Encouraging customers to purchase an upgrade to the product or to pay additional money for a premium version of a service is how one may define what is meant by the practice of upselling. It is highly likely that you have been the target of upselling many times in the real world, perhaps without even realising it and probably with success from the retailer too. Upselling in action differs slightly to cross-selling, which is encouraging customers to purchase a complementary, but separate, item to the primary product. In terms of products targeted for marketers, a typical method for the upselling of services is to offer integration with an additional tool after the purchase of one subscription or to encourage an upgrade to a premium version with advanced features.

Why you should make the most of upselling

Research cited in Marketing Metrics says that it is much easier to make sales to your existing clients than it is to sell to prospective customers. Upselling, therefore, presents a good opportunity to boost your revenue and return on investment by earning more income from those existing customers. They could be either in the process of finalising a purchase when you can encourage them to buy a premium version of a product or service before they check out, or they may have recently completed a transaction, after which you can follow up to encourage them to purchase an upgrade to their item or subscription.

Not only are existing clients more likely to complete a purchase in your online store than prospective ones, but they have also been found to spend more, according to research by Bain & Company, and to purchase more frequently, as mentioned by Smile.io. Not implementing upselling campaigns into your business strategy is, therefore, a huge missed opportunity to make easier sales with a greater return more often, which simply equates to lost revenue.

Upselling for e-commerce

Upselling makes the e-commerce world go round. This is where it actually happens and can deliver results in the short term, and a wise optimization can take it places.

Long story short: upselling for e-commerce can be perceived as attracting a particular customer with a cheaper option to purchase a premium product. Another group of people simply describes it as increasing the cart value by adding more expensive products and finalizing the purchase.

Upselling campaigns are already widely seen on many e-commerce stores in the form of banners, pop-ups when a specific product is added to the cart or as recommendations, appearing on the screen. However, to win customers’ attention and loyalty, it’s worth to think out of the box.

How about upselling with web push notifications?

Web push notifications allow messages to be sent to an internet user by way of an on-screen pop-up that appears the next time they open a web browser and can be implemented with tools such as PushPushGo.

They don’t have to return to your site in particular to receive a message, they just need to be surfing the internet and have previously given their permission to receive this type of communication from a particular site. Such notifications can prove to be a very effective strategy for a successful upselling campaign in your e-commerce store since it allows you to write a selection of appropriate messages in advance and then automatically send them out to existing customers after a set period of time. In this way, you can encourage them to upgrade a product or service that they have recently bought or to offer the integration with another marketing tool that they may also find useful, for example.

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Studies have shown that it is between five and twenty-five times more expensive in terms of marketing costs to acquire new customers than it is to retain existing ones, according to the Harvard Business Review.

It is, therefore, a cost-effective strategy to seek to earn more revenue through upselling to clients that you already have and who you will know something about, after creating buyer personas with the information at your disposal.