Cross Sell vs Upsell: Understand and Implement

Running an online shop and attracting new customers in today’s highly competitive business landscape is both extremely rewarding and challenging. 

To secure repeat business, it’s key to implement strategic sales techniques that will allow you to create lasting customer relationships via an outstanding buyer journey. One of the best ways to significantly enhance the customer experience, increase sales, and boost revenue is by upselling and cross-selling. 

In the following sections, we explore the topic of cross-sell vs upsell, uncovering the benefits and tactics of each technique. 

Cross-Selling: Strategies and Benefits

Cross-selling efforts are a key part of a good marketing strategy, and for good reason.

According to research, successful cross-selling techniques can lead to an increase in sales by 20%. This strategy undoubtedly boosts revenue and provides numerous benefits for the business.

But what exactly is a cross-selling strategy and what are some of the techniques used by companies?

Cross-selling means encouraging customers to purchase additional complementary products to the ones they’ve initially considered buying. 

For example, in the banking sector, a customer could be cross-sold to get a credit card when opening a savings account. In the automotive industry, someone who buys a new car might be cross-sold to purchase vehicle care items, like interior or exterior cleaners. 

Cross-selling doesn’t just allow companies to grow their revenue by stimulating shoppers to spend more. It’s also beneficial for consumers as it helps them discover complementary items that can truly add genuine value to their lives. 

In most cases, companies cross-sell when they:

• Have a new product or service that you want to present to existing customers.
• Have access to customers’ purchase history and are aware of their browsing behaviours.
• Sell products or services that can be naturally paired together. 
• Run special campaigns where they group discounted products or services together.

In the next sections, we’ll closely examine some of the most popular cross-selling tactics and why they are beneficial to companies.

Benefits of Cross-Selling Techniques

Businesses can enjoy a wide array of cross-selling opportunities, which lead to significant advantages.

Via cross-selling, companies can achieve:

• Increased revenue: when you cross-sell products, you ultimately encourage customers to spend more with your brand. This inevitably leads to revenue growth over time, positively impacting your bottom line.
• Exposure to a wider product range: cross-selling offers the ability to direct more customers to your full product range. Rather than seeing buyers shop for the same products, you can popularise other items by cross-selling. This can make shoppers fall in love with your brand, become familiar with all you have to offer, and recommend you to others.
• Growth in average order value (AOV): as customers purchase more products from your brand, the value of your shoppers’ average orders will go up. Instead of spending £50 on a necklace, customers could be spending £150 on a necklace and earrings, increasing their AOV.
• Increased customer satisfaction: successful cross-selling techniques make the customer feel great at the end of the day as they’ve discovered new products and services that they can benefit from. In the long term, this means increased repeat purchases, greater customer loyalty, and higher levels of satisfaction.
• Higher customer lifetime value: naturally, happy customers are likely to stay loyal to your brand longer and most importantly – spend more. This positively impacts your customer’s lifetime value. 

These are just some of the examples of what businesses can gain from cross-selling efforts. The advantages can differ based on your industry, the types of products you sell, and the specific techniques you implement. 

Cross-Selling Techniques to Explore 

If you’re new to setting up cross-sell marketing campaigns, we recommend exploring and implementing the following cross-selling tips for techniques and tactics.

Personalised Suggestions Based on Previous Purchases

One of the most frequently used strategies in cross-selling is to identify related products based on previous purchase history and recommend them. 

The recommendation can take place across different channels, like email marketing, social media marketing, and more. 

Expanding Service Options 

Another cross-selling option to try is offering additional services as part of a purchase. 

For instance, imagine that a consumer is shopping for furniture and has selected the perfect sofa for their living room. The most natural thing to do would be to offer a complementary sofa installation service. You could also think about other opportunities, like an interior design consultation, a service that includes the removal of the old sofa, and more. 

This strategy enables businesses to provide a complete shopping experience, winning the customer’s trust and loyalty. 

Suggested Add-Ons at Checkout

Another popular technique that can encourage impulse buying is in-cart recommendations.

By strategically displaying complementary product recommendations during the checkout process, you can inspire shoppers to spend more just as they’re about to finalise their purchase and leave your online store. 

After-Purchase Offers

Post-checkout offers can also be extremely successful. After the shopper has checked out from your online shop and has completed their payment, you can use pop-up windows or pages to draw them back to your brand. 

For example, a lot of companies do this on their “Thank You” pages, where they offer a complementary product for their next purchase. 

Another common tactic is emailing the shopper with related offers. 

