How to Get Amazon Samples

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Here is a question I get all the time. How do you get Amazon Samples?

Last year Amazon started a sampling program where they would send Free samples to consumers in the mail. All you needed to do was opt in and they would send samples based on your shopping history or what they thought you might like.

It was a great program and it had many brands that were participating by sending their free samples to amazon shoppers to promote their products.  Samples included items such as Maybelline mascara, Calvin Klein perfume and Kind bars, among other things.

Sadly, we have confirmed that Amazon has suspended the Amazon samples program. The program raised privacy concerns and caused some shoppers complained that the samples were “creepy“. How weird right?

Prime Samples program

Amazon also used to have something called Prime samples where you could order a box of samples to try before you buy. In that program you would pay $5 or $10 usually for a box of samples in a specific category. They would send a box of samples of the top sellers in that category and give you a credit of what you paid for the sample box. If you decided to buy the full size version of any of the products in the sample box, Amazon would credit you the price you paid for the sample box.

It was a neat program that I personally used several times, but sadly that program to get amazon samples also ended. Unfortunately, it seems that Amazon did not feel these programs were worth their time.

Amazon Samples

The good news is that even though the Amazon free samples program is officially shut down, we still know a great way to get free amazon products.

Our favorite way to get free samples on Amazon is by something called Direct Ship. This is not an official Amazon program, but something sellers do to get rid of excess inventory. When they have too much product and don’t want to pay Amazon storage fees, they give the extra products away to people who have signed up to their “direct ship” lists. You can read more about it and sign up here.