Upselling and cross-selling can help you make more money with dropshipping. They help in these two primary ways:
- Make more sales
- Increase the amount of money each customer spends
And, let's cut to the chase:
Getting new customers is tough. It's much easier and more cost-effective to increase the amount each customer spends with you.
In fact, it's anywhere from 5-25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one. Plus, a small share of customers can account for a ton of revenue.
If you don't have strategies in place to increase your customer's average order value, you're missing out.
Enter upselling and cross-selling can help. These proven strategies can help you earn more money from your customers.
In fact, way back in 2006, Amazon reported that 35% of its revenues were a direct result of their cross-selling and upselling efforts. Your current customers are ready to buy from you.
All you have to do is give them a little nudge to increase the average order value. In this article, I'm going to show you how to upsell and cross-sell for more gains.
Let's get into it.
What Is Cross-Selling?
Cross-selling is a sales tactic used to generate more sales by suggesting related or complementary products to customers. As they have already committed to making a purchase, additional products are easier to promote to them. Or more simply, cross-selling can be summed up by the iconic McDonald's phrase "Would you like fries with that?"
The key is to keep it natural and relevant. For example, if you sell hair-dryers, you could cross-sell products like hair brushes, pins, or claws. And, if you sell t-shirts, you could cross-sell baseball caps, tote bags, or hoodies.
Cross-selling should improve the buying experience. And, the products you cross-sell should help the customer get more value from their initial purchase.
Let's take a look at how Dollar Shave Club does it.
When you add a product to your basket and head to the checkout, they present you with related products:
It's simple, sleek, and relevant. A customer who's buying a razor is extremely likely to be interested in Post Shave Cream and Body Cleanser.
Does Cross-Selling Work?
Yes, it really does! Cross-selling techniques, like product recommendations, can generate substantial revenue, all without having to expend a lot of effort and investment in new customers.
What is Upselling?
Upselling is a sales technique used to persuade customers to purchase a more expensive or upgraded version of a product. If a person is already buying a product it can be easier for them to consider another, slightly different, option. Or more simply, upselling can be summed up by the McDonald's phrase, "Would you like to supersize your order?"
Remember, the aim is to deliver more value to your customers.
For example, if you sell sunglasses, you could upsell sunglasses that have polarized lenses or UV protection. In this instance, your customer may not have considered protecting their eyes with polarized lenses. They could be thankful for the reminder as it's helpful.
And, given the choice, most people would prefer a premium version of your products.
Let's look at an example of upselling from Dollar Shave Club. Here, they present their products side-by-side so that buyers can compare the benefits of each.
The message is clear: You could get an inexpensive razor that works well, or you could spend a few extra dollars on the best tool for the job.
And lastly, you have bundles.
Bundling products together is primarily a cross-selling technique, but many bundles include upsells. Here, Dollar Shave Club present bundles of their products:
Once again, the message is simple: If you're buying a razor, you're going to need blades, shaving cream, and moisturizer. So, this convenient bundle not only makes your life easier, it saves you money.
Why Is Upselling Important?
Upselling has a direct impact on your sales figures that can be tracked closely through a CRM system. It can be used to bring in new customers or to sell to existing ones. Upselling is an important sales tactic for both of these groups as it helps your bottom line and adds value to your customers.
Shoppers who have made their first purchase have a strong likelihood of buying again. After someone completes two or three transactions with your store, their chances of returning jump significantly. This makes upselling to repeat buyers especially effective.
Which is Better: Upselling or Cross-Selling?
Upselling and cross-selling are obviously very similar. They both focus on providing more value to customers by prompting them to consider additional products and variations. And, in both cases, the business objective is to increase the average order value (often referred to as AOV).
So, should you do both? Absolutely.
You should definitely use a combination of upselling and cross-selling techniques on your dropshipping store to maximize revenue.
However, it’s best to focus on upselling first.
Upselling tends to work better on product pages than cross-selling, while the latter is a more effective tactic for checkout pages. Start upselling first, and then add cross-selling tactics afterward.
4 Vital Tips to Get the Most out of Upselling and Cross-Selling
Before discussing how to implement upselling and cross-selling tactics to increase sales, it's important to understand four key points:
1. Put the Customer First
Your business isn't about you. Ever. It's about providing value, and fulfilling your customers' needs and desires. The most successful business people live by this.Take Jeff Bezos. He started Amazon from nothing and is now the richest man in the world. How did he do it? Bezos explained, "We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. Be Patient.”
The key to success in upselling and cross-selling is to first understand what your customers value. And then provide that value through additional products or features, and improved customer experience. In short: help your customers.
