Failing to implement upselling and cross-selling strategies is like leaving money on the table while impeding customer experience.
Let’s say a customer purchases a laptop. A few days later, they ordered a mouse, then a mouse pad, and, again, a laptop bag. In this episode of separate purchases, you lose multiple opportunities to boost your average order value and let your customer go through the hassle of making four purchases where it could’ve been just one.
So, here’s the burning question of the hour—how do you earn 10% or 20% more per order while enhancing customer experience?
To begin with, we’ll discuss the details of upselling and cross-selling, including strategies, tips, differences between the two, and examples.
Content Index
- What are Upselling and Cross-Selling?
- Difference Between Upselling and Cross-Selling
- Should You Upsell or Cross-Sell in Your Ecommerce Business?
- Effective Upsell and Cross-sell Strategies To Try Out
- Tips for Successful Upselling and Cross-Selling
- Conclusion
- FAQs
What are Upselling and Cross-Selling?
Upselling is a sales strategy in which companies offer a high-end or enhanced version of a product you intend to purchase.
Etsy India uses an upselling strategy. For example, if a user searches for lamps and chooses a floor lamp, the options offered include better quality lamps and similar lamps at slightly higher prices.
On the other hand, cross-selling is a sales tactic where companies encourage customers to buy complementary products.
When browsing products on Amazon, it recommends complementary products as “frequently bought together.” For instance, if a customer chooses a laptop on Amazon, it shows a mouse and laptop sleeve. This cross-selling strategy subtly nudges the buyer to purchase additional products.
Difference Between Upselling and Cross-Selling
Though upselling and cross-selling are strategies for improving customer satisfaction, they differ. While upselling enhances the main product by offering better versions, cross-selling suggests related products to create value.
Here are a few more differences between the two:
Should You Upsell or Cross-Sell in Your Ecommerce Business?
According to the HubSpot 2024 Trend Sales Report, 91% of sales experts upsell, while 87% cross-sell. Together, they bring an average of 21% of revenue. So, apply both these techniques after knowing when to use which and how. Here are a few opportunities:
When to use upselling:
During the initial product selection
Use upselling when a customer actively browses for a specific product or compares products to make a final decision. This is an excellent opportunity as the customer is open to exploring better options. Here’s how Amazon does it by offering similar products with better features and higher prices.
During cart review
When customers show a clear intent to purchase, you can upsell to convince them to buy an upgraded version of the product. The strategy works as customers are more receptive to value-added suggestions at this stage. Here’s an example from Amazon:
You can offer premium payment options that provide additional value during payment selection. For instance, when a customer selects a standard payment method, suggest options like:
- Converting the full payment into a 3-month EMI with zero interest
- Upgrading to a premium card payment tier that offers extra reward points
- Special discounts for using specific payment methods (e.g., “Get 5% extra off using UPI”)
During seasonal sales
Flipkart and Amazon use upselling during Big Billion Days and the Great Indian Festival sales. During these times, customers are ready to splurge and look for the best deals to make a purchase.
When to use cross-selling:
In the post-add-to-cart stage
When a customer adds a product to the cart, use the opportunity to cross-sell similar products. This technique works because the customer already decided to purchase, and the recommendations feel like valuable additions. After adding a product to the cart, Sephora India showcases several similar products in a “Frequently Bought Together” section.
During category-specific shopping
Myntra uses an excellent cross-selling tactic in specific product categories, such as clothing. If a customer searches for a T-shirt, Myntra shows related products in a “shop the look” section, where one can access and achieve the product model’s look. The section includes recommendations for bags, watches, sunglasses, jewellery, and other accessories.
During post-purchase follow-up
Cross-selling can be used anytime in the post-purchase stage—shortly after the order is placed, dispatched, or delivered. This strategy works because it shows your understanding of the customer’s needs.
For instance, customers who order a laptop or mouse on Amazon might receive an email with laptop bags and mouse pad suggestions.
While customers are in the payment flow, recommend relevant financial products or services. For example:
- When a customer chooses EMI, suggest a co-branded credit card with better EMI terms
- For large purchases, offer purchase protection or extended warranty plans
- For international purchases, recommend forex cards or international payment solutions
Knowing when to use upselling and cross-selling is essential. But you must have the right strategies to make them work. Let’s discuss.
Effective Upsell and Cross-sell Strategies To Try Out
Here are a few strategies to make the most out of your upselling and cross-selling efforts.
Utilise your home, product, and cart pages
One of the best ways to implement upselling and cross-selling is to personalise your website home, product, and cart pages by highlighting tailored recommendations based on the customer’s browsing, purchase history, recent orders, or other relevant data.