Special Price Reductions

If you’re looking for ways to increase your customer retention, offering special price reductions is a must-try technique.

Create a special discount campaign for customers on complementary products. For example, you can offer a 20% discount on tablet pens for those who have purchased a tablet. 

Combining Products for Value Packages

Last but not least, explore the opportunities that product bundling has to offer. This is a frequently used cross-selling technique that can help you present several items simultaneously in a package. 

You can offer combinations of a main product along with a few complimentary items or a package of several identical items. However, make sure the products are related to one another.

Upselling: Techniques and Advantages

To cover the topic of cross-sell versus upsell thoroughly, it’s now time to move on to the other part of the equation – upselling.

When upselling, businesses entice customers to upgrade to the higher-priced version of the initial purchase that the customer intended to make. To be able to motivate the shopper to make this decision and go for the higher-priced option, they must be persuaded of the additional value and advanced features of the product.

An example of an upsell is when a buyer of an iPhone 15 is encouraged to upgrade to the iPhone 16.

You can upsell when:

• You have launched a new product or service as an upgrade to previous versions.
• You have a loyalty program or a customer retention strategy in place with the aim of incentivising shoppers for repeat purchases
• You are handling a customer question, where the best possible solution is an upsell.
• The shopper has reached your checkout page and is already prepared to spend with your brand.
• Тhe buyer has shown their interest in tiered products or services.

Benefits of Upselling

Just like cross-selling, upselling can provide great value to companies. 

Here are a handful of advantages that businesses can benefit from when upselling:

• Increased sales revenue: upselling means motivating a consumer to invest in a higher-priced item, which directly means higher transaction values and increased sales revenue in the long term. 
• Improved profit margins: in most cases, upselling is associated with providing higher-margin items or upgrades that cost more. This will surely positively change your financial performance by resulting in higher profitability.
• Better customer satisfaction – Upselling can help improve customer satisfaction as it often means demonstrating to customers added value, improved product or service performance, and new features. When personalising the upsell, you can also make customers feel valued and special. 
• Repeat business: if your upselling campaign is successful, you’re bound to witness repeat business from happy customers. By showing that you understand what your shoppers need, you can secure long-term relationships and create loyalty. 
• Competitive advantage: overall, upselling techniques help businesses achieve a competitive edge and outshine others in the market. 

All of these advantages are precisely what makes upselling such a popular strategy in modern marketing practices. 

Upselling Techniques 

When it comes to upselling, you can explore the following tested and proven techniques.

Product Upgrades 

One of the most popular upselling tactics is to promote an upgraded version of an existing product or service. 

In these cases, make sure to accent on the added features, new capabilities, and any technical improvements. 

In-Cart Suggestions 

During the checkout phase of your customer’s journey, you can also offer personalised product recommendations.

For example, if the customer has added a gaming console that you’ve been selling for years but now has a new version, you can use the cart page to recommend upgrading to the most recent version. You can even encourage the customer further by offering a discount for special customers. 

Free Shipping Threshold 

Another way to inspire buyers to spend more on a higher-priced item is by implementing free shipping thresholds. 

For example, offer buyers the opportunity to benefit from free delivery if they spend an extra £50 with your brand. You can combine this technique with product recommendations that allow you to upsell the products that are already in their basket. 

Limited-Time Offers

Yet another powerful opportunity to experiment with is providing limited-time offers and creating a sense of urgency in the mind of the consumer. 

For instance, offer a limited-time discount that ends in one week, encouraging shoppers to purchase the newest version of a product or service. 

Key Differences Between Cross-Selling and Upselling

In a nutshell, both cross-selling and upselling strive to improve the sales process and encourage shoppers to spend more. However, they differ fundamentally from one another. 

Their main differences are summarised in the table below.

	Cross-Selling	Upselling
Business Aim	Motivate customers to buy additional products beyond the original purchase item	Persuade consumers to upgrade their initial purchase to a more expensive and better product
Customer Benefit	Discover a wide range of other complementary products	Find a product with greater added value and advanced features, more suitable to their needs
Financial Goal	Increase customers’ average order value (AOV)	Generate a higher transaction value from the single purchase

Table with differences between cross-selling and upselling. 

Cross-selling aims to motivate the shopper to invest in a complementary product to the one they originally planned to buy. On the other hand, upselling doesn’t always mean recommending more items. Instead, it’s all about inspiring shoppers to purchase the latest, bigger, better, and pricier option of their original purchase. 

