a drop down arrow. This allows you to Edit the address and add their company details like their name in the Attn: field. This is super handy if you want to still create packing slips for pick and pack too.
Adding the company name in the Reference and/or the Internal Notes fields will allow you to quickly search for them in the future.Complete the order. From here, the order is created so you can add any follow up notes in the comments section, and it will only be available to your team.
Freight charges
If you charge for freight, you’ll need to organise this with the customer. We recommend stating this upfront when customers request a sample.
Alcohol
For alcohol suppliers, you’ll need to check that the customer has a liquor licence.
Offering free samples to connected customers
Once you're already connected with a customer, they won’t see the option to request free samples when placing a trade request - since trading is already established.
If you'd like to offer free samples to connected customers, you can create them as individual products that customers can add to their orders. This gives you the flexibility to decide whether or not to fulfill those sample requests.