Selling things your customers are already interested in is easy. They ask you about a product, you confirm its availability, they pay you and the product is dispatched to their preferred location. Is that enough for you or should you be trying to pursue ways to increase their basket size? If you are happy with the former, then you are losing a lot of revenue and should consider ways to boost the average transaction value while also offering more value to your loyal customers. Regardless of industry, upselling and cross-selling will mean an increase in your profit margins. It’s easy, it’s fun and it’s profitable!
Just to get it out of the way, let’s start by explaining these two terms.
Cross-selling is recommending a product relevant to the one your customer is already buying. For example, you recommend a matching phone case to a wallet your customer is already buying.
Upselling means offering customers a better version of the product they are already buying. It can be a bit pricier but with better features and more value. It is like asking customers if they want to upgrade their purchase and buy something that would, for example, have a longer lifespan. For example, to a visitor with $20 basic wired earphones in his cart, you offer $35 noise-cancellation, wireless earbuds.
However, they two share the same goal- increase customer satisfaction and the average value that each customer spends at your store.
A word of caution here. Upselling and cross-selling have a delicate balance that should never be tipped, or you will end up losing the customer. You must use these tactics at the right place and at the right time. The recommended products should be strictly relevant and particularly helpful. And never come off as pushy. Never!
Since we are clear about that, let’s look at some proven upsell/cross-sell pointers that you can incorporate into your strategy to get more sales
