Should You Always Upsell?
The knee jerk reaction to the question is “yes, of course!” Upon further consideration, there are many cases of eventual disloyalty of the customer base by continually trying to sell something to them that they do not want. If the customer knows that you are going to attempt an upsell with every sales opportunity, you lose credibility with your customer, and are relegated to the level of a bottom feeder who will say anything to make a buck. The sense of trust that you have fostered with your customers is then broken.
By selectively upselling, your customers will come to know you as someone who understands the specifics needs that they have and can recognize when a product hits the market that would be of use to them. The customer appreciates the upsell when it feels like customer service rather than a sales tool.
Cross selling is another tool that can promote additional sales, when appropriate. Unlike upselling, where the attempt is made to convince the customer to purchase a more expensive item, in a cross selling situation, the customer is offered additional items which are companions or accessories to the main item. Again the attempt to cross sell should be taken advantage of on a sporadic basis to relieve the customer of the knowledge that you are a commissioned salesperson, but in most cases customer are more receptive to cross sell attempts than upsells. Be that as it may, there are still general rules to cross selling that the experienced online salespeople use on their website.
Never display more than 3 cross sell items, and these are done best if displayed in a “customers who bought this, also liked this” format on the right side of the screen in a vertical format. Extensive studies have been conducted regarding the perception of vertical and horizontal elements, and the vertical stacking will actually produce more final sales.
Be sure that all displayed cross sell items are in stock. The loss of credibility is not worth the additional sale.
Cross sell items should be full price – do not display sale items as cross sell suggestions as it will give your website the appearance of trying to “clear out” old merchandise.
Each cross sell item should be less expensive than the item originally purchased, to retain the accessory mindset of the customer.
All cross sell images should be of same size, but smaller than the main item, and link to enhanced product discriptions. Keep in mind that the customer was likely already familiar with the main product when he arrived at your site to purchase it, but will have to be educated on the features and benefits of the cross sell items.
Obviously there are additional sales opportunities to be made with upsell and cross selling techniques. The promoter should also not neglect to follow up a sale with a quick ‘thank you’ email and a note regarding an additional item that he came across that the customer may be interested in. This, very often, is a good way to switch up cross sell methods, and still increasing sales.
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