{"id":2773255,"date":"2020-10-07T14:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/?p=2773255"},"modified":"2021-08-03T11:27:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T09:27:19","slug":"woocommerce-upselling-and-cross-selling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/blog\/woocommerce-upselling-and-cross-selling\/","title":{"rendered":"WooCommerce Upselling and Cross-Selling"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve drawn a customer to your WordPress site, shown them your products on WooCommerce, and convinced them to make a purchase. 

Sweet success. <\/p>

That means your job is over and it\u2019s time to focus on the next customer, right? <\/p>

Wrong.<\/p>

If you move on to the next customer as soon as the last one starts the checkout process, you\u2019ll be leaving money on the table.<\/p>

A customer who is about to make a purchase represents a wealth of opportunity, both to upsell and cross-sell.<\/p>

This article will show you why upselling and cross-selling are essential for any online business and how you can increase your income using a few simple tools and techniques.<\/p>

What are upselling and cross-selling?<\/h2>

Building a website and selling products are only the first steps to profitability. <\/p>

Upselling and cross-selling help you control what products your customers buy. This can have a huge positive impact on your revenue.<\/p>

Upselling<\/h3>

Almost everyone has experience upselling, even if they don\u2019t know what upselling is.<\/p>

If you\u2019ve ever been to a movie theater or a fast food restaurant and had the clerk ask if you want to upgrade your drink to a large, they\u2019ve upsold you.<\/p>

Upselling is taking someone who has already decided to make a purchase and presenting them with another, more expensive premium product. Your customer then chooses whether to continue with their planned purchase or buy the more expensive product. It\u2019s a great way to boost sales for your WooCommerce Store<\/a>.<\/p>

This strategy can be extremely effective. Upselling has been proven to increase profits by 10% to 30%<\/a>. <\/p>

Upselling is also far more cost effective than just selling a product to someone and immediately turning your attention to other new prospects. It has been proven to be 68%<\/a> more affordable than new customer acquisition. <\/p>

It isn\u2019t terribly difficult. You\u2019ve already done the hard work of finding a customer and convincing them to make a purchase. You just need to give them one more opportunity to increase their order\u2019s value.<\/p>

Upselling also works for service-based products. If you have a website with multiple subscription levels, you can try to upsell your customers to the more expensive subscription by presenting them with value-based information. <\/p>

\"Upselling\"\/
Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>

Let\u2019s take a look at upselling in action. For that, we turn to Spotify, the popular music streaming service. <\/p>

\"Spotify
Example of upselling: Spotify – Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>

This is a free service, and is marketed as such. It lets you sign up for an account, download the software, and even start using it, all without ever trying to sell you anything. However, after you try it for free, it offers you an upsell to their premium membership.<\/p>

Spotify lets you experience the free version, which includes ads and a number of frustrating limitations. You now know the quality of the service, you\u2019re likely enjoying it, and they\u2019re giving you a way to make it easier and more enjoyable. <\/p>

On top of that, they offer you a one month free trial period in order to experience the difference. <\/p>

A common theme of upselling and cross-selling strategies is that they appear to the customer as helpful, value-driven experiences, instead of marketing initiatives designed to bleed more money out of them. <\/p>

It\u2019s useful, not predatory. <\/p>

Cross-selling<\/h3>

Just like upselling, most people have already experienced cross-selling, even if they don\u2019t know it.<\/p>

If you\u2019ve ever shopped on Amazon.com, you\u2019ve been cross sold to. When you go to checkout and you see the blurb that says \u201cPeople who bought this item also bought these,\u201d that\u2019s cross-selling. <\/p>

When cross-selling, you look at the products that a customer is buying and offer to sell them another, related product to go along with it. <\/p>

Someone buying a meal might want to buy a drink. Someone buying a paintbrush might need to buy paint.<\/p>

Cross selling creates a domino effect, where one product purchase can lead to another, and another, and another. <\/p>

\"Cross-selling
Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>

For a classic example of cross-selling at work from a familiar brand, check out what the Apple store is doing. <\/p>

\"Apple's
Example of cross-selling: Apple – Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>

In the image above, the customer has already placed a laptop in their shopping cart, so the website displays related items, making it easier for the customer to add on to their existing order.<\/p>

