What’s the Difference Between Cross-selling and Upselling?

Cross-selling and upselling are two strategies for increasing sales or order amounts in your ecommerce store. Cross-selling and upselling have similar end goals, but get to that goal differently. Cross-selling involves selling products related to another product in your store, whereas upselling is selling someone an upgraded and higher-priced product. 

Both cross-selling and upselling will ideally increase the average order value (AOV) of your online store. That’s the average amount customers spend per order. A higher AOV generally means higher revenue and profits for your business.

What is cross-selling?

Cross-selling strategies involve encouraging customers to buy additional products related to one they already own or have in their shopping cart. The goal is to suggest complementary products and increase the number of things a customer buys from you at one time.

For example, if a customer is buying a candle from your store, you could cross-sell them a similar scent or a box of branded matches. This works for digital products too. Say you’re a fitness instructor who offers weight training and cardio coaching. You can cross-sell a PDF of cardio exercises to someone buying your weight training video class series.

What is upselling?

Upselling is a strategy where you suggest a higher-priced item that’s a premium version of what they’re currently viewing. The goal is to increase the amount buyers spend on one product.

In the candle example above, upselling might involve suggesting a larger version of the candle a customer is viewing. For a fitness instructor, this could look like promoting one-on-one personal training or live group classes to students who have only bought your video packs or PDF guides.

Cross-selling vs. upselling

Both cross-selling and upselling are techniques for increasing your sales and revenue. The key difference between cross-selling and upselling is that cross-selling focuses on selling more items per order and upselling targets selling a more premium version of one product.

You can use both cross-selling and upselling in your online store and can even do both at the same time. For example, if you run a jewelry shop, you suggest a matching ring for the necklace someone is looking at (cross-selling), then offer them the option to upgrade to a higher-quality metal or add custom engraving (upselling). 

When to cross-sell vs. upsell

When you cross-sell or upsell depends on your current ecommerce goals and the products you offer. Think about the products you offer and what makes sense for each one. Not every product will have an upgraded option you can upsell, for example. 

Keep the customer experience in mind when using either strategy. While the end goal of cross-selling and upselling is to boost your sales and revenue, your suggestions should feel beneficial to your customers. 

When cross-selling, choose to suggest products that are truly complementary to the one your customer is viewing. That could be a similar type of product, a similar style, or items that you often see bought together. With upselling, make sure the higher-priced option truly offers higher value and that that value is clear to your customer.  

How to use cross-selling and upselling 

Setting up cross-selling and upselling techniques for your ecommerce business is relatively straightforward. There are two main places where you’ll likely want to use these strategies: on your store page and via your email list.

To set up upselling and cross-selling for your online store:

1. Ensure you’ve added several products to your shop.

2. Edit a product in your store.

3. For products with upsell opportunities, add variants to the product page to show every upgraded option. 

4. Include the benefits of upgraded options in your product description.

5. Add category tags to products you want to cross-sell with each other.

6. Edit each of those products in your store.

7. Allow display of related products on each of those product pages and at checkout.

To bring upselling and cross-selling into your email marketing:

1. Set up a business email and email automations for your business.

2. Create an email cross-selling items related to a specific product in your store.

3. Set up the email to automatically send out every time someone buys that product.

4. Create an email promoting upgrades to an existing product in your store. 

5. Send that email to customers who bought the original product.

There are several different ways to apply this technique. Instead of setting up automated emails for cross-selling, you could send an email to your entire mailing list promoting a set of products together at a slight discount. 

As you test different methods, pay attention to what works best for you and your customers. Every store is unique. Over time, you’ll notice patterns that can make your promotions and suggestions more successful.

Read more tips for converting ecommerce shoppers