Written by Fani Sánchez
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There are a multitude of marketing techniques that we can apply in our online store to try to increase sales. Throughout this article we are going to talk about cross-selling and upselling, two traditional marketing techniques that are also applicable to e-commerce and have a high conversion rate.
What is cross-selling or cross-selling?
Cross-selling is a marketing technique aimed at getting the user to buy complementary products to the one he/she is interested in, is about to buy or has already bought.
This technique can be used both online and offline. For example, if I want to buy a laptop in an online store, your system will offer me the possibility to also buy a backpack to carry it, a cover to protect it or a USB mouse. As you can see, these are items that are often purchased together and are complements to the main product. Therefore, cross-selling is one of the marketing techniques with the highest conversion rate.
What is upselling
Upselling is a marketing technique designed to multiply sales. The seller will offer you substitute products to the one you are buying (of higher quality or price) or complementary or similar to the product you are interested in, so that you buy them together or choose the one with the highest price.
Like cross-selling, this technique can be used both online and offline. Using as an example the one mentioned above, an upsell for the purchase of a laptop would be if I were offered the same laptop with more features (a larger hard disk, a larger memory or a more advanced processor) for six euros more. It is also upselling:
- Offer the buyer of the first volume of a literary saga, the second and third volume and make a small discount (or not) for the joint purchase.
- Offer a second unit type offer for only so many euros more.
- Offer a 3×2 type offer.
Cross-selling and upselling in your online store
These marketing techniques are practiced in your supermarket, in department stores and, unbeknownst to you, in many small stores every day. Why not include them in your online store? There are different possibilities to do this: you can include it in different places on the website and you can also use these techniques in combination, as in fact most online stores do.
Cross-selling and upselling on your product card
The most common way to present these marketing techniques is through different sections in the product sheet. In addition to their photos, description, perhaps comments and other relevant information, if an online store is trying to get you to buy other products it will present them to you through variously named modules such as:
- “Related products”
- “Recommended products”
- “Other customers also bought:”
- “Perhaps you might be interested in:”
Cross-selling and upselling when adding products to your cart
Some online stores also place a pop-up with related products when you add the desired item to your cart. This way they stand out rather than being relegated to the bottom of the product card and also, their notification appearance (notifying you that your product has been successfully added to the cart) makes them less intrusive. However, not all online stores use this method in the most effective way.
For example, after including a laptop in my basket, redcoon.es offers me some products that might interest me such as… a sandwich maker.
Decahtlon.es also offers this option once you have added a product to your shopping cart.
Cross-selling and upselling in your shopping cart
Offering the customer complementary or substitute products once they access their shopping cart to make the payment is a very wise decision. It is the right time, when they are “card in hand” ready to pay. So, making them think twice can be very effective.
Cross-selling and upselling in your mobile app
Some online stores’ mobile Apps, such as Amazon’s, introduce these techniques in the form of notifications to your mobile device offering you items related to your purchase, complementary to it or those purchased by people who bought the same item you included in your cart.
E-commerce platforms that offer these techniques
There are different ways to integrate these marketing techniques into your online store.
In-house development
If you are paying for a custom-made online store, i.e. an in-house development from scratch, we recommend that you include this feature in the functionality document. It will be one more expense added to the final budget that you will have to assume, which may vary depending on the development company, but it will be worth it.
Prestashop and Magento Modules
For platforms such as Prestashop and Magento there are also modules that offer these functionalities, although they are usually all paid. To name a few:
- Automatic up-sells, cross-sells, and personalization for Magento
- Cross Selling on Cart for Prestashop
Woocommerce module for WordPress
WooCommerce is the e-commerce extension for WordPress. It is free of charge but it is not adapted for any theme, so if you choose this CMS you should consider which template to choose even before setting up your website.
Cross-selling and upselling with email marketing
But these techniques are applicable beyond online stores. Email marketing is a powerful tool at the service of all types of marketing formulas, and cross and upselling were not going to be an exception. I am sure that more than once you have received this type of email and you have not noticed it.
They are especially frequent after the abandonment of a basket with one or more products inside. A user may have a multitude of reasons for adopting this attitude. Perhaps you found the same product cheaper in another store, the registration or checkout process seemed long or confusing, or you generated a cart just to check what the final shipping amount was. In addition to trying to clarify and solve the reasons for this behavior, if your online store is able to retain quality information when a user abandons the purchase process, you can use it to send them an email to remind them that they have left products in their basket and incentivize their purchase with a discount or offer or, and this is the case here, offer to buy the product with other complementary or higher-end items.
Tactics to avoid in cross-selling and upselling
As with any marketing tool, these techniques, when misused, can cause rejection in the potential customer, who will flee from your website and will probably never come back. Deceptive behavior or abusive practices are attitudes to avoid. Some examples:
- Don’t chase your customers with the same product over and over again if they haven’t shown interest the first time. This technique is totally counterproductive.
- Offer the customer products that are relevant to their purchase, not random products or those that suit you best because of your profit margin or stocking.
- Never sell products that are not 100% functional and need a complementary product to work. Users will feel cheated (in fact, that’s precisely what you’re doing).
Dare to play with these marketing techniques and increase your e-commerce sales!
