Upselling and Cross-selling: Examples, Tips, and Tactics

If you're in ecommerce, maximizing your average order value (AOV) should be the number one goal.

How do you achieve that, especially with first-time customers?
Two words. Upselling and cross-selling.

If you're still a bit unsure what the difference between these tactics is, and how to apply them in your store, this episode will help you figure it all out.

Ready to display product recommendations on popups and sticky bars?
Then try Getsitecontrol.

Other upselling and cross-selling apps worth checking out:
Limespot and Frequently Bought Together for Shopify.
Customer Thank You Page and Smart Offers for WordPress (WooCommerce)

Just getting started with your first Shopify store?
Read our beginner-friendly guide to selling on Shopify!

Create beautiful email signup forms, coupon boxes, and pop-up surveys for your store with Getsitecontrol.

Transcript

Hi, you’re listening to Getsitecontrol Insider – a podcast where we share tips and tricks for growing online business.

Today, we’ll talk about upselling and cross-selling – two major tactics you should be using if you want to succeed. 

 Stay tuned to learn the difference between upselling and cross-selling and find out how these tactics can help you increase average order value.

Do me a favor and ask yourself this. If you can make a dollar, why not make two?

If you’ve just made a sale, congrats. Well done. However, don’t stop there. 

Making a sale to a new customer these days is challenging. Your chances to do that are between 5 and 20%. That is not very good odds, especially when the budget is limited! 

And because you’ve been working so hard to convert that first-time visitor into a first-time customer, you’ll be missing out if you don’t try to increase the order value.

That’s where upselling and cross-selling come into play.

Now, if you’re new to ecommerce, you’re probably wondering:

“Upselling? Cross-selling? What’s the difference?”

“What tools am I supposed to use?”

“I don’t want to come across as a pushy salesman!”

Relax. We’ll help you figure it all out.

So, first, what is upselling and what is cross-selling?

To capitalize on these two money-grabbing tactics, you’ll have to understand the difference between them. 

The purpose of both tactics is to make a larger sale than you’ve already made. Or, using a more formal language – to increase your customers’ average order value (AOV).

By definition, upselling is a sales technique used to persuade a customer to upgrade their current purchase through premium versions of a product, or by purchasing add-ons.

So, when companies recommend you to upgrade to a better, more expensive subscription plan, get a package of services instead of buying a single service, or get a newer version of a chosen product – that’s upselling.

Now, when to upsell is another important question to answer. There are three common scenarios you’ll see in most stores.

1. Upsell before a purchase. That’s a tactic of displaying relevant add-ons or upgrades – typically on a product page in a recommended section. 

2. Upsell during a purchase. That’s recommendations displayed right in the shopping cart or in an abandoned cart email. 
For instance, when you make a purchase at FreshDirect, a grocery delivery service, they offer you a paid membership right before you finish the checkout process.

3. Upsell after a purchase. Usually, that’s follow-up emails containing your recommended add-ons or upgrades. 

For example, after you purchase a domain at Bluehost, they send you an email offering an add-on – a security tool to help keep the website protected. 

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s see what cross-selling is. 
If you don’t have any relevant add-ons or potential upgrades to your product, that’s when you want to use cross-selling. 

Cross-selling involves persuading a customer to purchase products that are related or complementary to those they’ve already purchased.

We’ve all seen it. 

You’re purchasing a pair of jeans and the retailer recommends some other items to complete the outfit. Maybe a shirt that pairs well with the jeans. Or a pair of shoes to complement them. 

Remember that convenient “Wear it with” section in some online stores? Yes, that is cross-selling.

Now, cross-sell timing is just as important as upsell timing. However, it often depends on what you’re trying to sell.

If we go back to the jeans example used above, it makes more sense to cross-sell during the purchase. Customers are more likely to get the entire look in one transaction, rather than to buy additional items from the same brand separately. 

However, if you’re selling laptops, you can cross-sell complementary products – like a protective carrying case or a cooler – both during the purchase and immediately after.

For instance, while you’re viewing a new computer video card in an online electronics store, you’re also shown other computer component upgrades in the “Recommended” section. 

By now, you may be wondering how to implement the upselling and cross-selling techniques on your website. 

There are several ways to do it, and it all depends on your situation. 

If you have an option to hire a developer – great, go for it. But if you don’t, there are hundreds of apps to help you nab those extra sales without any technical skills required. 

You can check upselling and cross-selling apps and plugins available for popular platforms like Shopify and Wordpress. Or, you can use Getsitecontrol which works on any website platform including those too. 

Getsitecontrol will help you create popups with upsell or cross-sell recommendations and place them on the selected pages. Then, using simple targeting settings, you can display your offer: 

·       When a customer adds a product to cart

·       During the checkout process

·       After the purchase

·       On selected product pages only

·       When a customer is about to abandon the cart

·       Or under even more advanced conditions. 

 Check the links in the episode description to find out how it works.

 Alright. Now you know the difference between upselling and cross-selling, and you probably have ideas of how to use these tactics for your store. Nice! You’re well on your way to snatching that money off the table. 

Before we wrap this up, let’s review the best practices for upselling and cross-selling like a pro. 

1.    Keep it relevant 
You wouldn’t offer a deal on an Xbox game for someone who just purchased a PlayStation, would you?

Now, most relevancy mistakes will be far more subtle than that, but the end result is still the same: damaging the customer relationship rather than nurturing it. 

Choose your upsells and cross-sells wisely. The key is offering deals on upgrades, add-ons, or other products that you know your customer will definitely benefit from. 

If you listen to just one tip from this list, make sure it’s this one. 

2.    Demonstrate value
Showing relevant products to a customer who is in the process of purchasing something isn’t enough to guarantee a successful upsell or cross-sell. You also need to show the value. 

Your customers may not know what this upgrade, add-on or extra product can do for them.

So make it clear!

To highlight the potential value, you can display user testimonials, the amount of money that can be saved with the offer, or a picture of the outcome – just like in the example of a clothes store that helps you get the entire outfit instead of just one item. 

3.    No need to be pushy
Another quick way to lose a potential sale is to push upsells and cross-sells on people who may not even be interested at all yet. 

Nobody wants to be annoyed by constant popups asking to upgrade a service when they aren’t even sure they will purchase it.

That’s why you should only offer your upsells to those who have chosen to buy. In other words, if we go back to the popup example, have your popups display only in the cart or on a thank you page. 

With cross-selling, the idea would be to keep your “recommended for you” box a little more subtle. 

Instead of throwing different t-shirt popups at a customer looking to purchase a pair of shorts, keep these recommended products off to the side, or underneath the product info.

Finally, use urgency to your advantage

Urgency can be your best friend when it comes to upselling and cross-selling. 

If you’ve got a discounted upgrade to your service on a time limit, customers are far more likely to jump on it because they know it’s going away soon.

And this is it. Time to take your sales to the next level.

Of course, you won’t be able to upsell or cross-sell to every customer you have. That’s a given. But even the small percentage who end up converting will add up over time. 

Need more marketing tips for growing your business? Then don’t forget to subscribe.

Thank you for listening! Until next time!