13 Ideas for How to Upsell Your Customers and Increase Sales
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13 Ideas for How to Upsell Your Customers and Increase Sales

30 May 2022 27 March 2023 ~ 8 min read 5487 views
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Claspo Blog 13 Ideas for How to Upsell Your Customers and Increase Sales

When running a business, you have to increase the number of your customers and boost sales all the time. It includes all types of promotions: advertising, offers, discounts, free shipping, etc. Each of them engages people and allows you to grow your business while giving people what they want.

In addition to the options mentioned earlier, you have to think about how to upsell a product to your customer. Here you can create a unique strategy for a product upsell that can result in higher checks and more significant profits. And if you understand upselling strategies, you'll surely get more profit, and more loyal customers as people always want to add something extra to their cart for a bonus.

Let's see what exactly you can do for upselling and explore the ways you can do it.

Table of Contents

1. What Is Upselling?

2. How to Upsell Customers?

3. What Are the Most Effective Upselling Techniques?

4. Conclusion

What Is Upselling?

Upselling is a tool that helps to increase the check and lead the customer to get more items or pick pricier ones. When analyzing a particular client or your target audience in general, you can understand which items go together, and you can offer something like that for another price. Also, you can offer something that is a bit more expensive than an actual item the client checks out. 

In most cases, people simply don't know what they want and can buy something a bit more pricey. You can always offer some items of the same category that will go along with items that the user added to the cart. So if the user buys a pair of jeans, offer a belt, for example.

How to Upsell Customers?

Customers always want a bit more than they actually plan to buy. This means that when they buy one chocolate bar, they would be happy to get the second one if it's a bit cheaper or comes as a present. This not only feels good to the customer but also builds a strong connection to your brand. If you give users nice feelings and emotions, they will come back and spend more money.

Besides, each business solves different customers issues, so highlight your pros. Customers will buy things that they actually need, and this is where they will try to buy better things. The cheapest things are not what a person needs when fixing something or looking for a long-lasting option. Agree?

What Are the Most Effective Upselling Techniques?

To start with, you have to understand exactly what you need and how you are planning to implement it. There are plenty of marketing strategies for different goals, but you need to pick one that fits your interests the most.

If the customers know enough about your brand and website, you can go ahead and build an upsell strategy. If people are not familiar with you, then you should start with awareness campaigns.

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When it comes to upselling techniques, it is better and easier to show people what they can get for a specific amount of money rather than simply asking them to buy more. Right? Upsell is a broad word, but it has several tactics like:

  • Up-sell. When the person picks a particular item, you can offer a similar product, but better with extra functions, newer, etc. For example, if you sell some kind of technology, you can offer a newer model with more functions that can be more useful. It doesn't cost much more than the first product, but it still costs money. This is how both your customer and you get profit.
  • Cross-sell. When a person decides to buy an item, you can offer something that goes along with the actual item. If you sell cups, offer a matching plate. If you sell notebooks, offer some stationary. The second item might be a second thought of your customers that they've forgotten about.
  • Add-on. Here, you can offer something that adds more value to the purchased product. It can be a warranty for the electronics, for instance.
  • Bundle. You can offer several products as one, creating a bundle for a special price. Usually, this technique is used on different make-up websites.

Let's check the ideas that can help you with product upsell.

Idea 1. Offer a Reward

People spend time looking for things that will make their life easier or better. In other words, they spend time to find the best option for less money. You can offer a reward for their attention to your brand, which can turn into an upsell. How may you ask? Well, just wait until the customer drops an item to the cart and then offer something like that but of better quality or of bigger size for an additional amount of money. 

If you sell food, offer the same product but a bigger package with a slightly increased price. In case people need that item, they will calculate the gain they will get. Meaning, if the product is bigger but costs less than it should be based on the primary item, they will surely get the bigger one. As a result, both of you make profit: you get the money, and the user gets more than they’ve expected. Such decisions are usually fast and emotional, so they have bigger chances for success.

Idea 2. Compare Products

You know that people compare products and services all the time. They look for the best features for the exact amount of money they want to spend. So why not help them with that? Instead of letting your customers open lots of tabs and checking the features themselves, do it for them. Offer similar items on the same page describing why they differ from one another.

This can be three products that solve one particular issue but of different configurations. For example, if you sell blankets, you can compare the filling, describing each of them, so the customer has a chance to pick the most suitable one.

Idea 3. Learn Customers Preference

As you work on your business, you constantly learn more and more about your customers. This means that you learn their preferences, and as the result can offer something that they usually look for and what other products match their interest.

If your customers look for chocolate bars, you won't offer chewing gum and vice versa. Offer some other interesting chocolate products that might be rare.

Idea 4. Suggest Items

Suggest popular items as well. You surely know which items are popular in different groups. You've seen such options on every e-commerce website. Do you remember "Product Suggestions" or "Customers also searched for"?

