Upselling Techniques to Increase Sales

Upselling is an easy sales strategy which is used to increase the average order value and your profits. This could be done through the purchasing of a product Between five and ten times cheaper to keep an existing than recruit a new customer, upselling can be done both in person and online. We however are focusing our efforts on explaining in depth about ecommerce upselling for you today.

Key Ways to Upsell Online

Upselling is all about persuading a customer to purchase an upgraded and more expensive product which offers more value to the customer. Its different from cross selling, which is where you persuade a customer to buy a relevant or complimentary product.

Here are some different upselling techniques you could use through your online store:

1. Offer free shipping at a certain price point - suggest a product upgrade to meet the threshold for free shipping.
2. Use product comparisons - help your customers see the different features of a product type by displaying comparisons to trigger a higher priced sale.
3. Use product suggestions - set up a product suggestion display widget on each product's ecommerce page. This makes it easy for customers to see what similar product alternatives they could consider purchasing.
4. Use limited time offers - offer a special deal on an upgrade but only for a short time period. This pushes the customer to make the purchase then and there, rather than thinking about it and likely not coming back.
5. Provide social proof - share reviews and testimonials of premium products to entice the customer to make a larger purchase.
6. Follow up via email - encourage an upgrade via email afterwards. This will work if the product or service purchased has multiple levels or membership types. 
7. Offer substitutions - sometimes you may have sold out of a product. Offering more expensive options can be worth while in order to retain the sale.
8. Be relevant when upselling - make sure you choose upselling products that offer similar functions and features as the original option to increase upselling uptakes.
9. FOMO - the fear of missing out is brilliant. Creating urgency by setting a deadline, or showing there are limited products left does increase sales.
10. Because - one study showed that when you use the word 'because' in an upsell, it has a 94% uptake. This is compared with 60% without using it.
11. Knowledge - never underestimate the power of knowledge. Tell your customers why they would benefit from purchasing this product as well....
12. Largest - if the product they want comes in different sizes, why not offer them the largest size?