While the home page displays encourage customers to explore more product lines and utilise the current deals, product pages engage customers and increase the likelihood of a sale. On the other hand, cart pages are perfect for recommending order-related products to increase the average order value.
Here’s how Amazon uses its home page based on customer’s browsing history.
Personalise your upselling strategy
Upselling gives customers better options that align with their current purchase and provide more value. So, to avoid appearing gimmicky and cart abandonment, personalise the possibilities for each customer.
Mamaearth displays a great personalised upselling strategy by offering lightning sales on the 1000ml shampoo bottle. So, anyone purchasing a 600ml bottle would love to steal the deal by paying less for the bigger bottle.
Offer gifts or free shipping
Perks like discounts, free shipping, or gifts over a certain order amount are great motivators. Several customers add more products if they feel doing so would provide them additional value.
Dot & Key offers excellent discounts to encourage customers to buy more products. It provides one gift, a flat discount for the first threshold, and extra discounts and gifts for the next.
Leverage complementary product bundling
Instead of waiting for customers to buy additional products, suggest bundles that are value for money. If you personalise your cross-sells based on the buyer’s interests, you can bundle different variations of their cart products or different related products. For example, offer a bundle with other travel essentials if customers are looking for a travel bag.
Amazon personalised the bundle based on the chosen product— a campfire backpack.
Craft the best upsell
Upselling should increase the value of a single sale and offer an extraordinary customer experience that makes them repurchase. So, make your upsell offer attractive enough to grab the buyer’s attention and convert them effectively. Here’s what you can do:
- Use graphics to highlight the product benefits
- Personalise the copy so it speaks to make your recommendation seem trustworthy and not promotional
- Highlight the savings of the deal and showcase genuine limited-time offers
Juicy Chemistry upsells quite well with their skincare and haircare kits. They present the kits as cost-effective, provide detailed product descriptions, and highlight product benefits using relevant graphics.
Showcase customer stories
Customer stories, reviews, and use cases work great for upselling and cross-selling. When customers look at a specific product, you can showcase reviews of related products or the same product in a different variant.
For instance, on the Sugar Cosmetics website, you can find customer reviews and ratings peep in as you look at products. This strategy automatically attracts customers to explore the reviewed products as well.
Tips for Successful Upselling and Cross-Selling
Mastering upselling and cross-selling requires you to follow certain best practices. Here are a few:
Offer limited choices
Recommending too many products might confuse customers and appear too pushy. It may lead to decision paralysis or even distract customers to the extent that they abandon their carts. So, limit the choices you offer and avoid making upselling and cross-selling a part of your aggressive sales strategy.
Use price anchoring
Price anchoring is a psychological tactic you can use to influence people’s decisions. This practice involves highlighting the ‘anchor price’—a discounted price—to attract customers and make the offer seem valuable.
For instance, you can show the retail price and strike it off to show the offer price or highlight the discount percentage to attract buyers.
Automate follow-up messages
Post-purchase activities play a crucial role in keeping your customers engaged. To implement upselling and cross-selling effectively, auto-trigger emails on order confirmation, dispatch, and estimated delivery to nudge your customers gently and keep them informed on product updates. Further, add personalised recommendations in these emails to encourage more purchases.
Highlight use cases and reviews
Along with personalised recommendations, try showcasing use cases, demos, and reviews of the recommended product. This convinces the customer to go one step further toward making the purchase.
For instance, if a customer adds a book to the cart, you can suggest products like bookmarks, pens, and even reading lamps, along with a video of how these products can help.
Conclusion
Once you have the right upselling and cross-selling strategies, you can enhance average order and customer lifetime values by creating a fantastic shopping experience. However, to ensure the success of these strategies, you must build a strong infrastructure that supports seamless transactions.
Suppose you cross-sell products on the cart review page, and the buyer adds them to their cart successfully. But, the payment gets stuck during checkout, leading to cart abandonment.
To avoid such issues and provide customers with a smooth checkout experience, integrate a reliable payment gateway like Nimbbl.
You can integrate Nimbbl into your Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, or other eCommerce platforms.
With just one integration, Nimbbl offers customers flexible payment options and seamless checkout flows. In short, you can convert your upselling and cross-selling strategies into actual sales with Nimbbl.
Want to learn more about Nimbbl’s features?
FAQs
What is upselling and cross-selling?
Upselling offers premium versions of a chosen product, while cross-selling suggests complementary products to create more value for the customer.
What is upselling with an example?
When online stores like Etsy show higher-quality lamps at increased prices while a customer browses floor lamps, that’s upselling.
What is an example of cross-selling?
Amazon recommending a mouse and laptop sleeve when someone buys a laptop is cross-selling – suggesting complementary items to the main purchase.
