Increasing online sales can be a challenging task for all kinds of businesses and companies. Whether you sell books or any digital products online, you want your customers to fill their virtual carts with as many products as possible. However, you cannot force online shoppers to buy products, but you definitely can lead them in that direction.
In an attempt to boost sales, many small companies or store owners turn to seminars, books, or web pages that help them more sales by sharing marketing strategies and tricks.
Unfortunately, many of them throw around many complicated strategies that are difficult to understand and hard to memorize. On the other hand, there are many easy-to-understand selling techniques you can practice. So which ones are most beneficial for your business and easy to practice?
Cross-selling and up-selling are two immensely popular selling techniques that have helped many eCommerce businesses to increase online sales fast. These are good ways to retain existing customers and acquire new ones.
Quick Jump
- What is Cross-Selling?
- What is Up Selling?
- Benefits of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling for an eCommerce business
- Top powerful tips on how to massively boost sales with cross-selling and up-selling
- Summary
What is Cross-Selling?
Cross-selling is a selling strategy in which an additional product is recommended to the customer while he or she is buying the primary product. The additional product is the complimentary one or an add-on of the primary product. The main purpose of cross-selling is to improve the overall buying experience of a customer.
Cross-selling is more focused on increasing sales volume. However, it is necessary to pair up the right products; otherwise, it will not work.
Examples of Cross-Selling
- You are shopping in an electronic store for a new smartphone. The salesperson recommends a screen protector or a phone case to go along with your phone.
- You are trying a new pair of shoes, and the salesperson presents a pair of socks that matches perfectly with your shoes.
- You are ordering your favorite burger from your favorite fast-food chain, and the salesperson asks if you would like to add fries, drink, or shake to your order.
Pros and Cons of Cross-Selling
Pros:
- It helps to boost the sales online of low-margin products.
- It helps to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- It facilitates customers through lower bundled prices, more variety in terms of products, and one-stop shopping.
- It helps a lot in business growth and success.
Cons:
- It can be distracting for the customers.
- If it is poorly timed and not properly planned, it can result in losing potential customers.
- It can be challenging for many businesses and companies as it demands personalization.
If you’re looking for a implementation the cross-selling in Sylius, we have already created a plugin for that purpose. Read the article about Sylius Cross-Selling Plugin.
What is Up Selling?
Upselling is another selling strategy focused on convincing customers to purchase a more expensive product than the one they initially wanted to purchase. The more expensive product can be an updated or a premium version of that same product or product similar in features and functionalities but a higher-priced alternative. Therefore, it is more focused on increasing the sales value.
Examples of Up-Selling
- You are ordering a pizza at your favorite restaurant, and the salesperson asks if you would like to buy one in a larger size.
- You have picked out sunglasses, and the sales representative offers you to add UV protection for an additional cost.
- You are car shopping and looking for a basic model, but the salesperson points out the leather seating, DVD player, Bluetooth, and security features in luxury cars.
Pros and Cons of Up-Selling
Pros:
- It helps in building customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- It increases customer lifetime value.
- It helps in improving the sales value.
- It helps to add value to the customer
Cons:
- It may appear a little too pushy to the customers.
- If mishandled, it can appear quite a salesy in the eyes of a customer.
Benefits of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling for an eCommerce business
Nowadays, many famous brands are taking full advantage of these two selling techniques in a very subtle manner. Some of the benefits these two selling techniques offer to all kinds of businesses are:
Increase customer’s satisfaction
Both cross-selling and up-selling offer flexibility and convenience to customers. By offering them more choice and adding more value to their money, they are providing them a one-stop shopping experience.
It will be a more convenient and hassle-free option for the customers to purchase everything from the company, cross-selling or up-selling their products.
Any action that businesses can take to increase the customer’s loyalty and satisfaction will help minimize the costs of losing customers. Happy and satisfied customers will always return and purchase more products resulting in increased sales.
Boosting Revenues
An effective cross-sell and up-sell strategy will help boost revenues and profits. It is no secret that when a customer buys more, your company will make more money. Using cross-selling and up-selling techniques, you can easily improve your sales resulting in increased revenues and profits.
Gathering more data on your customer’s preferences
Analytics are extremely important for expanding your business and understanding your target audience’s requirements. The more data you will collect, the better you will understand your customer’s needs and desires.
Both cross-selling and up-selling allow you to collect more data and understand your target audience preferences well.
Top powerful tips on how to massively boost online sales with cross-selling and up-selling
Upselling and cross-selling provide more online sales and can help you a lot in your business growth and success. Some of the tips on how to boost sales with these two techniques are:
Determine which products give the best results
It is never a good option to bombard your customers with tons of product suggestions and recommendations. So it is always better to stick to limited products that give the best results. In order to boost your sales, use limited products that give excellent results. In the end, you don’t want to disappoint your customers.
Always demonstrate the value before initiating the pitch
Once you have determined that a particular cross-sell or up-sell offer is suitable for your customer, your work probably is not done. You need to ensure that a customer is fully aware of the value of an additional product in his or her life.
Reward customers for their loyalty
Once you have convinced a customer to spend more money by buying a premium version of a product or additional product and remain loyal, you must take the initiative and reward them for showing loyalty. You can offer them a discount code or a free coupon (loyalty programs).
Loyalty Points is one of the Sylius Plus features. Check out this and other benefits of both – Sylius and Sylius Plus here.
Summary
Upselling and cross-selling are marketing strategies to squeeze more out of the customer. Both of them are pretty valuable to business owners and sales managers. It helps in boosting sales, increasing revenue, adding value to the customer’s experience. If your business is not utilizing the cross-selling and up-selling techniques, you leave a lot of money at the table.