If you have an ecommerce website upselling and cross-selling are two worthwhile techniques that can improve your average order value (AOV).
Both can help you to make the most out of the customer footfall through your ecommerce shop, and to turn customer visits to orders.
Upselling is a technique that you can use to entice and persuade your customers to purchase a more expensive and superior item to result in a more profitable sale.
Cross-selling is where you encourage a customer to purchase one or more additional products onto their already existing order. This would normally be done with products that accompany or compliment the product that they are purchasing. An example would a memory card and case to go with a digital camera.
Both techniques focus on selling more products to website visitors that in most cases have already made the decision to buy from you and therefore trust you and your business. They are therefore likely to be open to listening to your recommendations. Remember it is more straightforward and cost-effective for you to sell more this way than attracting new customers.
How to use them?
- Promote the most popular or most sold products or services, giving them a prominent place on your website (such as the home page).
- Provide more space for products that you wish to upsell. They are commonly placed on the individual product pages that contain the cheaper and less superior product.
- Ensure that the price of the upsell product is not more than 25% extra than the original product as this will most likely put the customer off, and may result in no sale.
- For cross-selling you could make products or services pre-selected so that the customer needs to opt out of from purchasing them – the most common example of this is insurance packages when buying a high-end product. Cross-selling typically takes place at the basket stage.
- Make sure that you give your customers suggestions that are relevant.
In summary, help customers in their decision making when purchasing products from your website. Don’t expect them to spend time searching through your website for similar products that will make you more money. Instead guide your customers through their shopping experience with clear and relevant product recommendations.