When you use upselling and cross-selling correctly, customers are genuinely grateful for the choice. They are given options and feel like they got a better deal when they buy something. The vast majority of shoppers say that tailored experiences influence their buying decisions. When your suggestions feel relevant and customized to their needs, customers respond positively.
2. Don’t Overdo It
Let's be frank: No one likes to be blatantly sold to. So, overwhelming your customers with upselling and cross-sell offers is likely to damage their perception of your brand. You must be tactful. So, find ways to offer upsells and cross-sells in ways that truly improve the customer experience.
It can be counter-productive to provide customers with too many options anyway. The paradox of choice states that the more options buyers have, the more difficult it becomes to make a decision. Buyers can get analysis paralysis and end up making no decision at all. So, don't offer too many upsell or cross-sell options. Instead, try to focus on just the most relevant, and appealing three or four offers.
3. Don’t Upsell More Than 25%
The “rule of 25” is just a general rule of thumb, but it's handy when choosing your offers. Here's how it works: when choosing upsell offers, avoid suggesting products that will increase the overall order by more than 25 percent. For example, if the product the buyer is looking at costs $100, avoid trying to upsell them to a version that costs more than $125. It's simple but effective. Keeping the upsell below 25 percent will improve the chances of increasing your average order value.
4. Demonstrate Value
Customers need to trust that there is value in buying or spending more with your brand. Merely providing recommendations of upselling or cross-selling opportunities is not enough. Add testimonials or customer reviews to pages before purchase. Include them in your email confirmation of purchase to reinforce positivity from a sale. Consider using your sales data and customer behavior analytics to inform which products you recommend. Historical purchase patterns can reveal which items naturally pair well together, making your suggestions more effective and welcomed by shoppers.
Okay, now you've got the foundations under your belt, it's time to dig into how you can use upselling and cross-selling to boost your dropshipping sales.
5 Ways to Boost Sales With Upselling and Cross-Selling
You get multiple chances to upsell and cross-sell to your website visitors:
- Before they buy;
- During the checkout process;
- Right after they've completed their purchase;
- And in follow-up communications.
And, there are tons of different ways that you can cross-sell and upsell to customers during these stages.
Let's take a look at some of the tactics and tools that you can use in each stage.
1. Upselling and Cross-selling on Your Product Pages
Let's look at upsells first. Apple provides a great example of upselling on a product page. Here, they present the different versions of their MacBook Pro:
And, by presenting the product like this, buyers can clearly evaluate the different features and benefits that upgrading will provide. It's simple but effective. Just like in our Dollar Shave Club example earlier, upsells are often presented through side-by-side comparisons.
Now let's look at ways to include cross-selling on your product pages. A common method is to display related products or recommendations at the bottom of your product page. For example, Asos includes an upsell to their “Buy The Look” section at the bottom of their product pages.
But, they take it one step further by adding another section under this section. This one features more products under the title “you might also like,” adding more choice for the customer.
And these types of product recommendations can be extremely effective. In fact, product recommendations are responsible for a sizable portion of ecommerce site revenues. So, it's no wonder that this type of cross-selling has become a staple of product pages.
There's a chance that these features are already built into your store's theme. But if not, you can check out the Shopify App Store. You'll find tons of cross-selling and upselling goodies over there.
2. Upselling and Cross-selling at Checkout
The checkout process provides ample opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. Let's look at another powerful upsell example from Apple. Once a customer has chosen their MacBook Pro, Apple provides a selection of highly relevant and desirable upsell offers:
In this next example, when a customer clicks “Add to Cart” to buy a camera, they have the opportunity to additionally buy batteries:
So, take advantage of this extra attention and use it to provide more value for your customers. Once again, you can use an app to upsell and cross-sell during the checkout process. Or, consider Product Upsell.
This app from Bold Apps is one of the most popular apps in the Shopify App store and has over 500 reviews.It's loaded with features. And it lets you display relevant upsell and cross-sell based on what's in a customer's cart, and their total cart value. It allows you to add time-sensitive offers to increase urgency:
BOLD AI Upsell & Cross‑Sell is free for 30 days, and then $9.99-$59.99 a month depending on the number of views you receive.
3. Upselling and Cross-Selling in Your Email Receipts
Email marketing is the most effective sales channel. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing has an ROI of 4,300%. In other words, for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return is $44.25. But, here's where it gets really interesting.
Compared to the average email open rate of 22%, purchase receipt emails get an average open rate of a whopping 71%. This means that purchase receipt emails get the highest engagement scores out of all the emails you send.
This makes perfect sense when you consider that people want to double-check their order subsequent to payment. They will pay attention to make sure everything went through okay. Take advantage of this attention. Send them personalized follow-up emails to entice them to buy more.
