Did you know?
35% of the sales generated by e-commerce giant Amazon in 2006 came from up-sells and cross-sells.
These are two sales techniques designed to boost the average shopping basket.
What exactly do the terms upsell and cross-sell mean?
What is the difference between these two techniques?
How can you apply upselling and cross-selling in e-commerce to sell more in your store?
Here are the answers to all your questions.
What is an upsell or upsale?
Upselling is a sales technique in which the customer is encouraged to buy more than originally planned.
It can be translated as “upselling”.
To make things clearer, let’s take an example.
You walk into a smartphone store to buy an iPhone 14.
But the sales assistant has convinced you to buy an iPhone 14 Pro, which is more expensive but more powerful.
So you leave the store with a more recent version of what you had planned to buy.
In this case, the salesman has succeeded in his upsell.
What is cross-selling?
To understand cross-sell and how it differs from upsell, let’s take the iPhone as an example.
Let’s suppose that this time you’ve taken the iPhone 14 (your choice all along).
But before you leave, the sales assistant asks you: “Do you already have the accessories that go with your new iPhone? Here we have cases, headphones and screen protectors”.
Finally, convinced by the relevance of the salesperson’s proposal, you leave with your iPhone 14 and a screen protector.
In this case, the salesman has made a cross-sale, since he has succeeded in convincing you to buy a product that complements what you had planned to buy.
As you can see, upselling involves selling a more expensive version of a product.
Cross-selling, on the other hand, involves selling the consumer one or more products that are different from, but complementary to, the one they’ve just bought.
In both cases, the consumer’s shopping basket increases.
How can you increase sales on your online store using upsell and cross-sell?
Now you know the difference between upsale and cross-sale.
Now all you have to do is apply these techniques to boost your online sales.
You’re wrong if you think you’re going to phone your customers one by one to offer them complementary products or a top-of-the-range version.
Forget about it, because you’re likely to spend your whole day doing it.
Instead, opt for a less time-consuming technique.
Think about strategically placing upsales and cross-sales in different areas of your e-commerce site.
Here are some possible locations for these product suggestions.
Integrate upsales and cross-sales on product pages
The product page is undoubtedly the ideal place to highlight upsells and cross-sells.
It’s just a question of knowing where to place your offers to make consumers want to buy the products you recommend.
To give you some ideas, let’s take a closer look at where Amazon positions its upsales and cross-sales on its product pages.
This marketplace has a habit of proposing other versions of the same product in the description at the very top of the product page.
A little further down, in the “You might also like” section, then in the “Compare with similar items” section, it also displays other upsales.
As for cross-sales, you’ll find them in the “What items do customers buy after looking at this item” section.
In short, there are several possible locations for displaying recommendations for similar and complementary items on a product page.
It’s up to you to determine the most appropriate place to display your cross-sells and upsells according to the structure of your store.
Add upsells and cross-sells to add-to-cart pages
Another effective way of boosting sales on an online store is to highlight upsell and cross-sell offers on the add-to-cart page.
Take La Redoute, for example.
Once you’ve clicked on the “Add to basket” button, you’ll be offered additional items.
And of course, the products on offer differ according to the type of item you’ve just purchased.
Place upsales and cross-sales on purchase confirmation pages
You’ve certainly experienced that feeling of wanting to order other items from the same store after confirming a purchase.
As an e-merchant, be sure to display item recommendations on the purchase confirmation page to maximize your chances of closing more sales.
Most e-commerce giants offer this kind of service.
This is particularly true of Amazon.
If you’ve bought a book, for example, the marketplace will offer you others.
Offer upsales and cross-sales through retargeted advertising
You can also use the traces left by visitors to your store to set up upsell and cross-sell offers.
In concrete terms, this means offering your product recommendations in the form of advertising banners.
You can display these on social networks, for example, in your customers’ news feeds via Facebook Ads.
To conclude on upsale and cross-sale
Now you know the difference between upselling and cross-selling.
You also know how to apply these techniques to boost sales on your e-commerce site.
As an e-commerce expert, I can help you with your online store project.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for any further information.
I’ll be delighted to help you.
