In today's fiercely competitive e-commerce landscape, capturing and maximizing consumer attention is paramount. This is where the art of upselling shines, allowing businesses to sell more to their engaged audience.
In this post, we'll explore the seven best upselling strategies for Shopify stores to sell more and increase their average order values.
While you can always sell more to customers once they have left the website or made a purchase through channels like email, push notifications and more, an upsell while they are still on the site has a lot more value to offer!
Recap: What is Upselling?
Upselling is a sales technique in which a seller encourages a customer to purchase a more expensive or premium version of a product or service or to add additional items or features to their purchase. The goal of upselling is to increase the overall transaction value and revenue generated from a customer.
Suggest a premium version or package with additional features
Recommending add-ons, accessories, or upgrades
Providing extended warranties or service plans
Offering bundled products or services at a discounted price
Promoting loyalty programs or memberships that provide exclusive benefits
Offering gift wrapping, gift messages and gift cards to the order
What are the benefits of upselling?
When you do have the option to run promotions that are focused on attracting more online shoppers to your store, let’s see why upselling benefits you:
Increased revenue: The most obvious benefit of using upselling strategies is the potential for higher sales and revenue. By convincing customers to spend more on their purchases, businesses can boost their bottom line without acquiring new customers.
Improved customer satisfaction: When upselling is done right, customers often appreciate the value-added suggestions. They may end up with products or services that better meet their needs, enhancing their overall satisfaction and loyalty to the brand.
Enhanced profit margins: Upselling strategies typically involve offering higher-margin products or services, which can increase the overall profitability of each transaction. This can have a significant impact on a business's profitability over time.
Competitive advantage: Businesses that effectively employ upselling strategies can gain a competitive advantage in the market. They demonstrate a commitment to customer satisfaction and can differentiate themselves from competitors who may not offer such personalized recommendations.
12 Upselling strategies for Shopify stores (with examples)
There are several ways to upsell to your existing customers as they browse through your Shopify store. But here are the best upselling strategies we recommend to online businesses:
1. Make the upsell a part of the journey
The goal here is to streamline the upselling process by implementing strategic product upsells in a way that customers can easily add additional items or upgrades to their purchases without friction.
Think Apple for instance:
Apple cleverly displays the variants of their products available on their product detail page. This gives consumers the ability to see all the options available to them as they select an item to purchase - from processor, memory to warranty, the online shopper can see all the upgrades and their benefits clearly.
This also makes it easier for them to opt for the upsold products, removing the need to move back and forth from pages.
2. Offer online shoppers product bundles
Although bundling includes both cross-selling and upselling, it is a strategy you must try to increase your average order values. This typically includes creating a collection of products and offering them as a single package so that the consumer can purchase it together, instead of having to select each item separately.
But to make bundling effective, you must be able to identify common consumer interests to combine products related to one another. It also helps if you create different types of product bundles to give consumers more options, and add a discount on top of it.
A consumer who is at the point of checkout is purchase-ready. At this point, if you promote something of value to them - interest and intent, you can easily get them to spend more on your site.
You can do this in many ways; some of favorites being:
Add-on services like faster shipping, fragile handling, shipping insurance etc
Ability to opt for gifting - gift boxes, gift wrapping, gift card messages, gift cards
Bulk purchase discounts - ‘buy 3, get 10% off’
Bulk purchase shipping - ‘buy 3, get free shipping’
Digital products that compliment the item added to the cart
If a shopper did not pay attention to your upsold products during checkout, make the most of the post-purchase page to try again.
Typically, a thank you page only includes order details. We think it can be used to give another nudge to the customer!
Here are some examples:
Don’t forget to get insurance for your purchase!
Get an add-on product for 15% off
Get faster shipping at additional $5
Get your order gift wrapped for $10!
5. Promote upsells on popups
Another way to bring the buyer’s attention to a better product/ service available on your Shopify store, is to trigger campaign-specific popups. These pop ups can be set up on specific product/ collection pages, when a visitor adds a specific item to the cart or when they’re about to leave the page.
Here’s an example of an upsell triggered based on what the visitor chooses to add to the cart:
6. Offer limited deals and discounts
Another way to get a visitor to explore a product of a higher value than what they intended to purchase is to offer a limited period discount on it.
This creates the sense of them ‘getting something better at a steal deal.
Whether you’re upselling at checkout, on the thank you page or on the popup, remember to add a countdown timer and a clear marketing copy that conveys the deal is available only for a limited period of time.
FOMO marketing always drives higher conversions.
