Cross-selling and upselling are two sales techniques that can help you make more money from your customers while simultaneously increasing their loyalty to your brand. Upselling is the practice of encouraging customers to buy a more expensive version of something they’ve already originally planned on purchasing.
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| Cross-Sell |
Cross-selling
Cross-selling is similar, but usually involves recommending complementary products or services instead of a more expensive version of the original item. Both these strategies are proven ways to increase revenue in almost any business, but especially eCommerce businesses with limited physical space for an inventory of products.
Even though they’re both related, cross-sell and upsell have different advantages and disadvantages when it comes to designing your retail store or website. Let’s dive deeper into each strategy and see how it could work for you.
What is Cross-selling?
Cross-selling is the process of selling additional products or services to your current customers. It is commonly used to sell supplementary items like accessories or add-ons that can be purchased alongside the item a customer initially came to buy. Cross-selling isn’t meant to replace your initial sales pitch, but to add on to it.
For example, if a customer comes to your store to purchase a new laptop, you could offer them an extended warranty, a laptop case, or a laptop keyboard cover. These are all products that would increase the customer’s satisfaction with their purchase, but aren’t necessities.
The customer could still purchase their laptop without these add-ons, but you’re still giving them additional options because you want to help them get the most out of their purchase. Cross-selling is a great way to boost overall sales for your business. The more products a customer buys from you, the more likely they are to make repeat purchases in the future.
What is Upselling?
Upselling is the process of encouraging customers to buy a more expensive version of something they’ve already originally planned on purchasing. Upselling is meant to be a replacement for your initial sales pitch, rather than a supplement to it. Upselling is almost always related to price.
It’s meant to give customers a reason to spend more money on their initial item. Upselling can be used in almost any industry, but it’s most often used in retail stores where customers physically walk through aisles of products they can purchase. Upselling is a great way to increase overall revenue for your business. The more money customers spend with you, the more likely they are to come back in the future.
When to use Cross-selling and when to use Upselling
Cross-selling and upselling are most effective when used alongside one another. That way, customers are constantly being offered options for products and services that fit their needs and budget. Cross-selling can be used for any product or service in your store, but it’s especially helpful when you have a few items that are constantly purchased together.
When customers are perusing your store, it is a good idea to offer other relevant products that naturally complement the item they’re looking at. You can cross-sell with signs, tags, product descriptions, and even the layout of your store if you have a great deal of space.
Utilizing Existing Products for Cross-Selling and Upselling
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| How To Cross-Sell and Upsell |
1-You could use product descriptions to recommend other products.
2-You could use signs in your store, you could use tags on your products.
3-You could use a combination of the three.
These methods allow you to cross-sell your existing products in a non-invasive way that doesn’t interrupt the customer’s normal browsing process.
Using Events or Celebrations for Cross-Selling and Upselling
Cross-selling and upselling are most effective when you can tie them to events or celebrations. You can do this with holidays, seasons, or even major sporting events. For example,
- If you sell swimsuits in the summer, you can cross-sell sunscreen or beach towels.
- If you sell winter coats, you could cross-sell ski-masks or winter-socks.
The key to tying these events to cross-selling is to make the product complement the item the customer is most likely to be purchasing. For example, if you sell swimsuits, sunscreen is a good product to cross-sell because it can be used all summer long. But if you sell winter coats, a ski-mask is probably not the best product to cross-sell.
Cross-selling and upselling are meant to be helpful recommendations to the customer, so make sure to select products that would actually be useful to them. Cross-selling is a great way to boost sales during the holidays when people are shopping for gifts.
Using Behavior Based Targeting for Cross-Selling and Upselling
Behavior based targeting is a way to cross-sell and upsell products to customers based on their online browsing patterns. This is a common way to advertise online, but it can also be used in your online store. Cross-selling and upselling products based on the customer’s online browsing patterns is a great way to make sure that your advertisements are targeted towards the right person.
This can help you save money on your advertising budget since you won’t be paying to advertise to people who don’t need your products. Cross-selling and upselling based on customer browsing patterns can be done through a variety of tools, like retargeting ads or remarketing lists. You can even use Facebook Pixel to target customers who have already visited your store based on the browsing patterns.
Conclusion
Cross-selling and upselling are two sales techniques that can help you make more money from your customers while simultaneously increasing their loyalty to your brand. These strategies are proven ways to increase revenue in almost any business, but especially eCommerce businesses with limited physical space for an inventory of products.
Cross-selling is the process of selling additional products or services to your current customers. Upselling is the process of encouraging customers to buy a more expensive version of something they’ve already originally planned on purchasing.