A bit of background

I spent 10 years in FMCG marketing before I joined Sampl. That's given me a strong opinion about what actually works in marketing, and I know almost nothing changes someone's behaviour more than putting a product directly into someone's hands.

You can run a brilliant piece of advertising and shift what someone thinks about a brand, maybe even shift their intention to buy. But that's still a long way from someone actually using the thing and deciding for themselves whether it's any good.

Sampling was the one tactic that consistently closed that gap for me. Someone doesn't have to take the brand's word for it, it lets them find out on their own.

But this year I had a question. With the cost of living squeeze pushing people to be so much more careful with what they spend, does sampling still carry that same weight? Or does caution eventually override curiosity no matter what you put in front of someone

So I commissioned a piece of research to find out.

Consumers want more, but trust less

Most of us already feel this walking round a supermarket right now:

• 83% say their shopping is noticeably more expensive than it was a year ago
• 75% are actively worried about the cost of living
• 46% admit they now dread the weekly shop because everything feels like it costs more than it should

None of that is surprising. What was more interesting is how that pressure is impacting how people discover new products

51% of shoppers say they'd like to try more new products than they currently do. Among 18 to 24 year olds that's 69%, among 25 to 34 year olds it's 73%.

The appetite for discovery is still there, but wanting  and doing something aren't the same thing:

• 42% say cost is the main reason they don't act on that interest
• 69% buy the same products every single time they shop
• only 41% are actively looking for anything new

I think it shows that shoppers have not lost their appetite for something new but are losing the confidence to spend money to find that out.

It's even more surprising looking at 18 to 24 year olds specifically. That's always been the group brands lean on to kick off discovery, the assumption being that younger shoppers try things first and tell everyone else about it.

52% of that age group now say they feel stuck buying the same products over and over, the highest of any age group in the study.

They still want discovery more than anyone else. Their confidence to act on it has fallen further and faster than everyone else's too. If a launch plan is banking on Gen Z to be the early adopters purely because that's what they've always been, this year that assumption needs a harder look.

What actually gets someone to try something new

We went back to the original question with something more specific: given all of that caution, what would actually move a shopper to try something new?

1. Free sample, 62%
2. Introductory discount, 43%
3. Recommendation from a friend, 42%
4. Positive reviews, 32%
5. Cashback, 23%

A discount is usually the first, and sometimes only, lever on a launch plan, even though it can do more harm than good

I don't think that gap is about money at all. A discount makes a product cheaper, which isn't the same as making it feel worth the risk. A sample removes the risk itself.

A more cautious shopper is the strongest argument yet for sampling.

The full report goes further into how these habits are hardening across categories, and what it means for anyone building trial activity into a plan over the next year.

Research conducted by Walnut (Accenture Song) between 17 and 20 April 2026. Online omnibus survey of 2,010 UK consumers, weighted to be nationally representative.