eCommerce Upselling: Boost Your Conversions & Sales Easily ＆Effectively

In the eCommerce industry, boosting conversions and sales is a never-ending pursuit. One powerful strategy to achieve this goal is upselling, which offers your customers additional products or services that enhance their original purchase. Additionally, effective upselling can improve your customer experience and loyalty.

In this guide, we will explore the benefits and strategies of eCommerce upselling, providing you with practical tips and techniques on how to do that easily and effectively.

What Is eCommerce Upselling?

Upselling in e-commerce refers to presenting customers with a more expensive or upgraded version of the product they are presently evaluating to boost order value and maximize profit.

By offering clients better or more options that satisfy their requirements and wants, upselling aims to persuade them to spend more money. According to a report from Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that serve personalized offers and recommendations.

For instance, take the example of Deliveroo. When you decide to buy a sandwich from the store, you may not consider choosing other add-ons that you need yet are unaware of. Deliveroo provides you with a bundle of add-on options right before you check out. How about some extra mozzarella or some extra ginger shot? Or how about some cold, refreshing juice to pair your sandwich up? Thus providing you with the full-fledged meal that you need.

Upselling VS Cross-Selling

Cross-selling and upselling are frequently misunderstood. However, both these terms are different. Offering customers related or complimentary products that go well with the item they are now purchasing is known as cross-selling. For instance, a buyer purchasing a camera would be presented with the option of a tripod, memory card, or camera bag.

Despite their differences, cross-selling and upselling frequently complement and can be employed in place of one another. Customers who are upsold a more expensive laptop might also be cross-selling accessories like a mouse or laptop bag.

Benefits of Upselling Products

Upselling can not only deepen your relationship with customers but also lead to more sales with less effort. After all, it is much easier to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones. According to Gitnux, 70-95% of business revenue comes from upsells and renewals on average while a mere 5-30% comes from the initial sale.

Better Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Businesses can enhance their CLV by upselling more expensive or premium items or add-ons to clients. By giving clients personalized value-for-money recommendations based on their prior purchases, businesses encourage customers to stick with the brand, which in return, will reduce negative churn.

Improved Customer Experience

Businesses can increase customer happiness by recommending extra goods or services that complement the consumer’s first purchase. This can also increase the customer experience and foster customer loyalty.

Increased Revenue

The potential for higher profits is one of upselling’s most important advantages. Businesses can raise their average order value and overall income by enticing customers to buy more expensive products or add-ons. Upselling can also assist businesses in making up lost revenue due to abandoned shopping carts by giving clients specific offers that motivate them to finish their transactions. This also boosts their marketing efforts, thus lowering the money otherwise spent on attracting new users.

Best Practices and Tips in eCommerce Upselling

Upselling is no guesswork. It involves science and deals with the psyche of the consumers. Hence, it is important to consider where, how, and what to upsell to optimize your sales while providing the best customer experience.

What to Upsell?

Upselling is only powerful for growing sales and profitability when you choose the right goods or services. So, let’s discuss a few factors that will assist you in deciding what to upsell:

Similar Products Browsed or Purchased by Customers

Offering similar products browsed or purchased by customers can improve their overall shopping experience and encourage them to make additional purchases. This can be particularly effective if you can provide personalized recommendations based on their browsing or purchase history.

Alternatives With Higher Ratings

By recommending alternatives with higher ratings, you can increase your product’s sales and visibility while assisting clients in their purchasing decisions. For instance, similar to Blackpepper Eau de Parfum, if a consumer hesitates about a product with poor ratings, you may upsell a different option with better ratings to enhance his entire experience.

Upsell Your Most Popular and Loved Products

This will help you generate more income while introducing customers to items they are more likely to find enjoyable. This can increase client loyalty and enhance their buying experience in general.

Items That Pair Well Together or Enhance One Another

Customers may feel valued and convenient if you recommend things that complement or go well together. For instance, you might recommend an appropriate lens or memory card to a consumer buying a camera.

Where to Upsell?

One basic rule is never to place upsells too early in the customer’s journey such as the homepage, registration page, or advertisements. You risk chasing them away with overmarketing and pushy displays of products.

Instead, wait until the customer is ready to purchase, such as on the following pages.

On the cart page

The cart page is an ideal place to offer upsells because the customer has already added items to their cart and is showing interest in buying. Make sure to present upsells that upgrade the products in their cart and provide extra value to the customer.

