Up-selling is a strategy for increasing sales in which the seller prompts the customer to buy products or services belonging to the same category as those who are interested, but have a higher price, higher specifications and features. Basically it is trying to convince the customer to spend more money than you intended to spend by “proposal” to buy other more expensive brand or product version. In the picture below you can see an applied example up-selling operation.
We visit the page of a product that we intend to buy, at the bottom of the page identified a list of recommended products in the same category with much higher price and better features. An informal rule for up-selling application states that the value of the proposed product should not be bigger than 25% of the original product.In the picture above we see the rule verify for 2 of the 3 featured products, while the third is aimed at a small percentage of customers who have free money to spend and the cost is not the main criterion for product selection.
In the past there was a division of the companies on whether to use this strategy to increase profits from their sales. This is because there was the fear that customers can be “disturbed” therefore not eventually make a purchase. But this fear was overcome when they saw actually the results were using up-selling operations in their online stores. Initially sales improved the shopping experience, sales have become more targeted and customer satisfaction increased accordingly.
Basic operations for successful Up-Selling
- Customer Satisfaction: If you manage to convince the customer that through the acquisition of a better and more expensive product will have benefits (up-selling). Then in this case we are talking a win-win situation, the customer is satisfied by the market, and you with your turn increase your profits. The up-selling technique is not simply a function to increase the profit of your sales, but it is a tactic to increase the satisfaction of your customers and build strong relationships with them..
- Relevance: The product service that would be available through this function should be on the product that the customer is interested in buying. A smart way to motivate the customer to deal with products that make up-selling is to be accompanied by a caption which will show the customer how equal it interests him the most. For example, an accompanying message could be the following « similar users saw.. » or « Customers who viewed this product bought.. ».
- Do not overdo it: Up-selling operation may be a way to increase your sales profits should not, however, apply it everywhere and in everything. If you overdo it you increase the likelihood cause confusion among customers and annoy them. You need to view products without overshadowing the original product and not addressed aggressively to the customer. The most common viewing points that meet up-selling techniques are the product page, the shopping cart and checkout process. Great attention will need to show when applying the operation in the checkout page (checkout) after a wrong application can create negative feelings in the client therefore not make a purchase.
- Urgent: Create your customers a sense of the urgent. Indicate that the displayed products will not be available for a long time so the customer would have to hurry not to miss this opportunity to make a purchase. Securities accompanying such products is usually «The offer of the day», «Available until the end of the week» etc.
- Rarity: This is a very common technique for applying up-selling e-shops. Inform customers about the short-term availability of the product in order to entice them to buy. For example, eBay uses to entice customers texts like «products last 4 or 17 buyers look at this product at the moment.»
Consequently, the success of up-selling operation is based on the satisfaction of customer needs, you need to create the feeling of the winner of the purchase option and that the extra money spent really deserved. The more you know about your customers and their habits, the more targeted will be the up-selling operation products and services. Apply the tips mentioned above and you will see the value of your average order, the proceeds of your online store and your customer satisfaction to increase.
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