Website Marketing Directory — Search Engine Optimisation — Melbourne, Sydney, Australia

“Would you like fries with that?” is probably the most famous upsell of all time. Here’s how to increase your own product and service sales by adding a few simple upsells to your website.

Method #1: The “Shopping Cart Upsell”

I love this method because it catches people when they’re ready to buy. Here’s how it works. Usually, customers will add the item they are interested in to their shopping cart. After hitting the “Checkout” button, the customer is presented with a summary of their order. If the order is correct, the customer will then add their details and credit card information and submit the order.

With the “Shopping Cart Upsell”, you not only present the customer with a summary of their order in the shopping cart, you also recommend a suitable related product just below the summary of the order. The customer only has to tick a box and the upsell item is added to their shopping cart. Some sites who have implemented this technique have seen take-up rates of upto 30% or higher on the upsell item.

The “Shopping Cart Upsell” requires that the upsell item be related to the original item. For example, you might offer a portable hard drive backup unit as an upsell to a computer. Similarly, you might offer a set of premium beer glasses as the upsell to a case of premium beer.

Method #2: The “Thank You Page Upsell”

This method is almost the same as the “Shopping Cart Upsell” – the only difference is that instead of upselling the customer before the order is processed, the customer is upsold after the order is processed. Here’s how it works. Usually after processing the customer’s credit card, a “thank you” page appears. As the name suggests, this page thanks the customer for their order and reminds them when they are likely to receive it (if it’s a physical product) or provides a link for download (if it’s a digital product). With the “Thank You Page Upsell”, however, the thank you page also provides some recommendations. For example:

“Thank you for your order of ABC MP3 player. You should receive it in three business days. Your tracking code for shipping is 12345.

Other customers who purchased this product also bought:

*ABC MP3 player cover (link to product)
*XYZ Premium headphones (link to product)

Here, you have sent a customer back into your store when they would have otherwise finished shopping with your site. Can it hurt? No. Can it help sales? Absolutely. Take-up rates will differ based on the products you recommend and the nature of your site, but any extra sales can only help your business.

Method #3: The “Big Ticket Upsell”

Think of your highest-ticket (or highest-profit) product or service that you sell. Now visit your company website. How visible is that big-ticket item from:

a) the homepage
b) the less expensive product pages

If you can’t see your biggest earner from the homepage, add it. If you can’t see it from the lesser product pages, add it. There’s no point hiding your biggest earners in with all the other products “hoping somebody will find it”. Business is strategic – so is the real estate on your website. Use it strategically and promote your biggest earners heavily.

Interested in this strategy and the improved return on investment it offers? Call Enedia right now on 03 8695 9199 or send us an email.