WooCommerce upselling and cross-selling tools<\/h2>

Now that you\u2019re more aware of the definitions of both cross-selling and upselling, it\u2019s time to talk about how this directly relates to the world of WordPress and WooCommerce. <\/p>

There are many WooCommerce upselling and cross-selling tools that you can implement on your website. <\/p>

Smart coupons<\/h3>

Online shoppers like feeling as though they got a great deal. <\/p>

Coupons are a proven way to generate that feeling. The reason why so many businesses use coupons is, frankly, because people want them. A massive 96% of shoppers<\/a> report using coupons in the last 90 days alone.<\/p>

The graph below showcases the importance of coupons as it pertains to digital purchases. <\/p>

\"Importance
Importance of discounts and coupons to the digital purchasing decisions – Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>

As you can see, it\u2019s pretty sweeping across the board. Millennials, Gen X-ers, and Baby Boomers alike are all stating that coupons are very important to them and their online shopping decisions. <\/p>

Put these various demographics in a room together and they probably aren\u2019t going to agree on much. But they all have some consistent opinions when it comes to the importance of coupons.<\/p>

While coupons are a good way to drive customers to your site, you can also use them as part of an upselling strategy. The Smart Coupons<\/a> plugin lets you display messages when a customer enters a coupon code. You can then use these messages to display an upsell offer or cross-sell additional products.<\/p>

Checkout tools<\/h3>

If a customer makes it to your checkout page, they\u2019ve probably already decided to make a purchase from your site. That makes the checkout page a prime opportunity for upselling and cross-selling.<\/p>

You can use WooCommerce\u2019s checkout plugin<\/a> to display and upsell products during the checkout process. <\/p>

For example, you can add checkout fields that let customers add a tip to an order or ask if they want to upgrade to a premium version of your product.<\/p>

\"Add-ons
Add-ons displayed at checkout – Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>

You can also cross-sell based on what products are in the customer\u2019s cart, letting them choose add-on services such as shipping, insurance, or gift wrapping.<\/p>

Cart tools<\/h3>

There are multiple WooCommerce upselling tools that you can use to customize how your website\u2019s shopping cart page looks and acts. <\/p>

One classic upsell strategy is to offer free shipping on purchases over a certain dollar amount. This encourages customers to add more products to their cart. <\/p>

You can use WooCommerce\u2019s Cart Notices<\/a> tool to add free shipping messages as well as other notifications that encourage quick purchases, like a countdown timer for same-day shipping.<\/p>

For cross-selling, WooCommerce\u2019s Cart Add-ons<\/a> let you create rules around cross-selling. These rules can be simple, such as, \u201canyone who buys birthday-related decorations gets cross-sold candles.\u201d <\/p>

It could also be more complex, taking all of the items the customer has in their cart into account when recommending other products.<\/p>

Product bundles<\/h3>

Bundling can help you upsell to customers who are interested in several products.<\/p>

WooCommerce\u2019s Product Bundles tool<\/a> is an extension that lets you design bundles that customers can add to their cart with a single click. <\/p>

You can also use this tool to generate personalized bundles for customers based on their cart contents or purchase history.<\/p>

Post-purchase upselling<\/h3>

Communicating with customers after they make a purchase is important. Clear communication, including things like shipping notifications and order details can help increase customer trust.<\/p>

Follow up communications can be a perfect opportunity for upselling. <\/p>

Tools like Jilt<\/a> help you manage your customer communications. You can personalize every email outreach based on the customer\u2019s purchase history, sending product recommendations or coupon codes in order to drive future sales.<\/p>

Website performance<\/h3>

The user experience is directly tied to customer satisfaction and conversion rates. <\/p>

That means if you have a slow buggy site that can barely get through a single order, you\u2019re not going to be able to handle additional plugins that help with upselling and cross-selling. <\/p>

That\u2019s where WP Rocket<\/a> comes in handy. <\/p>

Our WordPress plugin improves the loading speed of your website, making it more dependable and customer friendly. It does this through page caching, which is immediately activated the second you turn the plugin on. <\/p>

Learn more about page caching and how it can improve your website\u2019s performance<\/a>. <\/p>

If your site already has speed issues, you\u2019re going to need to improve performance before you add additional features like the upselling and cross-selling tools above. <\/p>

WP Rocket can ensure that your site is fast and efficient enough to handle the extra strain and provide a better experience for all of your shoppers. <\/p>

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