The words Upsell and Cross sell are familiar to almost everyone who has ever dealt with marketing and/or sales-related work. Obviously it is worth paying attention to these because the customer goes home with more expensive products or more products than previously expected. We probably now have the attention of anyone who sells products/services where it is possible to offer more expensive variants and/or multiple quantities. To refresh the memory, we will briefly explain what both variants entail.

Cross sell

Selling complementary products to a particular product. By complementary products, then, we mean products that have a direct link to the product the customer initially buys. Suppose you buy a pot of paint to paint your wall then a good example of cross selling is offering the right brushes. These products complement each other and can be used as a sales strategy.

Upsell

Upsell is all about offering a more expensive version of the product. You often see advertising with a standard or basic model and then trying to sell a more expensive variant. Imagine that a (web) store offers a sandwich iron for € 35, - once you look at the product you also see that there is a more expensive variant available. This one most likely has more options or better specifications but the price is also higher. There is a chance that you will choose the more expensive one anyway.

Difference between online and offline

Cross sell

As just explained, cross sell offers matching products. To draw attention to these matching products, different rules apply for online and offline. The Online world is much more dynamic in this respect because you can link the same products in different ways. If we take the jar of paint again as an example, there are several complementary products that only match a specific paint but also many products that match many different types of paint. Regardless of the link, you can dynamically link them together so that they are always shown as a "cross sell" product.

This is of course different in a physical store. The layout of your store provides a certain structure but that does not mean that this is the best solution for all products and matching products. All accessories together is ideal because they then lie nicely together but not useful if they could have been a 'cross sell' to a product. Therefore, think carefully about what structure you are going to use.

Upsell

Again, there is a difference between online stores and physical stores. We already mentioned that upsell involves offering a more expensive version of the actual product, such as a better, faster, more elaborate version. Online, again, you can dynamically display other products and you are not stuck to a particular spot in your store where the product is located. For example, do you choose to put together all products with a certain price range or do you choose to put together the entire line of 1 product. Both strategic choices but they don't go together.

What you must avoid with both cross sell and upsell is losing the thread. So always make sure that the additional product or more expensive product that you prefer to sell joins the original product. This way you avoid choice stress because all variants are offered together and you can direct the visitor to the right product.

Online cross sell

Cross sell you arrange online from the back end. Depending on the platform there will be a different way of working but it always comes down to linking related products. It is determined beforehand which product qualifies for this and then you make the link between these products. For example, if you sell a cell phone, you can offer a screen protector for that particular model as a cross sell product.

Of course, first make sure that all products are created in the backend because otherwise you cannot link them. The big advantage with online cross sell is that you can link products to multiple other products to use cross sell. For example, a brush that can be used with different types of paint can be linked to all of them.

Online Upsell

Online, this technique actually works the same as cross sell. You link the products you want to use for your upsell strategy. The advantage is that these are often the same product families, which makes it quickly clear to the customer what kind of product is involved. It is up to you as a webshop to demonstrate why this more expensive variant is a better purchase. For example, explain which specifications are better to justify the higher price.

The design

With both cross sell and upsell, it is essential that you take the strategy into account with the design . Of course it makes no sense to hide these products somewhere because they will quickly be overlooked. Even if the products are clearly visible, it is important that the design takes your strategy into account. With Upsell, you actually see the same product with often some minor adjustments.

You can't see the differences in a photo, so be sure to reflect this in the design of the photo, for example, or in the accompanying content. Explain what the specifications are compared to the current product so that visitors understand why the upsell product is more expensive.

Start yourself with a good cross sell and/or upsell strategy

Have you been trying to apply cross sell and/or upsell for a while but find that the elevator isn't really there yet? Please contact us, we will be happy to help you get more conversions from your cross sell and/or upsell strategy.