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Cross-sell and Upsell Flows are important sales techniques that help increase sales. With these flows, you increase a customer's average order value. Although both techniques are closely related, the difference is very important.
A customer has decided to make a purchase on your website! Good news, because this means that your marketing plan is well put together. It's likely that the customer landed on your site via an ad, signed up for the discounted newsletter, and maybe you even sent them an email about forgotten items in the basket. All this effort could still be for nothing if the customer makes a cheap order that is not profitable for you. If you often have to deal with this, upsell and cross-sell flows are perfect for your company.
Upselling is convincing your customer to buy a more expensive item or to upgrade a product or service to make the order more profitable.
The question about the McDrive: “Would you like to make a big discount menu out of that?” is therefore a textbook example of an upsell.
You can also think of more storage space for your phone, or adding extra legroom for an airline ticket.
A cross-sell is created when the customer orders additional items or services related to their previous order.
“Do you want fries with your hamburger?” you might hear at the McDrive.
Other examples include offering socks when the customer buys shoes or batteries if the customer has a camera in the basket.
With our customers, we see that cross-selling and upselling work. In addition to the fact that it generates more income, you build sustainable customer relationships with cross-sell and upsell flows. When you specifically offer a different product to a customer, this often results in a win-win situation. The product adds value to your customer's comfort and you generate extra sales.
In addition, upselling and cross-selling flows work better with existing customers. This is because they're already familiar with your company and are happy to take help in the form of another product. Because the likelihood of selling to an existing customer is around 60-70%, you're more likely to increase their average order value.
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In an attempt to increase the customer's average order value, you can sometimes miss the point. As a company, you need to make sure that customers don't feel forced to buy something and therefore don't buy anything at all.
That's why it's important that you test the best timing for your company to set up an upsell or cross-sell flow.
If you want to set up a cross-sell, you probably want the flow to start after the customer has ordered. The timing of these emails depends a lot on which products you sell. With one webshop, it is desirable to send an email as soon as possible; the other may want to wait until the customer has already received the order. You then (for example) let the flow begin 14 days after the order has been completed.
If you want to make an upsell, you want the flow to start before the purchase. Finding exactly the right timing is essential because you want to approach your customers when they want to buy something. You could even add upsell flows to your browse abandonment, abandoned cart flows, or implement them on your website.
Upsell and cross-sell flows are therefore ideal for adding extra value to orders. In addition, they ensure that you build sustainable customer relationships. Customers are happy to remember a product, or rely on your expertise as a seller.
Furthermore, the flows work best for existing customers. This is important because it's easier to sell to existing customers. If you can also boost the order value of these orders, you will generate much more turnover!
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Polaris Growth is a CLV e-commerce agency. We support ambitious online stores with: Klaviyo, conversion optimization, data & analytics and ecommerce strategy.