Checkout page

The checkout page is another good place to offer upsells because the customer has already decided to purchase. However, keep the upsells relevant and not distract shoppers from the checkout process.

Post-checkout page

The post-checkout page is a great opportunity to offer additional products or services because the customer has just completed a purchase and may be in a buying mood. Offer better versions of products or complementary ones that can enhance the customer’s experience.

Order tracking page

This is a very unique opportunity to engage with the customer after the sale. According to businesswire, around 91% of consumers actively track their packages.

Hence, you can make full use of your order tracking page to upsell, by using a professional tracking service like TrackingMore, which can provide real-time updates on your clients’ order status and offer additional products or services that may be of interest.

Out-of-stock product pages

You should never be too cautious when handling an out-of-stock case. Rather than just displaying an “out of stock” statement and frustrating your customers away, you can highlight better alternatives to the out-of-stock items nearby to drive sales.

Marketing campaigns

You can also incorporate personalized upselling within your marketing initiatives such as newsletters, emails, retargeting ads, etc, and provide consumers with items that will probably interest them based on their purchasing habits and history

But, make sure you use their data responsibly and only offer recommendations that provide value to them.

How to Upsell?

So, are you all set to implement upselling in your marketing strategy? Once you decide to choose the path of upselling, here are a few factors that you may consider :

Automated eCommerce upsells

eCommerce companies can use automation technologies to upsell products based on consumer behavior and preferences. This can lighten the strain on sales and support personnel, freeing them up to concentrate on other areas of the company’s growth.

Be personalized in upselling

Personalization is key in today’s market. Use data from your customers’ previous purchases or browsing history to offer relevant products or services. This will show that you understand their needs and preferences, making them more likely to accept the upsell.

Use convincing and engaging personalized copies

When upselling, it’s important to use convincing and engaging language. Highlight the product or service’s benefits and how it can enhance the customer’s experience. Do not forget to use persuasive language and a friendly and helpful tone.

Show that the upsell delivers better value for a little more money

When promoting an upsell, it’s critical to show how the recommendation brings more benefits than the buyer’s initial purchase. For instance, to a consumer purchasing a trolley, you can provide an upsell that’s merely 20% higher in price, yet with much greater features or specifications. Or better, offer a comparison table to illustrate the good bargain. The customer may then see the added value they receive for their additional investment.

Note: Avoid upselling items that are way more expensive than the original ones. For example, don’t upsell a $2099 laptop if a client is checking up on a &1299 one.

Offer incentives

Finally, consider offering incentives to encourage customers to accept the upsell. For example, offer perks like free shipping or discounts on the upsell. This can help sweeten the deal and make it more appealing to the customer.

Add social proof

Adding social proof, like the number of reviews a certain product has or the number of times it has been purchased, acts as a motivating factor for consumers to upgrade their product, thus boosting your upselling initiatives.

FOMO

FOMO, fear of missing out, is an important upselling strategy businesses make use of. You can recommend better options to your consumers with a limited-time deal. This creates a sense of urgency and pushes them to make the purchase.

A/B Testing

By this step, you must have known a lot of strategies for upselling. However, practice makes perfect. You will need to implement it and keep twisting your upselling practices until you get ideal results. That’s where you should consider A/B testing.

It means creating two versions of a web page or a marketing message and putting them to the test which one is working and which is not. For this, you may try different upselling scenarios, collect data, and make decisions based on the derived results.

Tools That Can Help You Upsell on Different eCommerce Platforms

As upselling has become a marketing necessity, various eCommerce platforms have launched their upselling tools and apps to help various business owners. Some of the best tools are:

• Bold Upsell, Frequently Bought Together, and Cross-Sell Pro from Shopify
• Product Recommendations, Personalized Product Recommendations, and WooCommerce Cart Upsells from WooCommerce
• Related Products, Upsell and Crossell, Magento 2 Upsell, and Mageplaza Better Thank You Page from Magento

Why Does Upselling Work?

In the world of eCommerce, upselling has become a potent growth strategy. It appeals to clients’ desires for bargain hunting, as well as their needs for products of higher quality and prestige at a “low” price. It takes the first item eyed by your customers in your store as an anchor, allowing you to seize the opportunity to upsell later.

This “anchoring effect” effect also operates when shoppers view a more expensive item first, making the subsequent upsells appear more reasonable by contrast. In general, it makes sense to say: you are leaving money on the table if you ignore upselling.