Are you avoiding upselling because you’re afraid you’ll annoy your customers? Or maybe you’ve heard the term, but you don’t really understand what it is or how to do it.

Done properly, upselling is just another way to make the customer journey more convenient, reduce the percentage of abandoned carts, and increase your sales revenue. But you need to get to know your customers’ needs in-depth, and use the right apps, for your upsell strategy to work.

Here’s your comprehensive guide to successful upselling—with examples, best practices, and detailed steps to get you started.

Retain customers and increase revenue with Route package tracking and automatic product recommendations.

What is upselling?

Upselling is a sales technique that invites your customers to spend more by offering them a more expensive product or service than the one they were planning to buy. This sales strategy should invite you to find win-win scenarios to offer your customers.

Ecommerce upselling examples

Brands upsell to customers online all the time. In fact, upselling can increase your bottom line and reduce new customer acquisition costs (CAC). If you plan to incorporate this selling technique into your business, use these examples as inspiration.

Increase the size of your product

The Godfather would’ve called this upselling example “an offer you can’t refuse.” It’s a common practice in online grocery stores, where you can invite your customers to enlarge the size of a product for a small price. For example, if a customer adds a one-pound coffee bag to their cart, you can invite them to purchase a bigger one (2 lbs) for a few extra dollars.

Enlarge your order

Upselling electronics is also a common example. Many online electronics retailers offer add-ons to get you to upgrade the product you’re looking to buy.

For instance, if a customer adds a Samsung 55” 4K Tv to their cart, you could offer a TCL 65″ TV for a small additional cost. Since TCL is the least expensive brand, you might have a good deal to offer your customer and upsell this product.

Upselling vs. cross-selling: What’s the difference?

Upselling and cross-selling are both sales strategies that help you reduce your inventory cycle time and increase sales revenue. 

The difference between these two selling techniques is that cross-selling offers a complementary, additional product to the one your client is already buying, e.g. offering a charger for the phone they’ve just purchased. Upselling, on the other hand, implies upgrading the product they’re thinking about buying, e.g. selling a 128GB iPhone instead of the 64GB one.

How important is upselling in ecommerce?

It’s extremely important to implement upselling tactics in ecommerce as it’s easier to convert customers who are already on the brink of making a sale than it is to find new customers.

But upselling doesn’t only increase your bottom line. Here are some more benefits of upselling: 

When to (and when not to) focus on upselling

You can upsell at different stages of the buyer’s journey: before, during, and after purchase. As a general rule, you should never overwhelm your customers with ads and promotions because it might cause them to leave your page. 

Here are some other best practices to follow at each stage of the process.

Before purchase

If you want to upsell before your customer adds anything to the cart, here are some ways to do it:

Populate a comparison chart with similar more expensive products.

During purchase

As soon as your customer adds something to your cart, you can start using these upselling strategies:

After purchase

You can upsell after your customer has already bought a product by using order information to upsell them a similar, improved product in the future. 

Waiting to upsell after purchase is a good technique to use if you sell premium products because of the need to earn a customer’s trust first. For example, in the case of premium skin care products, customers may want to try out smaller sizes first to see if they don’t cause any allergic reactions before investing in a larger package.

How to implement an upselling strategy for your ecommerce business

If you’re planning to implement an upselling strategy for your business that helps you retain your customers, increase your AOV, and add value, you should:

1. Find an upsell app

There are different upsell apps that integrate with ecommerce websites and bring this sales technique to life. These apps let you create an upsell funnel and make custom offers to customers through pop-ups, add-ons, or sidebars. Take a look at these apps:

2. Focus on returning customers

When you upsell to your customers, they can either believe it was a great recommendation or a complete waste of money. For example, let’s say a customer is planning to buy a plain white, 100% cotton t-shirt, and you upsell them a dry-fit white t-shirt for a higher price (15% more).

If they like the fit and the fabric of the t-shirt, they might use it and buy it again from you. If they get it and it’s smaller than expected, itchy, or shrinks after the first wash, they might not repeat. So, their post-purchase evaluation of your brand will be unsatisfactory.

To effectively upsell a premium version of a product, you should completely understand the customer’s barriers, needs, and interests. That way, you can upsell products that you’re certain will improve customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

You’re more likely to boost your repeat customers rate if you:

3. Put products into categories

A good way to organize your products for upselling is by assigning different categories and tiers to each one. You can separate the categories as you better see fit. Some example categories are:

Separating relevant products into different categories will allow you to build automations with the previously mentioned apps to propose the right upsells. 

For example, if you have an online electronics store and you sell TVs, you can separate them by:

Then, you can create upselling opportunities according to different scenarios. For example, if someone is looking for a 32” Toshiba TV, you can offer them a slightly bigger model from Toshiba, or the same size but with better picture quality from another brand.

Pro tip: Although you can offer more expensive versions of each product, you should set a limit price per category so your upsells don’t exceed the additional 25% mark.

4. Measure your results and adjust accordingly

Use data-driven decisions to make your upselling strategy work. You should analyze the following:

5. Find ways to encourage customers to spend more

Just because your customer is adding items to their cart, doesn’t mean they’ll convert. In fact, 68% of US online shoppers abandon their carts before checkout. So, you need to make it a no-brainer for new prospects and existing customers to complete the order. 

Check out these tried and tested methods to encourage customers to spend more on your store:

Implement the rule of three

People are used to seeing a pattern of three options to choose from. Offering three different products as an upsell possibility can often lead them to choose the middle one. So if you present: 

Your buyer will probably choose the $32 one. Because it’s not the cheapest option, nor the most expensive one.

Make upselling easy

Going for an upsell should be a one-click decision. Underneath each version of the product, there should be a clear button urging customers to “add to cart”. Remember, if you overcomplicate the upselling process, you’re likely to lose the sale altogether.

Use social proof

Customers trust other people over brands. Include customer testimonials and reviews on your product pages and when offering products as an upsell. This will generate trust and improve your chances of making the sale.

Offer substitute products

Avoid losing a sale because you ran out of stock. Instead, use this opportunity to upsell your customers with a similar product of higher value. For example, if your customer wants to order 1kg of arabica coffee beans from your online store, but you’re out of stock, why not offer the 1.5kg bag as an alternative? If you can, always allow customers to choose substitute products by hand.

How free shipping can increase ecommerce upsell numbers

Everyone loves free shipping. If you offer free shipping over a certain price threshold, your customers will be encouraged to purchase an additional item to qualify, even if it means spending more overall. That’s because they perceive more value in the product itself.

To use this in your upselling strategy, you could create product recommendations to upsell product upgrades to meet the free shipping threshold. That way, customers don’t have to buy something they don’t want to qualify—they’re just getting more of a good thing.

With Route, you can also upsell package protection at checkout. When they opt-in, your customers will be protected against theft, loss, and damage, and be sure the carbon emissions from their shipment are neutralized. With 30% of customers influenced to make a purchase if a company is environmentally responsible, this can be a pretty effective upsell.

Should you upsell your customers?

Upselling is a useful sales strategy that allows you to increase the AOV per customer by offering them high-valued and priced products. Incorporate an upsell strategy into your business by:

If you combine upselling and cross-selling strategies you can increase the average revenue per user and lower your client acquisition costs. 

When you partner with Route, you can upsell package protection and carbon-neutral shipping at checkout, with a cool 50% acquisition rate. Plus, your customers will love being able to easily track their package and see updates and product recommendations from your brand with timely automatic notifications.

Upselling FAQs

Retain customers and increase revenue with Route package tracking and automatic product recommendations