Upselling and Cross-selling: How to Choose Between the Two

Upselling and cross-selling are tactics to help business streamline their marketing strategy and boost revenues. But, some people do not have enough knowledge about them. As a consequence, it is hard for them to distinguish and use the proper tactic.

Thus, I am here to provide general information about upselling vs. cross-selling as well as practical examples. Do not skip any part because it might make you surprised!

Definition of Upselling and Cross-selling

Individuals might be confused when mentioning upselling and cross-selling. Thus, we should first explore the exact definition of two kinds of selling.

What Is Upselling

Upselling is a marketing strategy that encourages customers to spend more money to buy a high-end version of a product that they used to purchase. And using upselling apps like Candy Rack which allows for both pre-purchase and post-purchase placements of various upsell and cross-sell offers can help you a great deal. I'd like to show you some common examples to help you understand upselling better:

1. Booking.com: Offers More Options

For travel lovers, Booking.com is not an unfamiliar website to search for where to stay on a trip. When finding a hotel on this website, you can see many other options, from luxurious to cheap. That also shows the pictures to help you compare and make the proper decision.

2. ProFlowers: Gives an Upgrade Products

Another should-have instance of upselling is KAY.com. This website shows seasonal jewelry and displays many special offers to attract customers.

For those who do not know, the best-selling products in a store are relevant to the ones that used to be sold well. Thanks to this strategy, you can increase the sales of that product as well as its upgrade version.

3. KAY.com: Shows Seasonal Products and Discounts

What is cross-selling? cross-selling is a strategy in which the sellers make customers willing to buy additional products that can be related to the products they want to purchase or not. There are plenty of examples of cross-selling that you can see in reality.

Cross-selling and Its Examples

What is cross-selling? Cross-selling is a strategy in which the sellers make customers willing to buy additional products that can be related to the products they want to purchase or not. There are plenty of cross-selling examples that you can see in reality.

1. Fast-Food Restaurant Chains

When you buy food at famous fast-food restaurant chains, such as KFC, Jollibee, or Texas Chicken, you will obviously see many attractive offers for extra food. The picture below is a promotional menu in a KFC restaurant. If you choose a chicken combo, they will ask you to buy drinks at a cheaper price. It is often seen in restaurant management. That is cross-selling!

2. AliExpress.com

AliExpress is one of the biggest dropshipping platforms and provides a free version to set up online stores and get money from them. On AliExpress, they encourage customers to buy more products to get discounts or free shipping offers. Besides, they also show buyers more related products that they should consider buying with their initial items.

Pros and Cons of Upselling and Cross-selling

After knowing the definition of upselling and cross-selling, we should delve into their pros and cons. I believe you will be surprised by the new information in this part!

Upselling

• Increase sales
• Attract more customers
• Build more satisfaction and loyalty among customers
• Increase customer lifetime value (CLV)

• Customers can easily realize and reject buying invitations
• Might be ineffective in increasing sales

Cross-Selling

• Attract customers with more interesting options
• Make customers satisfied and they will be more loyal to the brand
• Speed up selling low-margin products
• Make a new point to distinguish your business from competitors

• Cross-selling might be challenging for online websites. It needs to have automatic techniques to introduce the products to customers
• You can lose potential customers if you do not apply cross-selling at the right time
• Make customers uncomfortable while choosing items

Upselling and Cross-Selling: Which to Choose

Depending on your product and demand, you can apply upselling and cross-selling strategies to boost your sales. So, which one do you prefer? Keep reading to find the answer!

When to Choose Upselling

Once a certain product line has a variety of versions, from high-end to dupe or cheap, you should consider upselling. Upselling does its job with companies or stores that sell perfume, cosmetics, and so on.

Besides, upselling also suits some technology groups that offer tiered plans. Thanks to it, companies can direct customers to the higher version that can solve their current problems.

How about Cross-Selling

If you just have a particular product to sell, it is much better to encourage customers to buy additional items. You can make them understand that the extra items will help them get the most out of the initial product.

Another proper time to apply cross-selling tactic is to make customers decide what they should purchase while they are in the last stage of the buying process. Moreover, cross-selling will help boost your sales if you have an email marketing or Facebook retargeting strategy for regular buyers.

UpSelling: 6 Worth-Trying Strategies for You

An interesting fact is upselling helps businesses to raise their revenue by 10-30%. So, it will be a big mistake if your store misses this lucrative method. Check out the 6 best upselling strategies now!

Upselling in Online Shopping Carts

Customers often check their shopping cart and then choose the product they want to buy. You can take advantage of this stage by providing them with some ideal suggestions. These suggestions might be relevant items, high-end versions, or simply items accompanying the promotion.

Upselling on Product Page

This is the most common strategy because of its simplicity and effectiveness. But it requires you to show various versions of a product to create a competitive layout. It helps customers decide on a product easily if they see more options.

Upselling at Important Milestones

Milestones are keys to connecting your store with customers. Besides strategies to increase your sales, you should focus on the milestones of your customers to create a chance for upselling. For instance, you can give customers a discount when they sign up for accounts on your website or their birthday.

Thanks to these milestones, customers will be happy because they will feel that you care about them. Moreover, it also helps you build a good relationship with customers.

Thank You Emails or Messages

Thank you emails or messages are quite familiar to many businesses. It sends meaningful messages with respect to your buyers.

When you use this strategy, it will be an opportunity to persuade regular customers to spend more money and buy more products from your store. Plus, you should consider giving them short-term vouchers as a sense of urgency to encourage them to "clean" their shopping cart.

Upgrade Offerings

Inducing customers to buy high-end versions is considered the most effective way. That means you will encourage buyers to purchase luxurious options of a product that they are concerned about.

Upselling with "Best-selling Items"

You can use your upselling strategy on best-selling products because they are the most popular in your store. When customers see the most reviewed or best-sold items, they may be enticed to choose the related options.

Cross-selling Strategies for Your Business

I also found some common cross-selling strategies to go along with upselling. Let’s find out what they are!

Product Pages' Cross-selling

Similar to upselling, you can boost your sales with cross-selling on product pages. You can think about the feature "you may also like" and display some of the best-sold or most reviewed items.

Another suggestion for you is the feature "Others also bought" to attract the buyer's attention. As a result, many buyers will purchase your products or at least add them to their shopping carts.

Cross-selling on the Checkout Page

There is a chance to encourage customers to buy more items in the last stage of the buying process, which is the checkout page. That is because the customers will pay more attention to that page than others.

However, you should notice that the cross-selling products are placed correctly on the checkout page. Avoid letting them obscure utilities like payment information, shipping methods, etc.

Thank You Email or Messages

There is a chance to encourage customers to buy more items in the last stage of the buying process, which is the checkout page. That is because the customers will pay more attention to that page than others.

However, you should notice that the cross-selling products are placed correctly on the checkout page. Avoid letting them obscure utilities like payment information, shipping methods, etc.

Cross-selling via Package Deals

Customers will prefer a full package to separate products. They suppose that a package will meet their demand but still help to save money. You can show them the extra savings and suggest they choose two products instead of one.

Ensure that buyers can purchase each product separately to create a proper package. Moreover, the products in the package should be linked together and complement each other.

Final Words

So, you have it- upselling and cross-selling general knowledge. Both of them are good for raising revenue, but you should not overdo them. Simply consider what you need and apply one strategy to help you reach your target.

In addition, actively follow the customer’s journey and solve unexpected issues as soon as possible. To learn about new selling strategies, I highly recommend you visit DSers blog to learn more. Good luck!