Benefits of cross-selling and up-selling for your business!
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 5:11 am
Have you ever heard of cross-selling and up-selling ? These are sales strategies used by companies to make more sales to the same customer. The goal is to bring more value to the consumer and optimize their experience, while also giving the business the opportunity to sell more.
Using these two strategies can bring very interesting benefits to your business, such as customer loyalty and reducing the cost of attracting more customers. Therefore, it is interesting to learn about these techniques so that you can explore their full potential.
We created this post to introduce you to the definition of cross-sell and up-sell, as well as to show you the benefits they bring to companies and how you can adopt them in your business, even if it is small. Keep reading!
What is cross-selling?
You know when you’re looking at a product on an e-commerce why choose japan cell phone list site and something like: “You might also like…” or “People who bought this product also bought…” appears at the bottom of the screen? These messages are part of a cross-selling strategy.
Cross-selling is a cross-selling strategy to offer complementary products to the one you have purchased or are purchasing. These related items bring more value to the consumer and bring them closer to their goals.
Therefore, all products offered must make sense for the customer's reality and needs. Typically, the second product offered costs less than the first item purchased.
Let's take an example to make the concept of cross-selling clearer. Let's say you're on Amazon's website buying a Kindle. The website suggests some covers for your device, and you add the one you like the most to your cart. Here, the company is putting cross-selling into practice.
What is up-selling?
Up-selling is a sales strategy that encourages a customer to buy a new, more expensive version of a product. Premium options for an app are an example. Like cross-selling, up-selling aims to offer a better product to meet the customer's needs.
Let’s continue with the Kindle example to clarify what upselling is. Let’s assume you have an older, cheaper, non-light version of the device. You bought that product from Amazon a year ago.
Then, the store sends you an email with some special offers, and among them is a more modern version with lights. You decide to add it to your cart and buy it. That's it, the company has completed an up-sell!
It may also happen that you went to the website to buy the cheapest and simplest version of the Kindle, but ended up buying the most modern and expensive one, based on a suggestion from the website . This also fits into the notion of up-selling.
There is another way to apply this sales technique . When you are in line at a snack bar choosing your order and you buy a portion of fries, the attendant may suggest that, for a few more reais, you can get the portion of fries with cheese, for example.
This is a way to increase the customer's ticket , even if it doesn't weigh too heavily on their pocket, but still generates a little more profit. The person feels like they came out on top because their order was one or two reais more expensive, but they are getting a better option than the one they had selected.
What are the benefits of up-selling and cross-selling?
Now that you know what cross-sell and up-sell strategies are, let's look at some of the benefits they can bring to your business. Check it out!
1. Customer loyalty
As we have seen, the goal of both cross-selling and up-selling is to optimize the customer experience by offering the best solutions for their needs and goals. This increases consumer satisfaction with your brand.
Furthermore, when you offer items that make sense to your customers, they will start to trust your brand more. This is because they will have the perception that your business understands what they need, has the solutions they are looking for and pays attention to what they want.
Therefore, it is the best alternative for their problems or desires, and this makes them loyal. This differentiated service, with a positive experience, helps to strengthen your customer's relationship with your brand.
2. Reduced costs in customer acquisition
Acquiring a new customer is much more expensive for a company than selling to an existing customer. To attract more customers, you need to develop a strategy that reaches the right people by promoting your business on the best channels.
You need to invest in marketing and allocate time and resources to attract the attention of other customers. After that, your team needs to do all the relationship building work to keep these people around until they are converted and make a purchase.
It's true that all of this is important for you to serve an ever-growing audience. However, if you can generate a higher income from the customers you've already won over, even better.
Since cross-selling and up-selling involve selling to those who are already buying from you, these are strategies that help reduce your costs. It is often possible to configure your store so that it automatically makes offers that may be more attractive to your customer and generate a higher ticket. Therefore, there is no need to make more investments for each new customer. You already have all the resources configured to sell more.
3. Customer knowledge
For cross-selling and up-selling to work, you need to know your customer. Therefore, you need to create a database, mapping their preferences and needs. This information is valuable and can be used for other efficient strategies for your business, bringing better results.
Furthermore, knowing your customer better helps you develop new products to meet consumer desires. This increases your chances of selling, because these new products are created based on real customer demand.
4. Increased revenue
As you can see, although cross-selling and up-selling offer more interesting and advantageous product suggestions for your customer, in reality, your business ends up winning. Especially because with these sales strategies we can increase the customer's average ticket.
If he buys one of the products suggested by the website, he will be spending a higher amount . The same if he chooses a premium version of a certain service, or if he buys the cheese on the fries, remember?