7. Offer easy subscriptions on products
Another clever way to upsell to online shoppers is to turn a one-time purchase intent into a recurring one. You can do this by offering them to subscribe to your products to avail a discount or an added benefit.
For example, here’s how Huel gets more of the same product sold by simply offering a subscription at a marginally discounted price:
Encourage online shoppers to buy more of the products they’re already interested in. This includes asking them to buy a higher quantity of the product to be able to avail a special discount you’re promoting or save more on the total cart value.
This upselling strategy works perfectly well for products that a consumer may require more regularly, and would see benefit in to make the purchase in one go.
9. Offer a larger size of the same product with a benefit
Another upsell strategy that does the trick of getting an online shopper to buy more is offering a slightly larger size of the same product at an added discount.
For example, if they were initially looking at purchasing a 50g pack of cereal, you introduce them to a 1kg pack highlighting its benefits. These benefits could be simply around not having to worry about breakfast for longer or a discount on it.
10. Include gifting upsells in your strategy
An upsell strategy we don’t see too many brands experimenting with is gifting. Now this includes giving the online shopper the ability to gift wrap the product in the card, add a greeting message/ card or personalize the purchase at the point of checkout at a minimal additional cost!
11. Offer shipping upsell to give customers more control
Continuing on similar lines, you can also upsell shipping to the customer. Offer them multiple shipping and delivery options at different costs, highlighting the benefits of each.
This way the shopper also gets to ensure they receive the order at the delivery date they want it to reach them.
12. Recommend product based on cart value
One strategy that focuses on using the data of online shoppers, is upselling based on cart value. This means the higher the product value in the cart, the higher is the value of the upsold product recommended to the buyer.
This helps ensure you’re tapping into the purchase-ready psychology of the buyer and use their spend power to guide the upselling.
For example, if someone is purchasing an LED television from your store, you can introduce them to a bigger screen size in the same range.
Pro tip: Make the most of your marketing copy
Effective communication is crucial when upselling. Use persuasive language and framing techniques to convey the value of the upsell to the customer.
For example, if you run a subscription-based streaming service and want to encourage customers to upgrade to a premium plan, your marketing copy should focus on:
Language of value: Instead of saying, "Upgrade to Premium," use language that emphasizes the benefits: "Unlock a World of Exclusive Content with Our Premium Plan!"
Highlight features: Clearly list the additional features they'll get with the premium plan, such as ad-free viewing, offline downloads, and early access to new releases.
Time-sensitive language: Create a sense of urgency with phrases like "Limited Time Offer" or "Act Now and Save!" This encourages customers to make a decision promptly.
The idea is to not sound like you’re pushing to sell a product of higher value. It should always appear that you intend to help them make an informed purchase decision and get something that is guaranteed to deliver a better customer experience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, mastering the art of upselling is crucial for boosting your Shopify store's revenue and enhancing the shopping experience of customers.
At SkaiLama, we've developed apps like Easy Bundles, CheckoutWiz and GiftLabs to simplify the upselling process. While Easy Bundles empowers you to create custom bundles with upsell options, GiftLabs gives you an opportunity to upsell through gifting options. CheckoutWiz is a complete solution to upsell at checkout specifically. It has various options and designs to optimise Shopify Checkout for upsell.
1. What are the common pitfalls to avoid when upselling on Shopify?
Overwhelming customers with too many options, offering irrelevant upsells, and creating too much pressure to buy are some common pitfalls to avoid when upselling on Shopify.
2. What metrics should I monitor to assess the success of my upselling strategies?
You should monitor your average order value, conversion rate, revenue generated from upsells, and customer lifetime value (CLV).
3. Which Shopify app should I use to upsell products in my store?
To upsell products in your store, consider using apps like Easy Bundles, Checkout Wiz, or GiftLabs. Easy Bundles helps create product bundles, Checkout Wiz optimizes checkout upsells, and GiftLabs offers gifting upsell options.
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Sid B
Sid is the founder of Skai Lama and The Indian Dream Podcast. He is passionate about building SaaS and talks about eCommerce Growth, 0-1 Startups, Building Businesses and Brands, and Shopify.
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Transform your Shopify Checkout with Custom Blocks, Upsell Widgets, Surveys and Full Branding Control
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Skyrocket Your Sales with Checkout Wiz: Unlock 10+ Conversion Boosting Features!
Transform your checkout with Checkout Wiz: Enjoy custom content blocks, upsell widgets, surveys, and full branding control for maximum conversions and revenue.
Transform your checkout with Checkout Wiz: Enjoy custom content blocks, upsell widgets, surveys, and full branding control for maximum conversions and revenue.
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