Upselling items is one of the easiest ways to increase your Average Order Value, and it can be done in a ton of different ways, on a ton of different places.
The best upsells are those that make customers think: “Huh, I might actually need this” or “Huh, why not get this too?”.
Sounds easy, right? Well, it’s not that easy.
Some general logical rules of upselling products are to upsell complementary products, and ones that make sense to be bought together.
For example, if you’re selling products related to dental hygiene, on all toothbrush orders, you can set up an upsell for a toothpaste that goes well with it, and the other way around.
Another logical example, if you’re selling bundles, you can always upsell a ‘larger’ bundle and push people to spend more money with you.
If you want a more data-backed approach, take a look at your analytics (TripleWhale or other tools) and see which products are most frequently bought together.
Then, upsell those products in between each other.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some people think there is no downside to upsells. This is not true. In some cases, upsells can be overwhelming or make the main product seem less valuable.
It’s crucial to test upsells vs no upsells for your specific brand and audience, otherwise you’ll never know if they’re the reason something is working or not.
With all this being said, I’ll get into all the different ways you can upsell products to drive a higher AOV. Keep in mind this will include strategies you likely haven’t seen before, and some that might not seem like ‘upsells’ at first glance.
Product Page Upsells
One of the most logical places to start upselling is on the product page. It’s the time when people are shopping for a product and deciding they whether they want it or not.
We’ve seen the least amount of success with PDP upsells, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work at all.
They’re hard to nail and perfect, which means a lot of brands are doing them wrong.
Here are some general rules of what NOT to do on the product page:
– Don’t upsell unrelated products that don’t add value to the main product
– Don’t let upsells distract customers from the main product. They should be an addition, not a whole separate product.
– Don’t drastically increase the total price and scare the customers off.
– Don’t upsell poorly reviewed productsIf you do any of these, it’s likely that you’ll either scare away the customers or decrease the perceived value of your product in the customers’ eyes.
Now, here are some things you SHOULD do when it comes to upselling products on the product page:
– Upsell complementary product that naturally add value to the main product. For example, a brand selling room diffusers can upsell new scent packs they’ve got.
– Upsell products that are from the same set or a very similar category. Here’s an example we’ve made:
The entire point of an upsell is to add value to the main product, not distract customers away from it.
Here’s an example of an upsell that won’t work well on the product page. Instead of adding value to the main product, they only talk about some basic features of a completely new, unrelated product.
Overall, the PDP is a tough place to upsell, since it can be an easy miss and a tough hit.
Let’s move on into some easier forms of upsells, for example, inside the cart.
Cart Upsells
Now, cart upsells are VERY flexible and can be done in many different ways.
While it is important to test having upsells vs not having them, usually in the cart we’ve seen great performance by using them.
Typically, you have three main ways of optimizing a cart, and those ways are sorted based on the KPI you’re trying to increase.
Conversion Rate, Average Order Value, Lifetime Value.
Upsells are applicable only in the AOV and LTV focus to the cart, so make sure you’re optimizing for the right metric in the first place.
If you feel your AOV or LTV can be much higher, then I don’t have to tell you which optimizations to try.
If you think you have a healthy AOV and LTV for your industry, then you should take a look at GA4 purchase journey. If you see a massive drop off between “Add to cart” and “Initiate Checkout”, then you should optimize with a focus for CVR.
AOV FOCUS:
Cart upsell for a larger bundle
Cart upsell for a relevant / complementary product
Simple, same-product type cart upsell
Upsells for best selling products inside the cart:
LTV FOCUS:
Main focus on upselling subscription inside cart:
Combination of both LTV and AOV focus:
We’ve tested over 40+ carts in a ton of different niches and industries.
Which approach you choose depends entirely on your brand and what your goal is, but it is absolutely crucial to test it.
You can use a tool like Rebuy to help you with anything cart related, and a tool like Intelligems to A/B test any changes you make.
PRO TIP: When you’re testing changes that affect both CVR and AOV, make sure you implement the winner based on profitability.
Here are some more interesting features you can use inside the cart.
When people add a product to cart, you can show them multiple upselling options. This example from Away has the option to build a bundle with a relevant product, and also ‘accessorize’ the order with smaller, not-so-related products.
Another test that is valuable for many brands trying to keep a ‘luxury’ or relaxed feel is to test having a CTA before upsells. Only people interested in it would click and see recommended products.
To improve the performance of your cart upsells, use progress bars and free gifts (or similar offers) to incentivize higher spending.
