Up selling: boosting sales made easy

In a nutshell, up selling refers to a sales method that en­cour­ages customers to purchase the more expensive version of a product. This is par­tic­u­larly relevant for online retailers. However, for up selling to work, customers must be convinced of the added value of a more expensive product. In this article, we’ll explain how this works, what the ad­vant­ages and risks of up selling are, and what you as an online shop operator should bear in mind.

Up selling is a sales strategy aimed at con­vin­cing the customer to buy a higher-value version of the actual product. It is based on the as­sump­tion that customers visiting a shop or an online shop have a rough idea of the product they are looking for. However, if their attention is drawn to an even better item (one that is faster, lasts longer, or looks better), given the right cir­cum­stances and with good reasoning, they may be persuaded to purchase the slightly more expensive item.

As a con­sequence, the customer feels satisfied after an up sale because they feel un­der­stood and well-advised – while shop operators profit from a higher turnover. What is often achieved in physical stores through a detailed sales pitch is achieved in online product sales by way of a suc­cess­ful mix of data, tech­no­logy, and marketing strategy.

From a brand per­spect­ive, up selling is primarily about making more money from a single sale. Good up selling is often based on a good customer re­la­tion­ship. Suitable up sales are proof that you un­der­stand your customers by demon­strat­ing an ad­di­tion­al in­vest­ment that is worth­while from the customer’s point of view. If the package doesn’t fit, there’s a good chance that you’ll earn more on a one-off basis, but the customer won’t ne­ces­sar­ily become a repeat buyer.

To enjoy the op­por­tun­it­ies and benefits of up selling, you should invest time from the start and ...

1. ... check your product range with regard to up selling op­por­tun­it­ies and design it ac­cord­ingly. This means not only identi­fy­ing items that are suitable for up selling, but also working out its benefits.
2. ... get to know your customers. There are numerous tracking tools for websites and stores to collect and evaluate data. But service hotlines or real ex­per­i­ences in sta­tion­ary sales can also provide clues for up selling potential.

Once you have your found­a­tion in place, there are various programs available that spe­cial­ise in marketing auto­ma­tion alongside re­com­mend­a­tion systems, through which you can run, optimise, and evaluate up selling campaigns fairly easily.

When running your own online shop, it’s often difficult to fully exploit factors such as covering extensive keyword sets, after all, the amount of text is usually kept to a minimum. This makes it all the more important to have a careful and well-thought-out linking strategy in place for your products.

Since up selling in­creas­ingly means working with ref­er­ences and links between products, the sales method has a positive effect on SEO. Not only do you provide added value for customers, but you also signal to search bots that you’ve placed a lot of value on links and click paths.

The following points show where up selling potential is hidden in your business or how you can uncover its potential. The focus is always on the customer.

• Use every op­por­tun­ity you get to talk to your customers and gather feedback. Be it through a written or telephone survey on your product range or a specific product, or through con­ver­sa­tions via a service hotline.
• Research the concerns of your potential customers. Conduct a target group analysis to find out which websites customers tend to visit or where they shop.
• Check where and how your products are used and whether people are talking about them in forums or social networks. Often, these are the places where product issues are discussed, how they can be resolved, or whether your com­pet­i­tion might be a step ahead of you.
• Speaking of the com­pet­i­tion, take a look at how com­pet­it­ors approach up selling and design their product offering.
• Analyse your sales: which products sell well, which do not? Where are you seeing high or low unit sales? It’s also a good idea to monitor the number of your returns.

Operators of online shops where personal contact with customers before and after the sales process is at a minimum and shopping baskets are easily abandoned, note that there is a fine line between adding real value to justify an up sale and annoying a customer.

Dis­creetly point to an option for an upgrade and be sure that you can actually deliver on the promise of added value. Bear in mind that online shop visitors often use filter options to enter price ranges and other para­met­ers, making certain areas and price re­duc­tions invisible to these customers.

Based on your research, there are various ways to up sell. One important and central dif­fer­ence to cross selling is that up selling usually takes place before the actual pur­chas­ing decision. Once a purchase has been made, it’s unlikely that a customer will be persuaded to change to a higher-priced product. The exception are services or sub­scrip­tions, which can still be extended and adjusted at a later date.

In any case, an up sell offer must be com­pre­hens­ible and be­ne­fi­cial for the customer. Therefore, implement your up selling strategy as follows, for example:

• Direct com­par­is­on between two or more items: Com­par­is­on tables that show the prices and per­form­ances of similar products next to each other are re­l­at­ively easy to implement. In the best case, they will push customers to opt for the more expensive version instead of the basic one. Even better: place an expensive product next to an even more expensive one.
• Benefit from trust: In case of sub­scrip­tions, a sub­sequent up selling attempt can be suc­cess­ful. Once customers are convinced of the quality of your offering, they may be more inclined to take advantage of your offering for a longer time. An up sell may also result from a suc­cess­ful cross sell – for example, if a com­ple­ment­ary product has been purchased that allows for sudden contract op­por­tun­it­ies.
• Customer comments: Include reviews and re­com­mend­a­tions for more expensive products on the product pages of less expensive items. It’s important that customer testi­mo­ni­als are authentic and com­pre­hens­ible. They are some of the most per­suas­ive factors in selling suc­cess­fully.
• Show solutions to problems: If there are clear func­tion­al dif­fer­ences between the cheaper and the more expensive product, you can address them and advertise ‘For only xx pounds more, you won’t have this problem.’

The technical im­ple­ment­a­tion of up selling campaigns is handled by special tools or ex­ten­sions within store systems.

In order to give you a better un­der­stand­ing of up sales and the various pos­sib­il­it­ies, we have compiled three very specific examples from different in­dus­tries:

A gym offers different mem­ber­ship tiers. The least expensive one includes the use of equipment and at­tend­ance of classes. The more expensive one includes access to the pool and the sauna. The customer receives real added value when opting for the more expensive option. The gym has higher earnings, but doesn’t need to scale its offering because the pool and sauna are operated and paid for re­gard­less of the customer’s choice.

An online shop sells TVs. A customer browses the basic models without smart TV func­tion­al­ity. The product details of the basic TVs include a highly visible teaser that point to the ad­vant­ages of pur­chas­ing a smart TV – watch your favourite show and more streaming content any time – and offer a com­par­able smart TV for just £20, £50, or £100 more.

Smart­phones, tablets, etc. are sold with cor­res­pond­ing contracts. A customer who has already signed a contract and purchased a device wants to purchase an ad­di­tion­al tablet, but without the contract option. An up sale strategy could include con­tact­ing the customer to entice them with a more extensive contract that includes ad­di­tion­al data volume and a second SIM card.