5 Proven Upselling Techniques to Elevate Your E-commerce AOV

There's no secret strategy for boosting sales in the eCommerce niche – but there're several best practices business owners can implement, and using an upsell app is one. Here, you get to rely on a smart and powerful marketing tactic that will add value for both you and your clients.
On your end, you can leverage these upsell platforms to enhance customer satisfaction and increase average order value (AOV). For the customers, deploying this strategy brings with it numerous financial incentives and enables them to find product matches easily and quickly.

Why AOV Matters

Growing your average order value is a lot easier compared to boosting your conversion rate. As many salespeople know, you'll have a much simpler time convincing a customer that already wants to buy from your store, than it is to convince a visitor to go through your sales funnel!
Look at it this way: if your store records 1500 customers monthly with a revenue stream of around $120,000, that works out to about $80 for each order. So, what'd happen if you were to convince each customer to spend $5 more?
This would bring in an additional $7,000 with 50% of the work. In cart upselling can help with this. The strategy works because it encourages your customers to purchase additional or costlier products that better meet their needs.
You can increase your average order value in tons of ways. Below are five strategies to use to incentivize your customers to spend a little more on each order.

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5 Strategies for Effective Upselling

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1. Product Recommendations

Highlighting and recommending popular choices is an excellent way to get started on increasing your AOV. It works because it shows social proof and can assist in building FOMO. Ensure you add best sellers on the exit-intent popup and to use microcopy to highlight added urgency.

2. Bundling Products

Even as you try to differentiate between In Cart Upsell & Cross-Sell, you shouldn't overlook the benefits bundles can offer. Creating a bundle involves taking a few products that are related in terms of use and category and providing a small discount on the final price.
If the customer wants, they can purchase each item individually. However, bundling provides them with an all-in-one offer along with a small discount, providing them with a good reason to opt for it.

3. Tiered Pricing

Tiered pricing, or the rule of three, is another strategy you ought to consider. For example, the best approach to pricing, a study by the Harvard Business Review on the insurance industry reveals that customers always go for the "middle tier plan" than the others.
The same mentality holds when it comes to coffee shops. Most customers will choose to but the medium option when given a choice between small, medium, and large. Tiered pricing lets the customer consider every opportunity, leaving them to choose the "best of both worlds."

4. Post-Purchase Upsells

Post-purchase one-click upsell is proving to be one of the best strategies to prompt high-value conversions for eCommerce ventures. For this approach to work, you must ensure that you've already earned from the customer before sending them any offer.
You can send them an email highlighting higher plans, bundles, or relevant products. For apps, consider using a popup that offers a better alternative at a discounted rate. If the popup has an appealing design or if the email copy is well written, many will consider the offer.

5. Creating a Sense of Urgency

Time-limited deals can significantly increase the AOV of your online store, as many internet shoppers can't resist a bargain when they see one. This particularly holds when the said bargain comes with a sense of urgency attached to it.
In this regard, you may want to launch a countdown for select discounted products or create a limited edition of certain products. Demonstrating social proof works well here, as other customers are likely to make a purchase after seeing that others have done so.

Understanding the Psychology Behind Upselling

Understanding the psychology behind customer behavior is vital in determining the In Cart Upsell & Cross-Sell strategies to use. At its core, upselling is dependent on your ability to develop a trusting relationship with your current customers.
As is the case with any other relationship out there, this calls for understanding, attentiveness, and support. That said, knowing how to time the strategy can make all the difference. Marketing experts recommend including it at the pertinent touchpoint, which may vary depending on niche.
Viable options include placing it on the checkout page or in the form of a popup alert.
This is where an e-commerce business strategy consultant can add value by pinpointing the most impactful touchpoints for your unique business model.

Identifying Upsell Opportunities in Your Store

The reality is that not all opportunities are created equal. Learning how to identify the best can make all the difference in your journey to increasing your AOV. The following are tips on how to do this:

1. Know Your Customers: Understanding who the customers are, their needs, and how much they're willing to spend is the first step to spotting opportunities. You can use social media, feedback forms, and surveys to collect customer data.

2. Engage with the Customer: Developing a relationship with your customers can assist you in identifying their needs, goals, and desires. Look at how they've engaged with past products and use open-ended questions to understand what they want to accomplish.  

3. Leverage Selling Reports: These reports can provide you with additional information on customer purchase history, customer demands, and hot products. From this, you can arrive at strategies that will help boost sales among hot products and meet customer demands.  

4. Find the Right Moment: Whenever an in cart upsell opportunity arises, do your best to take advantage of it. Such opportunities can include renewing a subscription, giving customer support, passing a success milestone, or solving an issue.  

Common Upselling Mistakes to Avoid

Getting the most out of the existing customers is an excellent way to boost revenue, but there're certain pitfalls that come with this territory. They include:

1. Irrelevant Items: Recommending products your customers aren't interested in gives the impression that you don't know them and thus don't understand their needs. For example, if they're buying a laptop, you've no business recommending chargers, as this is already included. However, you can recommend items they can use to maintain it, e.g., laptop bags.  

2. Being Too Aggressive: There're times you may be too eager to take the initiative and end up appearing too aggressive. Such a mistake can drive a loyal customer away, as a sneaky in cart upsell can undermine any trust such customers may have had in your brand. Don't pressurize customers to make a purchase. It may annoy and drive them away.  

3. Failure to A/B Test Varied Strategies: It's a mistake not to A/B test varied strategies. The truth is you can't be too sure that providing one recommendation will work. Placing too much emphasis on guesswork will lead to the deployment of ineffective strategies and tons of wasted resources.

ICU Improves Your AOV

An upsell app is much more than a marketing platform – it's an avenue to build long term relationships with your customers. The benefits provided by an efficient In Cart Upsell & Cross-Sell strategy go beyond merely increasing your AOV.
If developed and tailored to your existing customer base, ICU can strengthen your customer relationships, thus making it easier to instill trust in your products. Relationship building is particularly crucial for businesses that rely on customers to fuel their recurring revenue.
Make it a point to solicit customer feedback regularly and monitor AOV over time to ensure the in cart upsell techniques are resonating with the clients. With time, the results will be clear for all to see.
If running an online business, this is the time to consider In Cart Upsell for your business needs!

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