Boost your eCommerce Sales: Why are Upselling and Cross-Selling vital for your Ecommerce Business

Marketers forget that generating leads is not enough to run a successful business. To maximize your profit, you must not only increase your average order value but also retain your existing customers. And as far as powerful marketing strategies are concerned, cross-selling and upselling reign.

Cross-selling and upselling are the most popular marketing strategies to boost your eCommerce sale.

Product recommendations can make up an average of 10–30% of an eCommerce site’s sales, with Amazon claiming that cross-selling and upselling bring in up to 35% of their revenue.

Here we explain the differences between cross-selling and upselling, offer tips on identifying cross-selling and upselling opportunities in your online business, and provide best practices for cross-selling and upselling.

What are upselling and cross-selling?

Upselling and cross-selling are related. Both are ways of increasing your sales.

• Upselling: Buy “Product A” from me, and for 50 dollars more, I’ll offer you a better model. The better model is the upsell.
• Cross-Selling: Buy “Product A” from me, and for another 10 dollars, I’ll also sell you “Widget A.” “Widget A” is the cross-sell.

Let’s take a look at Cross-Selling and Upselling in more detail:

What is Cross-Sell?

Cross-selling refers to products that can be added to your cart to compliment the original item. Cross-selling is a common strategy businesses use to offer discounts when multiple items are bought together.

Cross-selling is a way to tempt customers to buy impulse items during checkout, so the customer doesn’t have to think about them before adding them to the cart. The complementary item tends to be cheaper.

For example, if customers buy a phone, they might see offers to purchase a case and headphones. Cross-selling is also a way for restaurants to recommend soups, drinks, and salads along with their main courses.

What is Upsell?

Customers are encouraged to upgrade, add-ons, or purchase a more expensive product to increase their overall order value.

Customers can also be targeted for upselling after adding a product to their cart or initiating checkout. This is more of the last sales effort where you show them an upgraded version to tempt them into buying your product.

Upselling works because customers are likely to have researched the product and are familiar with its options.

You can convince them to choose the best option, even if it is a flashy deal. This will help you make more profit. You can suggest another model with more storage or faster processing speed before the customer checks out.

An example of Cross-Selling and upselling

Cross-selling and upselling can be used as marketing strategies in almost all industries. These strategies have been proven to be very successful for some businesses.

Amazon has successfully used all marketing strategies to retain and attract customers, with cross-selling and upselling being a common strategy. You might have noticed that Amazon offers suggestions for similar products to those you purchased.

Some would relate to your purchase, while others would be upgrades. They would not send you a significant notification about these products. However, they would recommend them to you in the most non-invasive manner.

This is an excellent example of cross-selling and upselling that you can do in your eCommerce store.

Cross-selling and Upselling: What are the Benefits?

Upselling and cross-selling should be used as a strategy to help the customer. It’s about making suggestions that might better meet a customer’s current needs and helping them decide after they’ve been given all their options.

Cross-selling and upselling are both possible if done correctly.

• Increases average order value (AOV) and lifetime value (LTV): Cross-selling and upselling can help improve your average order value. You’ve already invested in marketing to get the customer to your eCommerce store, so increasing the order value is key to getting a good return on your investment (ROI)
• Customer Retention: Customers will return to your store more often if given valuable and relevant suggestions
• Increase Profit: Customer retention can lead to recurring orders, which can help you generate significant profits
• Building Trust: Understanding your customers’ needs and offering them helpful suggestions can help build brand loyalty

The differences between cross-selling and upselling

Cross-selling and upselling are two different things. In cross-selling, the customer is invited to purchase a product that compliments or relates to their original purchase.

Upsell encourages customers to upgrade to a more expensive version of the product that they are about to buy.

These marketing strategies are applied after customers have added the product to their cart or initiated checkout.

Both strategies have the same goal: to increase your profit. However, they take a slightly different approach.

It involves increasing your profit margin by making customers upgrade to a more expensive product. Cross-selling allows customers to add more products and grow their average order value.

