The Pandemic Caused a Change in Product Sampling That's Here to Stay for Many Brands

Throughout the pandemic, brands that once relied on the time-tested strategy of in-person product sampling had to find new ways of getting their goods into the hands of potential customers. Some found new digital methods are eclipsing the old, due in part to the data they deliver.

“Sampling, in the way that we knew it, is dying,” said Michael Leo, chief executive of Ripple Street, a New York-based company that partners with brands both big and small to provide product samples to shoppers.