8 Easy Upselling Techniques to Increase Your AOV

In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss upselling: the tactic many business owners ignore for the fear of coming across as too salesy. 

Are you feeling hesitant about it, too?

Then tune in to learn 8 easy upselling techniques you can implement in your store to get more sales without being pushy.

Check out the collection of product upsell popups you can customize and add to your store without coding: see the collection.

Want more marketing tips for your ecommerce store? Check out our latest blog article.

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

Transcript

Hi,

You’re listening to Getsitecontrol Insider where we talk about marketing tactics for ecommerce. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss upselling – the tactic many business owners ignore for the fear of coming across as too salesy. 

Are you feeling hesitant about upselling products, too?

Stay tuned to hear about 8 easy upselling techniques you can implement and get more sales without being pushy.

Customers love a good deal – it can be relatively easy to sell low-priced products or hugely discounted items.

But what happens when your margins are super tight – or when you actually lose money on certain products?

Or what if you simply want to find ways to make the most of every purchase so that you can scale your business over time?

Upsells are a powerful way to solve these problems without incurring additional costs. Let’s explore what upsells are and have a look at various upselling techniques and examples.

What is upselling?
Upselling is a method used to nudge customers to add more expensive items or upgrades to their existing order. It can be a bigger or newer version of a product, an add-on like a protection plan, or an extended service package. 

When done right, upselling can help you generate more revenue from the same number of customers.

How to upsell without being too pushy 

While upselling is a great way to increase your average order value, many business owners worry about coming across as too pushy or salesy. 

That’s perfectly normal! Upsells don’t have to be pushy. 

Here are 5 effective methods you can try.

1. Create real urgency or scarcity

Urgency and scarcity can be powerful forces to drive your customers to purchase right now.

But fake urgency and scarcity can come off as pushy, especially if the illusion is obvious. If you tell customers they only have ten minutes to get an upsell at a 20% discount, but then offer that same discount a few hours later via email, then the message is clear:

They know they can wait around for you to throw more discounts at them because that ten-minute timer doesn’t mean anything!

So, when you add urgency or scarcity, make sure you’re serious about holding your end.

For example, if you’re creating a one-time offer for new customers, make sure it’s a truly one-time offer and avoid displaying it repeatedly.

Method #2. Survey your customers to find out what they need

You know that upsells are important… but how do you know what your customers would like to buy the most as an upsell? 

There’s no better way to find out than to ask!

Consider using a survey popup to ask your customers about their shopping preferences. For instance, you could ask them what would make certain products even better.

You can also send surveys via email. 

For instance, let’s say you’re hesitating between four potential upsells for one of your best-selling products. You can email people who bought this product to ask them which item they would be more likely to buy alongside their original purchase.

#3. Make the upsell relevant to current purchases

This is an easy one. Remember that you’ll always have a better chance of converting more buyers with your upsell if it’s relevant to the product they’re buying.

So, if you’re selling bathing suits, don’t try to offer customers a phone charger – unless it’s specifically designed for the beach! 

#4. Use upsells to help your customers

You can see upsells as a tool to help your business grow. But if you treat upsells as a tool to help your customers, you’ll get more conversions.

Here’s a good way to look at it – every product solves a specific problem for your customer. But the same product could also cause other problems, or they could make your customers realize they have other desires they want to meet.

How can you help your customers solve these problems?

For instance, if you’re selling bathing suits, your customers now have something to wear at the beach. But because bathing suits show more skin than regular clothes, they now have the added problem of being at risk of sunburn. 

You can use this opportunity to upsell sunscreen – or a sun hat!

Other problems customers may have when they buy a bathing suit include:

●       Getting sand all over their body when they lie down to relax (upsell them a beach blanket)

●       Willing to have more body coverage when they take a walk across the beach (upsell them a beach cover-up)

●       No appropriate footwear to wear with their swimsuit (upsell them beach-appropriate shoes)

You can do the same exercise for any products you sell. Brainstorm all the problems your customers may encounter when they buy a product, then find ways to help them using upsells.

5. Offer upsold items at a discounted price

Instead of offering upsells at their regular price, you can bump down the price when customers make a purchase. You can specify that the discount for this upsold item will only be available if they add it to their existing order.

In this case, the discount can be positioned as a “thank you” for the purchase they make in your store.

8 Upselling techniques and examples for your ecommerce store

Now that you have some strategies to create upsells, here are some more specific techniques and examples you can implement in your ecommerce shop right now.

Example #1. Offer upsells in the shopping cart

When customers are already looking at their cart, you can suggest relevant upsells that they can easily add to their purchase.

For instance, you can display a pop-up recommendation that allows adding a product within a click.

Example #2. Embed upsells directly on the product page

If we back up one step before the cart page, you can add upsells directly on the product page. 

Dollar Shave Club is a company that does this really well. When you’re shopping for your first monthly package, you get an option to add your future shipments right away, so you never run out of blades.

This technique isn’t necessarily appropriate for all business models because upsells may distract from the original product. 

But if both products are closely entwined, it may be a good idea to feature them on the product sales page as Dollar Shave Club does.

Example #3. Use a post-checkout upsell page

One of the best ways to offer an upsell is by adding a post-checkout page. Typically, these pages allow customers to purchase additional products using a single click. 

Because they’ve already checked out, there’s no need to enter the payment information again, and it reduces the friction caused by making another purchase.

Example #4. Start an upsell email sequence

You don’t have to upsell directly on your website. Email is a powerful way to upsell your customers over time.

One way you can use email as an upselling tool is by adding all new customers to an automated welcome sequence. Those emails can nurture your new buyers AND nudge them towards relevant upsells.

You can create different sequences based on what products they purchase if your store contains several types of products.

Example #5. Add an upsell to your Order Status page

What do your customers see when they click through to get the status of their order?

Well, they probably see the status of their order. But guess what? You can use this page to show interesting upsells, too. 

As with other upsells, just make sure that the product you’re recommending is relevant to what’s in your customer’s original order.

Example #6. Add an option for a product subscription

Product subscriptions are an amazing way to increase the value of each customer. And while they might not seem like upsells at first glance, they have the potential to be worth even more than traditional upsells.

This tactic works well for products that are purchased on a regular basis. So, instead of a one-off purchase, customers are offered to get a lower price per item if they subscribe.

The subscription model is a long-term upsell. Customers may decide to cancel, but if they don’t, they’ll add several more purchases to their lifetime value without having to lift a finger.

If you shop on Amazon, you know that it provides a subscription option on certain product pages. If a product is consumable and usually needs to be repurchased, they’ll show you this option as the default when you want to check out. 

Example #7. Suggest a bundle

Using bundles to upsell your customers is a seamless way to package items together that are not only related to each other but can work together to solve tangent problems.

And yes, bundles are even more powerful when you combine them with subscriptions. 

Example #8. Offer a few price point options

Do you have products that come in more than one variation? Perhaps you can use this to your advantage to upsell customers with a more expensive option.

Software companies do this especially well, however, it may work with physical products as well. For instance, you can offer different sizes, models, or packages. 

Or, you can upsell various degrees of support if your customers need it. For instance, if you’re selling skincare products, you could offer a consultation with a medical professional on your team.

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When done right, upselling techniques can not only help you generate more revenue – they can also help you grow a positive relationship with your customers.

Head over to our blog to find more ecommerce marketing tips, and don’t forget to subscribe.

Thank you for listening.

Until next time!