Upsell, cross-sell, downsell.
Monday, March 16th, 2009These terms used to have a positive association for me. But lately, they seem to imply pop-ups and annoying alerts and other things that get in the way. If you are so interested in increasing order size, then try offering supplemental products that are actually relevant and actually useful to your buyer. There is an integrity issue at play here, and I guess it is sort of transparent, but I never try to sell something to my prospective buyers that is something that I would not be interested in buying for myself. Sure, you can say that it is a disservice not to show them something that might benefit them (even if it is outside the realm of what I would want) but some websites have taken it to the point of ridiculous and obtrusive and I know for a fact that they are turning away customers. How do I know, because my wife tried to buy something online and was completely repelled and put-off by the upselling that was attempted. A word to the wise, back-off trying to get people’s money, and being greedy, and get back to serving the customer. In that way, you stand to be profitable, gain loyalty, and product momentum.