The main purpose of a progress bar is to show people how far they are away from a certain threshold (free gift, shipping ,or similar) to incentivize them to add more to their order.
Now, let’s get into upsells that are similar to ones inside the cart, but not exactly inside of it.
‘Bump’ Upsells
Bump upsells are a step between the product page and the cart. They can be done in various different ways, with various different offers.
The usual way of developing bump offers is to present a popup after the customer clicks “Add to cart” on the product page.
This popup can feature recommended items, a BOGO offer, a subscription upsell, and pretty much anything you like it to.
The test results for bump offers vary depending on the brand, product, and audience, so it’s CRUCIAL to test these before actually implementing them.
Like I mentioned above, it’s also important to test profitability for features like this. This is because the CVR is likely to drop, and the AOV is likely to go up, so the only way you can see if the test is “performing” is if you calculate the difference (profit per visitor).
A popup offer is hard to perfect and won’t always work, depending on the audience. Some audiences and visitors might consider it too pushy and annoying, while others won’t have a problem with it.
Here are some examples of how to upsell with bump offers.
Upsell complementary products that go well with the initial order. Give people the option to continue shopping or go to cart.
Upsell a mystery gift at a discounted price. Brumate has an amazing example here that they’ve been using for a while.
Upsell a subscription upgrade on all add-to-carts that are made as a one-time purchase. This can help you increase LTV if done properly.
Upsell a “Get X discount off a second one” or a BOGO offer. Conversion tip here is to use the same sizing as the initial one that was added.
Checkout Upsells
Checkout upsells are very similar to cart upsell, and they require Shopify Plus to be achieved, just like other checkout optimizations.
You can also try using apps or similar tools, but those usually don’t work out very well in the end – either the functionality isn’t right or the performance drops.
In the checkout, it’s only possible to upsell different products – not variants, not subscriptions, nothing else.
Running this test can be tough if you’re doing it without a developer or CRO team.
Here are some examples of checkout upsells:
- Post-Purchase Upsells
If you don’t already have post-purchase upsells set up, you’re leaving so much money on the table.
There is literally no downside to post-purchase upsells as they don’t interfere with the checkout process at all.
One of the main issues with overall upsells is the fact they can lower CVR when they’re too overwhelming, improperly placed, etc.
This isn’t the case with post-purchase upsells. The customers ALREADY ordered, and their money is now on your account.
There is no downside and only one upside; a higher AOV.
I’ve seen brands set up the most basic post-purchase upsell with an app like Rebuy Engine or Reconvert and make upwards of $30k extra monthly revenue.
Another great thing with post-purchase upsells is that once the customers buy, you have 100% of their attention. They JUST spent money with you, so they’re more likely to listen to you again.
Here are some examples of post-purchase offers to run:
“Grab another & save 10% + free shipping today only!”
“20% off today only”
“Try our best selling bundle today and get 30% off”
… and many more
The entire point of post-purchase upsells is not to look good or be CRO optimized, it’s to have a great offer that benefits the customers.
Most apps you use will have templates set up for their post-purchase upsells, and there’s no need to go heavy on customizations. This is a page where decisions are made in seconds, at the point where customers are ready to buy and don’t need to be convinced anymore.
If your offer is good, your upsell will perform positively. You HAVE to place yourself in the shoes of your customers and feel what they would feel if they were shown a certain popup/upsell.
Downsells
Downsells are a step after the post-purchase upsells (PPU).
Post-Purchase Upsells are a basic offer, which customers can either accept or decline once it’s shown to them.
For many customers, your offer will be out of their initial budget range or they simply won’t feel the need to spend more money with you.
However, there are also customers who are ready to spend more money with you, but they just don’t find the offer compelling enough or consider it too large of a ‘bump’.
This is exactly where downsells come into play.
Once a customer declines an initial post-purchase offer, you can downsell them on a lower offer that would still be valuable.
For example, a girl selling cookies shows up at your door and asks you for $100s for 5 boxes of cookies. You would likely say “No, I don’t have that much money to spend”.
Then, she says “Okay, but do you want to buy this packet for $1?”. Now you feel obligated to accept her second request after declining the first one.
For example, if your main post-purchase upsell is a “Buy another bundle get 25% off”, you could try setting up a downsell to customers who decline that offer.
Instead of asking them to buy the entire bundle, ask them to simply “Complete their routine” or “Match the Vibe” with another product that makes sense with their initial order.
Fairly easy to set up and very effective at bringing results.
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