Chandler Olson
March 9, 2022
This sounds too good to be true, but it's not.
People always buy more than they think they'll need. The average online shopper buys twice as many items online as they expected to. More and more people are turning to online shopping because the convenience is off the charts but what's most surprising is that 50 percent of people buy more than they ever thought they would.
That's right, half of your shoppers will buy something extra while they are browsing your Shopify Store.
This is how online stores entice buyers to purchase things that they might not have considered right away. You can upsell products with special discounts or simply encourage them to shop more by adding items they may want or need. There's no limit to what type of products or services you can offer, but it's important to keep track of your offers so you don't confuse the buyer.
Amazon, one of the world's largest e-commerce marketplaces, reported that cross-selling and upselling account for up to 35% of their earnings.
Therefore there’s absolutely no reason why upselling shouldn’t work for your Shopify store.
If you're the owner of a Shopify store, then this is great news for you!
This enables you to add upsells and cross-sell opportunities throughout the shopping experience from the product page to the cart drawer. In one of our previous articles, we discussed the importance of upselling products to your customers and how you can combine upselling with product options to help increase your average order value and increase customer loyalty as it gives them more value for their money.
In this article, we will dive into what you should know about upselling and educate you on what you might not know about upselling.
Upselling has been demonstrated to increase eCommerce sales by up to 30%, with targeted product recommendations accounting for up to 30% of revenue. Furthermore, marketing to existing clients (or those who have expressed an interest in becoming customers) is significantly easier than beginning from scratch.
If you are not offering products that compliment your consumers’ initial purchases (or, better yet, take them to the next level), you are leaving money on the table.
According to Marketing Metrics, the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%.
What this statistic means is that shoppers who are just visiting your site for the first time are less likely to purchase a product when compared to selling to an existing customer the probability is higher.
For Shopify stores, we've found that when you create a highly targeted upsell offer, display it in your cart, and make it easy for customers to access, you can increase the average order value by 20% or more.
When you upsell, you’re gaining a better understanding of your customers and their needs.
The key to successful upselling is knowing the right time to make your offers. Timing is everything. You need to consider the customer’s context and what they’re looking for before prompting them to take action.
When you have the right tools in place, you can spend less time worrying about making the sale and more time focusing on your customers.
The better you know your audience, the easier it will be for you to know exactly how to reach out to them to close more sales.
Upselling and cross-selling represent two of the most important sales strategies for increasing revenue from an existing customer base. Upselling is thought by some experts to be up to 10 times easier than selling at full price for the first time. This is mainly because customers who have already purchased from you once have demonstrated that they trust your brand enough to buy from it once; therefore, it's likely that they will buy from your store again in the future.
The bottom line is that upsell offers work. If you implement an upsell offer on your site, there is a very high probability that you will see your average order value go up significantly. It’s a great way for Shopify store owners to take their orders to the next level, and it’s certainly something that we would recommend doing.
There are two types of upsells: related items and additional products. Related items attempt to sell additional items with obvious connections to the shopper's original purchase. While these inspired suggestions might be helpful, too much unrelated upselling can distract the customer from their original purchase intent. The second type of upselling is an additional product: carefully crafted to be relevant to your target customer and designed to complement or enhance their original purchase in some way. So get out there and upsell your customers. They love it, and it will help you increase your sales.
Upselling is a natural next step when a customer has expressed interest in your product. Whether they’re purchasing or browsing, they are open to the idea of adding to what they’re getting. That’s the time and opportunity for you to offer other products that will appeal to them. Consider and prioritize those who have expressed more interest in your products and make extra effort for them.
There’s no denying that increasing customer value is the proper goal of any eCommerce store, but finding ways to do it creatively and effectively is easier said than done. Some businesses rely on the tried-and-true tactic of coupons or loyalty programs, while others push users to make larger orders by lumping multiple purchases onto a single bill. However, the best stores for upselling take a different approach: making it completely transparent and easy for customers to add products to their order that they otherwise might not have added on their own.