How To Add Upsells That Actually Work To Your Shopify Store

Are you thinking of adding upsells to your Shopify store? You’ve come to the right place!

Many ecommerce sellers have heard of the term “upsell”, but think that upsells are just a sales gimmick. They couldn’t be more wrong! Upsells are actually an essential internet marketing tool used by businesses to boost their sales conversions. But why do you need to know how to add upsells to your Shopify store? Because the sooner you start setting them up the sooner you will be able to convert more customers into buyers!

First, let’s take a look at what an upsell actually is. An upsell is a purchase that you make after buying a product, which increases the average value of your order. That could mean ordering the same product in a different color, an upgraded version of the product, adding accessories, or really anything else related to the initial purchase.

A simple example would be: Going online to buy a laptop and at some point before or during the checkout process, you’re asked if you would like to either buy a more expensive laptop with more storage space, purchase virus protection software, or buy a printer that works with your computer. All of those things were either upgrades, or added products that enhance the original product.

Now that it’s clear what an upsell is, let’s take a look at how to add upsells to your Shopify store.

Be Data Driven!

Choose what you try to upsell carefully! Collect data about which of the products you offer are most likely to lead to an upsell. We recommend starting with some simple google searches to do this research, but if you have time to spare, start adding upsells to each of your products, and then over a 1-3 month period, collect data about which products paired with the main product being sold, convert to upsells.

Plant Seeds Early

A marketing strategy many companies use is planting seeds early. What we mean is showing the item you’re adding as an upsell in different places while your customers check out different pages of your website. Let’s keep with our laptop example to explain.

When your potential customer types in the search bar “laptop”, of course show all your laptops, but also, in the first few results, show virus protection software, printers, and laptop cases as well. Only show a few of these (3-5 options) because you want it to be obvious to the user that there are plenty of laptop options to choose from as well.

Another way to plant seeds early, is on the homepage. If you’re featuring a specific product, show items or upgrades to that product as well. If you advertise a laptop on the homepage of your store, also show virus protection software, laptop cases, printers, etc. Are you getting it now?

Using strategies such as these gets users used to seeing those products together and they won’t help but associate the products with one another at checkout!

Prices Matter!

Don’t try to add an upsell that increases the overall total of the sale by more than 25%. The smaller the better! A good range to shoot for when adding upsells, are products or upgrades that lead to about a 10%-15% increase. This is more palatable for most buyers and they won’t be as easily disturbed as they would a more expensive upsell.

If we continue using the laptop example, maybe a printer isn’t a good upsell because it will likely cost more than 25% of the original product (depending on the laptop and computer of course). A laptop case or virus protection software however, are still great examples of easy upsells you could add.

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Add Free or Discounted Gifts or Samples

Free or discounted gifts and samples are two more ways to add upsells. Free gifts obviously won’t increase your overall sale….or will it? Well, it won’t right away. But, in the long run, free gifts often lead to customers purchasing the gift they received for free.

If you’re not ready to go down the free path, then discounted samples still work. This is frequently used in combination with products that consumers need to frequently repurchase. Examples of this could be makeup or protein bars. Many makeup companies will offer discounted samples of high-end products to get in the door of someone on the fence of purchasing the more luxurious makeup product. The same is true with companies selling protein products. Because consumers aren’t sure they’ll like a certain flavor, businesses will sell discounted samples for consumers to try it out.

Discounted samples won’t add much to the overall sale, but little by little it WILL add up. On top of an immediate increase in overall sales (even if it’s small), you will see a bigger increase in sales in the long run.

Use HypeCart

If adding upsells to your Shopify store sounds like a lot of work, HypeCart has got your back! Here at HypeCart, we make it easy to add upsells to your checkout process. We will also help you determine the best products that will be the best upsells for your business. Start your free trial today to see what a difference HypeCart can make!

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