July 06, 2011
The Benefits of Up-Selling for Online Merchants
For online vendors, mastering the technique of up-selling potentially increases shopping cart sales by at least 30%. Recent marketing stats revel that online merchants offering up-sell options increase their chances up to 67% of closing an add-on transaction at the time of purchase or once redirected after the sell has been completed.
Navigating the Uncharted Waters of Up-Selling
While the jargon of up-selling is unfamiliar to some online vendors, virtually everyone that has ever purchased an item or service online has been a target of an up-sell. Consider the theory in real life application each time you place an order at your favorite fast food restaurant. After placing your order, the employee asks if you would like fries or super-size your order for a seemingly good deal. Up-selling is also masqueraded in the disguises of protection services or extended memberships for big ticket purchases.
It’s essential to understand the benefits of up-selling in order to significantly increase shopping cart sales. The basic principle of effective up-selling is offering customers a product related to the items dropped in their shopping cart at a discounted price. Related items are usually bundled together on a screen just prior to the checkout page in hopes of persuading customers to purchase one or more up-sell items at a special price. From a marketing perspective, both customers and merchants benefit from an up-sell.
Effective Up-Selling Techniques
Without a doubt the most effective up-sell technique is offering free product samples or trial service subscription. By offering customers a hands-on experience, they feel more comfortable about their final buying decisions. Providing free samples is also an excellent way to encourage word of mouth marketing to friends and family members. Granting customers a test drive of a product or service can be delivered by providing free samples, quotes, or trial memberships.
Many merchants utilizing a web presence to launch a specific product or service fail to realize the potential profits of up-selling. Others make the attempt to up-sell; however, fall short in their efforts for a variety of reasons. One common misconception that online merchants have is that implementing up-sell features requires extra resources in order to successfully close a deal; however, the truth is that if items have already been placed in a shopping cart, then the only additional resources required is a few minutes of time to upload up-sell items on the storefront.
The reality is that up-selling is a quick and easy concept to apply to e-commerce ventures, yet some online merchants lack the skills to be successful in their up-selling attempts. The most common cause for defeat is a lack of unconvincing sale pitches, combined with aggressive merchants is a guaranteed recipe for a missed opportunity.
Conclusion
Remember to keep it simple when attempting to up-sell. Never offer an add-on that you wouldn’t consider purchasing for yourself. Always keep customers’ needs and interests in mind; by doing so is almost a guarantee to begin raking in the profits from up-sell marketing. Many online merchants soon realize that the benefits of up-selling to existing customers outweigh the resources spent in chasing new sale leads. While not every online merchant is successful, those that reap lucrative profits take full advantage of up-selling!
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