Email receipts are a great opportunity to upsell to current customers. Offer them a coupon code, discount, or free shipping on their next purchase to motivate them to spend more. Here, Calvin Klein thanks customers for their purchase, and offers them a 10% discount:
You can do this using an email service provider like Drip or GetResponse. Or, you can use Shopify Email.
Shopify Email allows you to easily customize your purchase email receipts to feature other products and discounts.
4. Post-Purchase Upselling: A Powerful Strategy
There's a particularly effective moment to present additional offers: immediately after someone completes a transaction. This happens in the window between checkout completion and the thank-you page.
Why does this timing work so well? Because the buyer has already committed to the purchase. Their payment details are entered, and they're in a buying mindset. Presenting a relevant add-on at this moment doesn't interrupt their original transaction or create friction.
The key is making these suggestions highly relevant. Show items that genuinely complement what they just bought, or offer small upgrades that enhance their purchase. Avoid being too aggressive: one or two well-chosen recommendations work better than overwhelming buyers with options.
Remember, the goal is to enhance the customer experience while growing your revenue. When done thoughtfully, these after-purchase suggestions feel helpful rather than pushy.
Several Shopify apps can help you implement this strategy effectively.
1. Zipify One Click Upsell: Designed for Shopify Plus merchants, this tool creates seamless one-click offers.
2. CartHook Post Purchase Offers: Integrates native promotions including upgrades and complimentary gifts into your checkout flow.
3. Easy Post Purchase Promo Deals: Helps grow revenue through strategically placed offers after checkout.
4. USO: Ultimate Special Offers: Creates streamlined upgrade opportunities directly within your store's checkout experiences that boost order values.
5. Incentivize Customers to Purchase Your Upselling and Cross-Selling Offers
One of professor Gregory Mankiw's Ten Principles of Economics is: "People respond to incentives." Let's face it: you already knew that! The point is, you don't just have to show related products or premium versions of products.
You can increase your average order value. This can be done by encouraging people to reach a certain spending goal to receive a reward.In this cross-sell example, Erstwilder offers customers free shipping for orders over $100.
If you were only $5 away from free shipping, you might add something extra to your order to receive this offer. And, in this next example, if the customer spends over $50, they'll get a free gift:
You can offer people a discount if they reach a certain spending goal. To do this, check out the Sales Motivator app on Shopify.
Summary
You now know what upselling and cross-selling are, and how to use them to boost your average order value and grow your revenue.
Remember, when creating your upsell and cross-sell offers:
- Always put the customer experience first.
- Only promote the most relevant and appealing offers.
- Keep your upsell offers to less than 25% of the total cart value.
- Use personalization to make recommendations feel tailored and helpful.
- Leverage your sales data to identify which products naturally pair together.
You get multiple chances to upsell and cross-sell to your customers. These include before purchase, during checkout, immediately after completion, and in follow-up communications.
Be sure to use them all strategically. Lastly, don't forget to take advantage of the incredible apps available on the Shopify App Store.
Upselling vs. Cross-Selling FAQ
What’s the Difference Between Upselling and Cross-Selling?
Upselling and cross-selling are effective sales tactics independently and when applied together. Upselling is when you offer a better product or service for more money, using comparative tactics to sway the potential customer to purchase the more expensive item. Cross-selling, in contrast, is when you persuade buyers to add more items to their physical or digital cart that are connected to what they’re purchasing.
What’s More Effective: Upselling or Cross-Selling?
There isn’t a simple answer to whether upselling or cross-selling is more effective. It depends highly on what you’re selling and your target markets. Upselling tends to work better on product pages than cross-selling does, while checkout pages are a perfect place to integrate cross-selling tactics.
What Are Effective Ways to Upsell and Cross-Sell in Ecommerce?
There are multiple ways to upsell and cross-sell to customers on your site. You can give shoppers chances to add more items to their carts or choose more expensive options before they buy, during the checkout process, in a follow-up right after they complete their purchase, or in email campaigns to ensure they become repeat customers.
Remember that customers should be able to add items with minimal effort, and all processes should mirror impulse buying behavior. Take note of where your shoppers are most enthusiastic and design upsell and cross-sell tactics to take advantage of it.
How Do You Upsell and Cross-Sell Most Effectively?
To make the most of these sales tactics, you have to put the customer first and provide as much value as possible. Your shoppers should feel grateful for your service, and believe truthfully that they are getting the best deal. This doesn’t mean you have to overdo it, though, as people aren’t fans of being sold to. Don’t offer too many options, instead focusing on the most relevant. When upselling, avoid products that are over 25% pricier than the original item. Most importantly, reinforce value every step of the way.