Even if it’s a small difference in the total order value, your business will be earning more than it otherwise would. And if we consider that other customers may also have this behavior, in the end, it will be a good profit .
5. Increase in the volume of direct referrals
Recommendations are a great way to attract new customers without spending anything extra. It’s no wonder that they ’re one of companies’ customer acquisition strategies . To make this happen, they invest in customer experience.
Remember when we explained that cross-sell and up-sell techniques can give your customer a better shopping experience and receive better service ? All of this makes them satisfied with the services offered and, therefore, recommend them to others.
When you take care of your old customers you are also automatically attracting more people, as it is a consequence of the first actions.
Cross-selling and up-selling create enchantment and increase customer confidence in your brand, making it more credible due to its differentiating features. Therefore, there is also an increase in the volume of direct referrals due to the quality of the services provided.
6. Churn prevention
Churn is a rate that indicates the number of lost customers, that is, those who were canceled from your base and stopped opting for the products or services that your business offers.
Losing customers along the way is natural, especially for companies that provide services. However, by applying cross-sell and up-sell techniques, we can offer something different to the public, preventing old customers from being lost.
You may have heard of someone who tried to cancel a mobile phone package, for example, and ended up negotiating with the company and continuing to use its service. Cross-selling and up-selling techniques are often used to do this.
The company updates the service package to provide something extra for the customer at a price that is attractive to them. However, many companies also anticipate events like this. The team itself contacts customers to make new offers, in order to provide greater benefits and maintain the interest of these customers to remain loyal.
7. Greater added value for the customer
Another benefit of applying cross-sell and up-sell is that you can increase the added value for the customer. Here we are not talking about price, but rather the experience that this person had during the purchasing journey and in the relationship with your business.
When you make a complementary product available at a lower price, for example, the customer feels like they are receiving a discount, taking advantage of a promotion and, as mentioned, this makes them satisfied.
At the same time, you solve other problems that this person might have and that they hadn't thought about yet, which also helps to increase their satisfaction.
Generating value today is a very important differentiator for the public to feel that they find more advantages in your business. Thus, they tend to give preference to your solutions instead of going to the competition.
8. Stock turnover
Did you know that with cross-selling and up-selling we can also maintain good stock turnover? Let's take a clothing store as an example. Let's say that some items are already discontinued to be added to a new collection, so we need to sell off that stock to bring in the new items.
Using the cross-selling technique, you can suggest parts that need to be removed from stock, offering them to the customer at a lower price . Using the up-selling technique, you can suggest kits that contain at least one of the products that you need to be removed from your stock.
Using these two strategies can bring very interesting benefits to your business, such as customer loyalty and reducing the cost of attracting more customers. Therefore, it is interesting to learn about these techniques so that you can explore their full potential.
We created this post to introduce you to the definition of cross-sell and up-sell, as well as to show you the benefits they bring to companies and how you can adopt them in your business, even if it is small. Keep reading!
What is cross-selling?
You know when you’re looking at a product on an e-commerce why choose japan cell phone list site and something like: “You might also like…” or “People who bought this product also bought…” appears at the bottom of the screen? These messages are part of a cross-selling strategy.
Cross-selling is a cross-selling strategy to offer complementary products to the one you have purchased or are purchasing. These related items bring more value to the consumer and bring them closer to their goals.
Therefore, all products offered must make sense for the customer's reality and needs. Typically, the second product offered costs less than the first item purchased.
Let's take an example to make the concept of cross-selling clearer. Let's say you're on Amazon's website buying a Kindle. The website suggests some covers for your device, and you add the one you like the most to your cart. Here, the company is putting cross-selling into practice.
What is up-selling?
Up-selling is a sales strategy that encourages a customer to buy a new, more expensive version of a product. Premium options for an app are an example. Like cross-selling, up-selling aims to offer a better product to meet the customer's needs.
Let’s continue with the Kindle example to clarify what upselling is. Let’s assume you have an older, cheaper, non-light version of the device. You bought that product from Amazon a year ago.
Then, the store sends you an email with some special offers, and among them is a more modern version with lights. You decide to add it to your cart and buy it. That's it, the company has completed an up-sell!
It may also happen that you went to the website to buy the cheapest and simplest version of the Kindle, but ended up buying the most modern and expensive one, based on a suggestion from the website . This also fits into the notion of up-selling.
There is another way to apply this sales technique . When you are in line at a snack bar choosing your order and you buy a portion of fries, the attendant may suggest that, for a few more reais, you can get the portion of fries with cheese, for example.
This is a way to increase the customer's ticket , even if it doesn't weigh too heavily on their pocket, but still generates a little more profit. The person feels like they came out on top because their order was one or two reais more expensive, but they are getting a better option than the one they had selected.
What are the benefits of up-selling and cross-selling?
