Where are the best places to upsell and cross-sell on ecommerce sites?

By some estimates, upselling and cross-selling is responsible for generating more than a quarter of online retail revenues.

This post, Where are the best places to upsell and cross-sell on ecommerce sites?, was first published on Econsultancy.

When it comes to the where of trying to entice customers to spend more than they originally intended, sellers have a number of options and each offers a variety of potential advantages when employed correctly.

Product pages

Product pages are an ideal location to cross-sell and many retailers display related products on these pages.

One of the most effective examples of product page cross-selling can be seen with Amazon, which often displays additional products that are frequently purchased together.

Amazon wisely highlights the combined price of the product bundle and makes it very easy for the customer to add all of the products to cart in a single click.

Shopping cart

The shopping cart, like product pages, offers retailers an ideal location to cross-sell.

One of the biggest advantages to cross-selling in cart is that a seller can analyze all of the products that the customer has added to cart and to make more intelligent and creative recommendations.

Frequently retailers like H&M, display products that it believes may be of interest as well as best-selling products.

Checkout

Many sellers use the checkout process to drive impulse purchasing decisions.

Software vendor Parallels both upsells and cross-sells on its checkout page by encouraging customers to purchase additional licenses and related applications.

Checkout is a particularly good location to entice customers with discounts, as customers may be more apt to add to their purchase when they believe the pricing they’re receiving at checkout won’t be available to them again post-checkout.

Of course, there are limits and some companies have been criticized for spoiling their checkout process with excessive upsells and cross-sells. So it’s important to be judicious here.

Post-checkout

A sale is complete but that doesn’t mean that the there’s no opportunity to make another one right away. Effective post-checkout upselling and cross-selling is frequently seen in the travel industry. 

United Airlines will sometimes display upgrade offers immediately following a flight booking.

It’s also very common to see airlines and travel aggregators cross-sell following a purchase. For example, a customer who booked a flight might see offers for hotels and car rentals in the city they’ll be traveling to post-checkout.

Post-checkout upselling and cross-selling can be particularly effective for large purchases where pre-checkout distractions could create friction and delay or kill the original sale.

It can also be used very effectively to drive impulse purchases as United’s post-booking upgrade offers demonstrate.

Transaction emails

Transactions don’t end when the customer leaves a website. Purchase confirmation emails often provide the opportunity for a seller to inform a customer that “it’s not too late” to add to their purchase.

As with checkout and post-checkout upsells and cross-sells, email-based upselling and cross-selling can work especially well when combined with discounts and special offers.

Related posts:

1. Cross-selling Online: Why It’s Important & How To Do It This post Cross-selling Online: Why It’s Important & How To Do It was first published on EconsultancyIf you’re not offering customers extra products you’re missing an opportunity for greater revenue, so it’s important to do…
2. Why Won’t They Buy? Small Ecommerce Sites With Big Problems Reasons People Aren’t Buying Online from Small Ecommerce Sites Just about any product or services offered in this world are offered on the World Wide Web. So what motivates a person to buy online? More…
3. Why Should I Use Amazon To Sell My Products Online? Why Should You Use Amazon To Sell Your Products Online?Online retailers seem to have a love hate relationship with Amazon; either embracing it as a sales tool or fearing it as a profit suck. I…
4. 10 Powerful Examples of Upselling Online Last week I wrote a post about cross-selling online and how it can benefit online businesses. This week I want to focus on cross-selling’s slightly better looking cousin: upselling. If you want to upsell to your…
5. How To Use Your Blog For Ecommerce? Ecommerce may be based on sales but it’s important to remember that even online businesses require a little customer service, and using a blog is a great way to interact with your customer base. Your…
6. How to Enable Google Anaylitics for Ecommerce Tracking Learn How to Enable Ecommerce Tracking in Google Analytics To Help Your Business GrowWhen you’re creating and running an online business, you’re going to have to do more than just manufacture your product. You’ll need…