Why are Cross-Sells and Upsells Important for eCommerce?

Most eCommerce businesses require significant investment, with the cost of marketing quickly running into the hundreds, if not thousands.

Now that your customers have finally visited your store, it is time to put any strategy to increase profit and improve your return on investment (ROI).

However, this doesn’t mean you should recommend random items to customers to make as much money as possible. Giving valuable recommendations to customers is the ethical way to implement cross-selling and upselling strategies in your eCommerce shop.

Customers shouldn’t feel compelled to buy on impulse. Instead, your primary goal should be to present products that meet their needs and inform them of better alternatives.

Customers don’t know what to buy until they see it. This is why cross-selling and upselling strategies work. These marketing strategies can increase your average order value and customer retention.

How do you identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities?

Here are 3 tips that will help you identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities in your eCommerce business :

• Make a map of products: Create a product map to avoid spamming customers with irrelevant offers. Cross-selling opportunities can be found by listing related products.

Create and test multiple product bundles. Identifying upselling opportunities might be challenging. Ensure your offerings have to upsell potential. Start with competitors to see what upgrades they’re offering.

• Keep track of your sales: Collect and analyze their behavioral data to gain insight into what items your customers purchase together. Keep track of what items they add to their carts and which pages they visit. Then, give them the options that suit their interests.

• Consider the customer’s perspective when you think about your project: Consider what you can do to enhance your product offering. If you buy a mobile phone, you will need a charger, a car charger, and a phone case.

Think from the customer’s point of view and see how you can make improvements or suggest similar items to enhance their purchasing experience.

7 Tips for Cross-Selling and Upselling

These tips will help maximize your eCommerce store’s cross-selling and upselling strategies.

Aim to provide Maximum Value for your customer

Customers are more likely to choose products that offer the most value for their money. The customer should easily understand the value of the sale to cross-sell or up-sell.

Maintain your Credibility

Cross-selling and up-selling products can be made more accessible by citing specific recommendations from professionals or industry experts. This builds trust and credibility in customers’ eyes.

Cross-selling is a significant revenue source for Amazon, generating over 35%.

Promote Exclusive Offers

This is one of your most powerful methods to sell more products to customers. This can be achieved by offering discounts to early birds, loyalty customer pre-sales, and vouchers for friends and family.

It keeps your existing customers happy and brings in new customers since your customers might refer you to their family and friends. You can offer your customers a referral discount code that they can share with friends, thus bringing in new customers.

Introduce Special Events

You can use your customer’s personal information, such as their birthday or marriage anniversary, to cross-sell or up-sell a product. You can offer special deals on products that might fit their preferences by approaching them on their special day.

This personalized approach to customer service can potentially increase customer loyalty and revenue.

Use Bundled Discounts

You can offer discounts on cross-sell or upsell products to entice customers to purchase multiple items. Bundled discounts on complementary items are often more effective when the benefits are presented to customers.

To present customers with a clear understanding of the benefits of the items you are trying to cross-sell or upsell, be sure to detail the discounted items.

Low Margin Items Vs. High Margin Products

Low-margin products are well-known and don’t require much explanation for customers. It is essential to also present higher-margin product ideas that customers are more likely to buy.

These are items that customers may have heard of but didn’t have the necessary details to make a purchase.

Listen to and Respond to your Customers

To better understand their interests, you must look beyond the written script and past purchases to understand who they are. Listening to customers is essential to understand their needs and upsell the right product.

Selling the right product is not all about what the customer says. A customer calling in to complain about his printer might not know that it is only suitable for home, even though he was using it for business purposes.

You have the opportunity to sell a printer that will fit his needs, even if you weren’t planning on doing this.

Summary

Cross-selling and upselling are essential to boost your eCommerce sales in the most efficient way possible. Although cross-selling and upselling can be powerful marketing strategies, they’re not as simple as they seem.

However, when done right, the ROI can be significant and are a surefire way to boost sales, engagement, and customer loyalty.