A tale as old as time, upsells and cross-sells have been used as marketing strategies in traditional commerce to increase business revenue for years. This tried and tested approach can also be simply applied to e-commerce in order to boost sales, with proven results.
Learn how to #Up-sell and #Cross-sell on your #WooCommerce Store
In this article, we’ll introduce you to upselling and cross-selling. Then, our WooCommerce development experts will give you some recommendations on the best WooCommerce upsell and cross-sell solutions for your online store.
What is an up-sell?
Have you ever been to the movies intending to order large popcorn and ended up persuaded into getting the jumbo one instead? Newsflash! You got up sold.
By definition, an upsell involves selling the buyer a higher-end or improved version, whether bigger, brighter, or better, of the same product intended to be purchased. This can be anything from a larger size of a product to an upgraded version of a service.
The best part about upselling is that it can be easily applied to any type of product, service, or business. Here are some examples of upsells:
- You get offered additional flavor syrups to be added to your Starbucks order.
- You are purchasing software and get offered premium support.
- You are encouraged to purchase the high-end version of the car you are looking to purchase.
When you upsell, you are dealing with customers that already want your product. Taking advantage of their interest in your offering, you can introduce them to a superior version of the product they are seeking to buy.
What is a cross-sell?
If you’ve ever said yes to the “Do you want fries with that?” question when ordering fast food, you’ve been a victim of cross-selling. Cross-selling is offering your customer additional, related products to complement their initial purchase, increasing the size of their order.
For example, you might be offered matching pants when purchasing a shirt or to add ink and paper to your order when purchasing a printing device. The products offered in a cross-sell are related to the main item being purchased and will most likely be needed or provide additional value to the customer.
Buyers might also implement cross-selling by offering product bundles containing several related products that might interest potential buyers at a discounted price.
What’s the difference between an upsell and a cross-sell?
Upselling is getting customers to purchase a better or upgraded version of the product or service as a replacement for their intended purchase, while cross-selling encourages customers to buy related or complementary items to grow an existing order.
While they are slightly different, they both serve a similar purpose – increasing the overall value of a customer’s order. They also both target warm leads or customers already willing to purchase from your business. When used in conjunction, upsells and cross-sells can help online stores reach outstanding results in their sales.
Can upselling and cross-selling increase your revenue?
The short answer is yes!
For starters, upselling is simply more cost-effective for businesses.
Where marketing is concerned, there’s nothing more expensive than acquiring a new customer. On the other hand, retargeting an existing customer requires less effort and yields better results. In fact, upselling to a returning or already converted customer is 68% more affordable than acquiring a new customer.
Furthermore, upselling and cross-selling are extremely profitable. According to McKinsey, cross-selling can boost sales by 20% and increase profits by 30%. Other reports show that companies offering upsells and renewals report that these offers make up over 75% of their revenue and the e-commerce giant Amazon has reported that cross-selling and upselling make up as much as 35% of their revenue.
If you are looking for even more solutions to boost sales and improve customer experience with WooCommerce don’t miss out on these related reads:
- How to optimize your WooCommerce checkout flow.
- How to share and collect customer feedback to boost sales with WooCommerce.
Top Upsell and Cross-sell WooCommerce Plugins
Some easy ways to implement WooCommerce upsell and cross-sell techniques is by suggesting frequently bought together and recommended items, offering premium add-ons for purchase, creating bundles, or setting up WooCommerce sales funnels.
While setting up all of these marketing ploys might sound complex, thanks to the many WooCommerce extensions available on the market, the process is actually a lot simpler than it seems. And if configuring these plugins still sounds like a headache, you can always reach out to a WooCommerce development agency to help you configure your site.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the best Cross-sell and Upsell WooCommerce Plugins!
YITH WooCommerce Frequently Bought Together
The YITH Frequently Bought Together add-on helps you enhance your product pages to maximize conversions by adding a section for suggested items related to each product. The plugin specifically suggests other products that are relevant to what your customers are looking for, increasing your chances of getting them to buy.
Alternatively, you can also use the plugin for upsells, by displaying convenient add-ons in a product page section. Furthermore, you have total control of how many cross-sell or up-sell product options you display on each page.
Design-wise, you can determine the product image sizes and customize all text displayed in the specific product page section used for cross-selling and upselling.
If you want to take your marketing to the next level, you can entice your customers with a discount that is applied only when they add all the suggested or related products to theirs. This can also be used to help you set up product bundles.
Price: 69.99 EURO per year for a single site license.
Iconic Sales Booster For WooCommerce
The Iconic Sales Booster plugin was created specifically for cross-selling purposes. With this plugin, you can display “frequently bought together” or related items to your customer after they click on the “add to cart button” for a given product. The items are shown in a customizable pop-up display, allowing you to specifically target your customers on a per-product basis.
We have all been victims of last-minute impulse buys at the checkout line. Just like real-life stores entice you with eye-catching items at the checkout line, this plugin also allows you to showcase last-minute one-time offers at WooCommerce checkout to help you increase order value.
Additionally, the Iconic Sales Booster includes the following features:
- Track all your cross-sell conversions with built-in reporting
- Compatibility with most WooCommerce themes and support for any payment gateway used on your online store
- Multilingual support through WPML
Price: 79.00 USD for a single site license
Upselling and Cross-selling Tips
Tune into your audience’s needs
What are your customers truly looking for? How could you provide more value or make their experience better? Answering these questions will help you determine the best WooCommerce upsell and cross-sell alternatives for your online store. The more tailored your offers are, the more likely your customers will be to upgrade their orders.
Focus on the benefits
What are your customers missing out on by skipping their order upgrade or additional purchase? What problems could they solve or what benefits will they get by bumping up their order? You should market with the customer in mind and make sure the benefits of their purchase are clear and on display. The more you focus on the value the customer will obtain, the better.
Offer flexibility
One of the best parts of cross-selling is that you can allow customers to pick and choose add-ons for their purchases. This gives them full freedom and flexibility to obtain a product or service that is tailored and suited for their needs.
Bottomline
WooCommerce upsells and cross-sells are great resources for increasing your online store’s revenue. Not only are they highly effective marketing strategies, they are also easy to implement. Our WooCommerce development experts can help you along the way, with anything from selecting the best WooCommerce extensions, customizing them to your needs, and configuring your WooCommerce site.