I am often surprised by the amount of online stores that do not try to upsell their clients who purchase products online. Up Selling online at the point of sale should be just as important, or even more than in a traditional store because you do not have the opportunity to talk with your customers during the sales process.
If they are already purchasing something from you then you have earned their trust in your site and the products you offer. As they pass through the shopping cart pages of your website, there should usually be a dedicated effort to offer them a product that compliments the purchase they are making or can be used in conjunction with it.
One way to increase the value of the sale is upselling. So why not offer another of your products at a special price when they are buying something from you for the first time. If you have one product that lots of people buy, but they do not buy so many of your other products, a discount can be offered at check out, so they can try something else in your range.
It always surprises me when i am not offered things like this when i buy stuff online. Many of the leading retailers in their industry do this and most of the highly successful online businesses do. So if they are doing it, don’t you think it might be a good idea for you too.
For example, you are reading this blog post now, why not visit our website while you are here. There is lots of good information about lead generation and search engine marketing. Okay, maybe that’s not a great example……. But you still should visit our website.
Say you have an online hardware shop. Someone buys an electric sander. They have entered their credit card number and pressed enter. Before giving them the thank you page, why not offer them a chance to buy the replacement sandpaper for their new sander. They will need them at some point, so why not now.
Don’t let them get away to easy and drive up the value of a sale for your e-commerce site but cleverly up selling online.
Feel free to comment on this post and tell me some fun up selling stories or ideas that have worked or failed for you.