Upselling is a key component of many business models, regardless of whether they are brick-to-mortar businesses or e-commerce.

What’s upselling?

Upselling is the act of convincing customers to purchase a product at higher prices than they originally planned to. 

According to a study, the likelihood of selling to existing customers is 60%-70% while the chance of selling to new customers is only 5-20%

Product recommendations can also drive between 10-30% and 30% revenue. It is important to offer upsells at the right time to the right customers.

Upselling in your ecommerce store is a waste of money.

This article will show you how to sell, with examples and the best strategies.

1. Select a relevant product to upsell

Relevant products are the key to an upsell. Think about it: if a customer is buying a cookbook, there is no point in recommending a horror book (which would be cross-selling anyway).

To upsell customers, you should offer a more expensive version of the product. 

When you sell upsells, you are selling the benefits.

You can increase your sales if you sell a subscription-based Saas product.

2. Compare Product Features

Internet shoppers now do extensive research before making a purchase. You can make this easier and turn it into an upselling strategy.

You can show your prospects more than one product at once. This approach might be familiar to you from SaaS ( software-as-a-service) product pricing pages. This tactic is also applicable to e-commerce.

Customers can see similar upsell products and their primary feature differences so they don’t have to navigate through multiple pages.

Shopify users can also consider upselling apps

Away Travel shows a comparison between the upsell items on the product pages.

3. Select the Right Upsell

There are many upsells you can offer customers. Take a look at these ecommerce examples.

These are some of the most popular upsell options.

Product Protection

This upsell technique can be used online or offline. Customers will be asked to increase their warranty with the “Protect Your Product” upsell to protect their product from any damage.

Version upgrade

Version upgrades can be another type of upsell. It’s possible to make the product stronger, faster, or slower, as long as it is an upsell.

Extended Service Period

A lot of companies offer better deals for longer-term contracts than physical products. This is how they often upsell.

Product customization

You might have noticed the “customize your product” option when shopping. This is an upsell. In reality, it’s a series. Each customization will increase the price.

Tesla is a well-known brand that offers customization options for customers before they buy.

Bundle

Bundling is a great way to cross-sell and upsell. Bundling similar items can also be used as an upselling strategy.

4. Recognize your employees for their hard work

Customers will not buy an upsell if you show them new products.

They have already done extensive research on the product they are interested in purchasing. 

An upsell is a way to sell more. 

A customer’s cart value is $50. You can then offer a discount by upgrading the product.

5. Never be pushy

You want to make sure that customers are aware of upsells. However, it is important to know when to let them down and when to get them to spend more.

Do not cross the line. Don’t cross the line.

How can you maximize every opportunity to upsell your products?

• Many retailers conceal the upsell product information beneath the product information so that prospects who are interested can only view it

• Customers can also see the offer after they make a purchase. Customers could view the offer when they add an item to their cart but before they checkout.

Your upsell could be annoying to people who just landed on a page. This displays upsell offers to visitors who scroll down to a specific amount of the page.

After X second targeting you can enable to display an upsell offer after some time.

6. You can win their trust

This social proof strategy lets customers know that others have bought the product. Major retailers like Amazon use this strategy.

7. Make use of urgency

Use urgency to convince people to buy the upsell. If the offer is limited or not available for long,

Popupsmart is a tool that can be used to launch a limited-time upselling campaign or to increase your ecommerce revenue with urgency.

Use countdown popups to create urgency. People will purchase the product if there is a timer in your upsell popup.

Sky encourages customers to buy more expensive versions of its products through a limited-time offer and urgency.

8. Shipping is Free of Charge 

Even though it’s an outdated strategy, free shipping is still an attractive option. A Retail Study showed that 91% of consumers consider shipping free to be their primary incentive to shop more.

What can you do to use it to upsell them? Tell them how much they need to spend to qualify for free shipping. Encourage them to shop more.

9. Personalize recommended upsells

Personalization appeals to more customers and it works better when it comes down to a personal level.

• Get information about your customers’ purchase history
• This information is used to recommend products.
• You can address them by their names

10. Display product suggestions

It’s possible to see that many e-commerce websites provide product suggestions. These suggestions are based on customers’ search terms and can encourage them to spend more. 

Customers of eBay will find a section devoted to similar products.

11. Rule of Three

Did You Know that the Rule of Three is a Marketing Principle?

The rule of three is a theory that audiences absorb speech and text better and find it more enjoyable, more engaging, and more satisfying.

It’s used in marketing slogans like “Just Do It-Nike” or “I’m Lovin’ It McDonald’s.” “

What is upselling? People respond well to patterns. Use the rule-of-3 to present your upselling proposal to three people, as shown below.

12. Limit Price Increase

Bitcatcha suggests that you price upsells at a reasonable level. If you do, upsells may not work.

The price of an upsell should not exceed 40% of what the customer intended to buy. Sources such as Retail Doc recommend that the upsell price not exceed 25%. 

We suggest trying different options to find the best option for you and your customers.

13. Add-ons

Customers who do their research and feel confident about the product may not be tempted by higher prices.

Add-ons can be a great option for such situations. It all depends on what product you are selling online.

• Additional features
• Bonus products
• Sample products

Dollar Shave offers add-ons for its product pages to help introduce new product lines.

14. Upsell using a follow-up email

Follow-up emails are a popular way to upsell. Leads from email marketing are the best.

Even if the customer declines to accept your offer, you can still offer an upsell. You can offer an upsell to customers even if they decline the offer.

To increase your email list, subscription Popups are a great way to get new leads.

15. Referral programs can encourage sales

Another way to upsell is to create a referral program. Get customers to refer you to others after having a positive shopping experience.

Referring friends and family members earn customers additional reward points or rewards that can be used to purchase future products. 

Conclusion

Upselling is a great way to increase sales and make more money. You can also see real-life examples.