Now that you know what cross-sell and up-sell strategies are, let's look at some of the benefits they can bring to your business. Check it out!
1. Customer loyalty
As we have seen, the goal of both cross-selling and up-selling is to optimize the customer experience by offering the best solutions for their needs and goals. This increases consumer satisfaction with your brand.
Furthermore, when you offer items that make sense to your customers, they will start to trust your brand more. This is because they will have the perception that your business understands what they need, has the solutions they are looking for and pays attention to what they want.
Therefore, it is the best alternative for their problems or desires, and this makes them loyal. This differentiated service, with a positive experience, helps to strengthen your customer's relationship with your brand.
2. Reduced costs in customer acquisition
Acquiring a new customer is much more expensive for a company than selling to an existing customer. To attract more customers, you need to develop a strategy that reaches the right people by promoting your business on the best channels.
You need to invest in marketing and allocate time and resources to attract the attention of other customers. After that, your team needs to do all the relationship building work to keep these people around until they are converted and make a purchase.
It's true that all of this is important for you to serve an ever-growing audience. However, if you can generate a higher income from the customers you've already won over, even better.
Since cross-selling and up-selling involve selling to those who are already buying from you, these are strategies that help reduce your costs. It is often possible to configure your store so that it automatically makes offers that may be more attractive to your customer and generate a higher ticket. Therefore, there is no need to make more investments for each new customer. You already have all the resources configured to sell more.
3. Customer knowledge
For cross-selling and up-selling to work, you need to know your customer. Therefore, you need to create a database, mapping their preferences and needs. This information is valuable and can be used for other efficient strategies for your business, bringing better results.
Furthermore, knowing your customer better helps you develop new products to meet consumer desires. This increases your chances of selling, because these new products are created based on real customer demand.
4. Increased revenue
As you can see, although cross-selling and up-selling offer more interesting and advantageous product suggestions for your customer, in reality, your business ends up winning. Especially because with these sales strategies we can increase the customer's average ticket.
If he buys one of the products suggested by the website, he will be spending a higher amount . The same if he chooses a premium version of a certain service, or if he buys the cheese on the fries, remember?
Even if it’s a small difference in the total order value, your business will be earning more than it otherwise would. And if we consider that other customers may also have this behavior, in the end, it will be a good profit .
5. Increase in the volume of direct referrals
Recommendations are a great way to attract new customers without spending anything extra. It’s no wonder that they ’re one of companies’ customer acquisition strategies . To make this happen, they invest in customer experience.
Remember when we explained that cross-sell and up-sell techniques can give your customer a better shopping experience and receive better service ? All of this makes them satisfied with the services offered and, therefore, recommend them to others.
When you take care of your old customers you are also automatically attracting more people, as it is a consequence of the first actions.
Cross-selling and up-selling create enchantment and increase customer confidence in your brand, making it more credible due to its differentiating features. Therefore, there is also an increase in the volume of direct referrals due to the quality of the services provided.
6. Churn prevention
Churn is a rate that indicates the number of lost customers, that is, those who were canceled from your base and stopped opting for the products or services that your business offers.
Losing customers along the way is natural, especially for companies that provide services. However, by applying cross-sell and up-sell techniques, we can offer something different to the public, preventing old customers from being lost.
You may have heard of someone who tried to cancel a mobile phone package, for example, and ended up negotiating with the company and continuing to use its service. Cross-selling and up-selling techniques are often used to do this.
The company updates the service package to provide something extra for the customer at a price that is attractive to them. However, many companies also anticipate events like this. The team itself contacts customers to make new offers, in order to provide greater benefits and maintain the interest of these customers to remain loyal.
7. Greater added value for the customer
Another benefit of applying cross-sell and up-sell is that you can increase the added value for the customer. Here we are not talking about price, but rather the experience that this person had during the purchasing journey and in the relationship with your business.
When you make a complementary product available at a lower price, for example, the customer feels like they are receiving a discount, taking advantage of a promotion and, as mentioned, this makes them satisfied.
At the same time, you solve other problems that this person might have and that they hadn't thought about yet, which also helps to increase their satisfaction.
Generating value today is a very important differentiator for the public to feel that they find more advantages in your business. Thus, they tend to give preference to your solutions instead of going to the competition.
8. Stock turnover
Did you know that with cross-selling and up-selling we can also maintain good stock turnover? Let's take a clothing store as an example. Let's say that some items are already discontinued to be added to a new collection, so we need to sell off that stock to bring in the new items.
Using the cross-selling technique, you can suggest parts that need to be removed from stock, offering them to the customer at a lower price . Using the up-selling technique, you can suggest kits that contain at least one of the products that you need to be removed from your stock.