Ecommerce leader Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has chosen to scrap the try-before-you-buy offerings from its app stores. This pull down will be effective quite immediately. However, this won’t be a binding on applications that made use of this feature earlier.
How TestDrive Fared?
Launched since the inception of Amazon app store in 2011, TestDrive was an important aspect and a distinguishing feature that the company was providing. The objective was to lure consumers to come and try out the services, before making any purchases. First launch in a browser-based platform, TestDrive was later incorporated on Android platform as well.
The company has stated the need for this feature has been dwindled; hence, it shall be discontinued. The company cited reasons that there is a plethora of free to use apps from developers, which have defeated the purpose of paid apps. This has lead to a stark decline in the services being used, therefore having not much requirement for rendering the services.
Payment Evasion Policy
Users who are concerned about paying some bucks for an application can resort to play store’s refund policy – use for 15 minutes and get the payment refunded if the app is not found worthwhile. This payment evasion policy is a major catch from AMZN off late.
16000 apps have resorted to AMZN’s TestDrive. The company expanded beyond the domestic market. There wasn’t much interest from developers over the years. The feature was innovative, but AMZN took this call after analyzing scenarios and assessing the rate of dwindling of usage.
In-App Revenues Are Now Popular
Most of the apps that are covered by this policy are smartphone-based games that users experience and purchase only if found worthwhile. Revenues are garnered by in-app purchases, instead of app offered for the purpose of payment. With this, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has let go separate services to test games and applications.
