Four tips for e-commerce upselling and cross-selling

Acquiring new customers can be very expensive in a highly competitive e-commerce marketplace. Therefore, you must be able to generate as much revenue as possible from your existing shoppers. Once someone enters your store, you need to find ways to push them to purchase as many products as possible. A great way to do this is by offering tailored upselling and cross-selling product deals displayed throughout your store at critical points in your buyer’s journey. This article will look at implementing upselling and cross-selling agreements in your store and tips to ensure your values are as successful as possible.

If you’re a Shopify merchant, check out this list of the best Shopify Upsell apps, both free and paid.

What is upselling?

Upselling has been a term used in commerce for decades. Perhaps the most famous example of upselling is Mcdonald’s, which used to push their employees to encourage customers to order a supersize their meal by ordering more giant fries or drinks than they had initially wanted. 

Essentially, upselling means selling your customers a more expensive version of a product they were initially purchased or more of that same product in one transaction. Let’s take a look at an example: 

 

Dipalready.com sells metal stands for their environmentally friendly shampoo and conditioner bars. Because many of their customers use both shampoo and conditioner products, they upsell on their product page to encourage their customers to purchase two stands. They also incentivize the deal with a small discount. 

Another example would be an electronics company upselling a product warranty or antiviral software when customers purchase a new computer. These product add-ons increase the sale value and push up your average order value (AOV), one of the main benefits of upselling and cross-selling. 

What is cross-selling?

Cross-selling is similar to upselling but works slightly differently. With cross-selling, the focus is on encouraging your customer to purchase additional products. Usually, they are somehow related to the first. 

Mcdonald’s can again be used as an example of cross-selling deals. Whenever their employees ask customers whether they would like to purchase an entire meal (with fries and a drink) rather than a single burger, they are cross-selling. Let’s see another example here:

Rhaikalondon.com shows its customers a complete outfit on this product page to encourage them to purchase more than just the leggings. By offering an image of the model wearing the entire company, they also give their customers an idea of how the individual products match together, inspiring customers to purchase the outfit. 

Also, customers can easily add the products to their cart from this single page and don’t have to navigate to a new product page to view the other product. 

How can your store benefit from upselling and cross-selling?

1. Increase AOV

This one is pretty obvious. By using upselling and cross-selling deals, you can increase the number of products you are selling per purchase and boost your AOV. If you are looking to grow your revenue, upselling and cross-selling deals are a low-cost and highly effective method. 

2. Help your customers understand your products

In some cases, your customers may be unfamiliar with your products and might not understand how certain products can be used together. Creating deals gives you a chance to tell your customers, “pair this with this,” and helps your customers see the value of your products, increasing the chances of a sale. 

3. Streamline the shopping experience

In many cases, customers might already come to your store to purchase several items. By creating product bundles or kits of these products, you can make an easy, one-click shopping experience your customers will love (and come back for!). 

Three examples of e-commerce upselling and cross-selling product deals

Let’s look at just a few ways you can implement upselling and cross-selling agreements in your store. 

1. A shoppable gallery

neweditionfashion.com has created a dedicated page in their store called “Shop the Look.” This page is clearly visible in their main navigation menu, making it easy for customers to find. They display a series of lifestyle images containing different product deals that customers can browse on the page. 

When customers find a “Look” they like, they can click on it to see the individual products included and add all the products to their cart directly from there. This encourages customers to purchase more products and makes it very easy for them to do so without navigating between different product pages.

2. A pre-defined gift box 

Selling pre-defined packs of products is also a tremendous cross-selling technique to increase your AOV. In many industries, gift boxes are becoming extremely popular because they are so easy from the buyer’s perspective.

In this example, thegreenmumma.com has created gift boxes and hampers for their customers. Rather than shopping for a few different gifts, customers can purchase these pre-packaged hampers, which may contain more products than they initially would have bought, resulting in a larger scale and an increased AOV. 

3. A popup showing product add-ons 

Popups can be highly annoying on websites, so it’s important not to overuse them. However, when done right, a popup can be highly effective because it requires action from your customer – they simply can’t ignore it! Popups are also a great way of displaying a product deal without cluttering your regular pages.

In this example, matsudai.co.uk uses a popup to display product add-ons to a ramen kit. The popup is triggered by a customer adding one of the kits to their cart. Once the customer clicks the add to cart button, the popup appears with suggestions of toppers and add-ons that customers can add to their ramen kit.

Four tips for e-commerce upselling and cross-selling

1. Do it throughout your store, and tailor your offers accordingly

Although most of the examples we have looked at have been on product pages, it’s vital to consider upselling and cross-selling deals throughout your store. Think about your customer journey and where customers typically purchase from, then add values to those relevant pages. 

For example, you can add deals to your home page, your collections, product pages, a dedicated “special offers” page, the cart, and beyond. Also, you can tailor your deals to suit each page.

For instance, the deal you show on your home page might be more generic (such as any three products for $40). At the same time, the value you offer in the cart can be specifically related to the products your customer is already purchasing. Customizing and personalizing your offers as much as possible significantly increases the chances of conversion. 

2. Make sure your product combinations will convert

When setting up your upselling and cross-selling deals, it’s essential to group products together in a way that makes sense. For example, a customer browsing women’s jeans probably aren’t interested in saving $10 when they buy a pair of men’s shoes. A bundle that consists of women’s jeans and a women’s shirt will likely have a better conversion rate. 

You can also look through your existing sales data to identify patterns of frequently purchased products together and base the product combinations you create around this.

3. Use discounts if and when appropriate

Discounting your products is a great way to sell more of them and can be the difference between a customer making a purchase and deciding not to. Make sure you use discounts wisely – a 10% discount when a customer purchases three products will likely result in a much larger sale for you and better profits, while offering a buy one, get one free deal might hurt your bottom line if the product is expensive. 

4. Make sure your deals are easily visible to customers 

Your customers won’t be able to purchase your sales if they can’t find them! Ensuring your values are visible is really important for driving conversions. Don’t make your customers scroll too far to see your offers for discounts on your home page. For deals on your product pages, try to place the bid as close to the add to cart button as possible.

Also, don’t forget that many of your customers may now prefer to shop from mobile devices and smaller screens. Make sure your deals are optimized for mobile shoppers and look great on screens of all sizes. 

Use PickyStory to create e-commerce upselling and cross-selling deals

If you’re wondering how to get started with product deals, PickyStory has all the conversion tools you need. With PickyStory’s platform, you can set up shop the look galleries, sell gift boxes with combo products, offer bundles of related items on your product pages, show popups and in-cart deals, and much more.

PickyStory deals can be set up in a few minutes and easily dragged and dropped onto your store’s pages – there’s no code required. Plus, inventory is tracked and synced at the SKU level for all the individual products you include in your bundles and deals. There’s also an advanced analytics dashboard that helps you monitor and optimize the performance of your arrangements. 

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E-commerce upselling and cross-selling: revenue you didn’t know you were missing

Many merchants don’t even realize how much revenue they are missing out on until they start using product deals to create upselling and cross-selling offers throughout their stores. Get started today and see just how valuable product deals can be for your business.