Such items are not just more expensive, but they can call for a sense of urgency. Besides, there is a high chance that the next time the user wants to see them, there will be other items, so it is better to check these items right away. 

Idea 5. Free Shipping

Free shipping is one of the best and most popular existing techniques. People instantly see how much money exactly they are able to save and continue to add items to the cart to achieve the necessary price for free shipping. Some, even, might get more, thinking that since they don't have to pay for the shipping, they can spend the shipping cost on actual goods. Not a single person will skip an opportunity to use a free shipping option. 

You can notify them about this in several ways:

  • Pop-up window. Tell users about your shipping options when they scroll through the website, check out particular items, or when they are about to leave. The timing should be based on your strategy, so there is no one specific answer to this question.
  • Before the purchase. When users have their goods all packed up and ready to be purchased, tell them how much money they should spend to get free shipping. In most cases, people will go back to get more items.
  • Never. This option also exists, but this way you won't get upsells. Of course, people will notice the shipping fee when paying for their goods, but you don't know for sure whether they will come back to you after, as you never emphasized on this very offer.

Idea 6. Bonus Products

If you can add some bonus products, then do it! People love nice things for a smaller amount of money. But remember that each bonus should be relevant to the item people want to buy. If your customer checks garden supply, don't offer them Volkswagen tires — it just doesn't make sense. Offer people to shop for a specific price, saying that you will add some presents and bonuses. Such add-ons might include sample sizes, bonuses, additional items, etc.

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It is highly important to offer this option before the user gets to the checkout. When people surf the website, they have a chance to learn about actual products, add-ons, and bonuses, realizing whether they need them at all.

Idea 7. Write Emails

Your upselling work doesn't end when the user checks out. After each purchase or each registration, you have customers' personal contacts that you can use for communication.

Contact them, preferably with an e-mail since you can show some pictures and describe your offer more vividly. Ask them to revisit your website and check what they have on their wishlist. Also, you can tell your customers about current upselling, including free shipping and other mentioned techniques. Some stores notify their users about the items they checked out or have on their wishlist. You can try that as well.

There are plenty of different services that make an email marketing game strong and engaging, so make sure to check some businesses like Mailchimp.

Idea 8. Referral Program

Referral programs are aimed to cut the cost for the new customer. This is the technique in which the customer shares the link with a friend. When the customer's friend uses the link, both of them get some kind of a reward, which can also be a part of upselling.

Many customers share referral links to get bonuses, free shipping, etc., so this can be a nice addition to your up-selling strategies.

Idea 9. Membership

Do you offer a membership for every customer after their first purchase? Well, you should start doing that. Loyal customers have a higher lifetime value, and that's why memberships are important. You can offer them free gifts if they purchase items for a specific amount of money. And you can even give them an opportunity to pick their own gifts.

Such upselling tactics will surely result in higher profits as people will come back again and again to get the items they actually need and to get something extra to try on. This works best with wellness and make-up websites where you can pick sample sizes, perfumes, lotions, etc.

Idea 10. Help Customers

You should never offer something to a customer without any reason. What’s more, you always have to know what you are offering to your customer, and how your upsell makes a difference.

Create a sense of urgency to use new services or buy an upgraded item. For example, sell not just a better health app, but an app that adds to its previous version meal plans, sleeping schedules, and workouts.

Idea 11. Discounts

Discounts can be a part of the up-selling tactic if done right. You don't have to give away your products for free, but you can create nice discounts that will be quite profitable for your customers and for you. Friendly prices can always result in additional product purchases.

You can combine this technique with another one to achieve the best result. Pair it with free shipping or any other service to make an even more interesting proposition.

Idea 12. Urgency

Create an offer that is available only for a short period of time. This will encourage people to get your products or services faster. That can include not only discounts or additional services that will work for some time but actually the goods that will be available for a week or a month. There are plenty of holidays with their own attributes like toys, candies, balloons, etc.

Idea 13. Social Proof

We've mentioned this topic several times before. This is surely an important technique for your business. Lots of top-notch e-commerce business owners use it.

Show people what others think about your products and services. Speaking about upselling customers, you can pick reviews that write about upsells and show potential customers this information.

Conclusion

Product upsell is not only about website profit but also about happy and loyal customers that will come back to your business again and again. There's nothing better than a constant customer purchasing from you and telling friends about your great offers. 

Upselling tips that we've shared here will help you to grow your business, bring new leads, upgrade rates, and get more profits. It is a great opportunity to try selling different types of products and services that you can offer. The main advice is to keep learning about your audience as only this knowledge will help you understand what exactly your customers need and what they will additionally buy as a part of your upselling strategies.

If you need a detailed strategy for your business, feel free to ask our specialists in Claspo.io as we will always help you out with any questions.

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