Shopify Upsell & Cross-sell: Real-life Examples and Takeaways

As you might know...

Amazon attributed upsells and cross-sells helped them gain 35% of its revenue - both the 'Frequently Bought Together' and 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought'.

Sounds great? So, how to boost your Shopify store sales with similar upsells and cross-sells?

In this post, we will look at real-life examples of upsells and cross-sells and learn what's the best way to approach this product recommendation strategy.

First, let's dive into the fundamental concepts behind upsells and cross-sells.

What is Upsell and Cross-sell?

Upsell is a sale strategy to convince visitors to purchase a higher priced alternative that replaces the original item they are currently considering.

 

Cross-sell is a sale strategy to suggest a visitor buy complementary products in addition to the original product selected.

 

Good to know: Bundling is a bit of a gray area that combines both cross-selling and upselling. In fact, bundling is a more effective strategy for cross-selling when you pack related products together with a discount offer. Bundling has two options - (1) can not buy each item in the bundles individually; (2) both individual buy and bundle buy are made available.

Pre-sale or post-sale upsell/cross-sell?

It’s important to understand that upsells and cross-sells can be used throughout the buyer journey. However, opting for a pre-sale or post-sale upsell/cross-sell depends on your industry and specific customer.

In general, you can consider upsells on your Shopify store in all stages below:

• Pre-purchase:
  - Product recommendations on the homepage like "Your Best Product lines", 'Special Offers', "Current Deals", etc.
  - Product recommendations on the product pages (At the bottom or in the product description).
• Mid-Purchase (at checkout):
  - Product recommendations appear via a “mini cart” or cart page pop-ups.
  - Product recommendations on the Checkout cart page.
• Post-purchase:
  - Product recommendation on the Thank-you page after customers complete their purchase.

Good to know: For off-store upsells, you should also explore the abandoned cart emails or personalized after-purchase email follow-up when customers complete their purchases.

What about cross-sell?

You can follow a similar upsell approach above, however, you should carefully implement cross-sells in the post-purchase stage. Cross-sells are more popular in the pre-purchase (product recommendations and bundling options on the Product page, etc.) and mid-purchase (product recommendations on the checkout page, etc.) stages.

Good to know: For off-store cross-sell, don't forget post-purchase cross-selling (make special offers on the confirmation page, or other post-purchase communications)

Known mistakes in Upsells and Cross-sells

Despite proven benefits, upsells and cross-sells strategies can fail to boost your Shopify store sales if they are poorly implemented. Here’re a few known mistakes:

• Be too pushy or aggressive: Overly aggressive upselling and cross-selling can annoy and frustrate customers.
• Don’t offer products with a reasonable price range: Customers rarely pay more than 25% of what they plan to spend. Or cross-sell products should be at least 60% cheaper than the product added to the cart.
• Irrelevant product recommendations.
• Offer overwhelming options that are difficult for a visitor to make a decision.

Examples of Shopify store upsell and cross-sell

(Pre-purchase Upsell) Product Detail Page - Tesla

 
https://www.tesla.com/models/design#overview

Takeaways for pre-purchase upsells:

• Promote your most reviewed or most sold products.
• Offer upsells within a reasonable price range: customers rarely pay more than 25% of what they plan to spend.
• Physical products: extended warranty or premium support are good options for upsells.
• A comparison chart on the product page to recommend premium or upgraded versions can be an effective tool for upselling.
• Create urgency: a limited-time discount can create an incentive for customers to act on your upsell quickly.

(Pre-purchase Cross-sell) Product Detail Page - Ooni USA:

 
https://ooni.com/products/ooni-karu-12g

Takeaways for pre-purchase cross-sells:

• HubSpot Research says that bundling is the most popular strategy for cross-selling. 63% of surveyed sales teams offer bundles.
• Avoid overwhelmed options that make it difficult for customers to make decisions.
• Cross-selling is most effective when the additional product or service is much lower in price than the initial purchase. Cross-sell products should be at least 60% cheaper than those added to the cart.

Good to know: (Free) Easy Content Builder app lets you enrich your product pages with Featured Products/Collections and other rich-content blocks to help you grow your sales.

(Pre-purchase Upsell) Product Detail Page - Bodybuilding

 
Upsells within the product description section (See the example).

 
Upsells at the bottom of the Product page (See the example).

Takeaways for pre-purchase upsells:

• Upselling into a subscription is an effective option.
• Display testimonials for the upsell where possible.
• If you have customer personas, use those to make relevant suggestions.

(Mid-purchase cross-sell) Cart popup and checkout - Bodybuilding

 
Cross-sells on cart popup - Bodybuilding

 
Cross-sells on cart page - Bodybuilding

Takeaways for mid-purchase cross-sells:

• Cart or checkout pages are great places for cross-selling related products.
• Try not to bombard customers with too many choices.
• Ensure the additional products are not only relevant to the original purchase but serve the same goal.
• Specifying a minimum order amount to qualify for free shipping is a great way to use bundling for cross-sells.

(Post-purchase) Thank you page - Amazon

Though this is not an example of a Shopify store, the Amazon thank-you page below gives you a good idea of how to display personalized and relevant upsells and cross-sells seamlessly.

 
Post-purchase upsells and cross-sells on Amazon’s thank-you page.

Takeaways for post-purchase upsells:

• The thank-you page or order confirmation page are great places to show customers how to make the most of their recent purchases.
• The Post-purchase upsell pages (thank-you page or order confirmation page) work great for discounts for the next order or small add-ons.
• Besides the popular cross-sells and upsells, you can also display other flexible sections on the Thank-you page like Reorder button; Collect customer feedback; Collect customer birthdays; Social sharing buttons, etc.

Conclusion

You've done the hard work of building your Shopify store, it's important to find the right selling strategies to grow your store. You could be leaving money on the table if you neglect to implement both upsells and cross-sells on your Shopify store.

Furthermore, the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%, while the possibility of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%. That’s why upsells and cross-sells are the most powerful techniques you need to increase your online store sales.