While cross-selling enables buyers to become familiar with a wider product range, upselling focuses on a single product with multiple, more premium versions. 

At the end of the day, cross-selling has the end goal of increasing the average order value of customers, while upselling aims to achieve a higher transaction value via a single purchase. 

Can You Combine Both and How

Although cross-selling and upselling differ, they can still be used together as part of a broader product marketing strategy for an increase in brand loyalty, customer retention, revenue, and more.

Businesses that rely on both strategies can deliver comprehensive solutions to their shoppers across product pages, cart pages, emails, and other marketing channels. 

For example, let’s say a shopper is viewing a product on your site. Simultaneously you can display an upsell by recommending a higher-end version of that item, accenting its added features and capabilities.

Meanwhile, you can recommend cross-sell products that are related to their selection.

As a real-life example, imagine that you sell smartphones. The customer is viewing a model from two years ago but you are making a recommendation for an upgraded Pro version that was just released a few months ago. At the same time, you can offer a protective case at a discounted price to cross-sell. 

As a result, the shopper will not only upgrade their product and receive added value but will also have a complementary product that fits perfectly with the main item. 

Similar techniques can be applied throughout the customer journey, whether that is when sending a payment request, in the shopping cart, at checkout, or even after checkout. 

How To Use Technology to Enhance Sales Strategies

As valuable as cross-selling and upselling are for companies, the truth is that implementing these techniques can be time-consuming, challenging, and often – uncertain.

To overcome these obstacles and get maximum results, it’s highly recommended to rely on technology that can help you get access to the data you need and make relevant suggestions to your customers and target audience. 

Some of the most popular solutions that businesses rely on include customer relationship management (CRM) systems, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, data analytics tools like Google Analytics, and others.

Salesforce and HubSpot are examples of CRM solutions which can provide insights into customer data such as their purchase history, preferences, interactions with your online shop, and more. This data allows companies to make adequate product or service recommendations, resulting in satisfied customers. 

AI and machine learning are also popularly used for cross-selling and upselling today. With their advanced capabilities, they can detect customer behaviour patterns and preferences, allowing companies to make predictions and precise recommendations. 

When selecting a technology solution for your sales strategies, make sure it has reliable integration capabilities to ensure that it will work well with your existing systems. 

How To Integrate Cross-Selling and Upselling into Your Sales Funnel

To ensure that your sales technique is bullet-proof, no matter if you’re cross-selling or upselling, you’ll need to consider your sales funnel.

The stages of the funnel for most businesses look like this:

• Awareness; 
• Consideration;
• Decision; 
• Purchase;
• Post-purchase;
• Loyalty and retention.

At each one of these stages, you can use cross-selling and upselling. However, the methods you rely on would differ to target customers at the right time with the right type of content. 

For example, during the awareness stage, your ultimate aim is to educate the consumer about your products or services. Although you may not be able to directly cross-sell or upsell here, you can introduce products or services that go well with one another via blog posts, videos, or email marketing. You can also present the different models or versions of products.

On the other hand, at the decision stage, you can make recommendations when the user reaches their cart. You can explore options to cross-sell at checkout or perhaps display information on tiered pricing plans if this applies to your business.

During the purchase stage, you can aim to make last-minute upsells or offer bundles and add-ons. 

All of these strategies will entirely depend on your specific sales funnel, your target audience, the products and services that you offer, and other factors. 

Conclusion

Overall, the most important thing to remember about the discussion of cross-sell vs upsell is that these two terms aren’t just sales tactics, nor are they mutually exclusive. They’re strategic, powerful, and, at times, even complementary ways to build your brand by encouraging customers to shop more and spend more with you.

When implemented in the right ways, upselling and cross-selling can truly make a difference, positively impacting your revenue, retention rates, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.

Frequently Asked Questions

What industries benefit most from cross-selling and upselling?

Cross-selling and upselling can be effective in nearly every industry, but they’re particularly impactful in eCommerce, retail, hospitality, technology, and subscription-based services, where there are multiple product tiers and complementary goods or services.

Is it better to focus on cross-selling or upselling?

Both strategies can deliver exceptional results, and the decision depends on your products and customer preferences. Cross-selling can be effective when you have a range of complementary products, while upselling is ideal for businesses with different product tiers or premium options.

When should I use cross-selling and upselling?

Cross-selling is most effective when customers are looking to enhance their purchase with additional items. Upselling works best when customers are considering a purchase but may benefit from more advanced features, greater value, or higher quality by upgrading to a better version.