Upselling and Cross-selling Strategies With WooCommerce
Upselling and cross-selling with WooCommerce is a great way to increase your bottom line without creating a lot of extra work for yourself. In fact, you can set up your WooCommerce store to provide upselling and cross-selling options automatically, as your customers browse your eCommerce store.
By leveraging WooCommerce upsell plugins and extensions, you can efficiently present customers with complementary products or premium versions of the items in their cart, thereby increasing the average order value with both new and returning customers.
This comprehensive guide will provide guidance on how to create upselling and cross-selling opportunities within WooCommerce, as well as recommendations for top WooCommerce upsell plugins and extensions.
Discover how to best showcase WooCommerce upsell products and enhance your eCommerce strategy with proven techniques as we cover:
What is upselling and cross-selling?
Upselling and cross-selling are two powerful sales techniques aimed at increasing average order value and overall revenue.
Upselling is the practice of encouraging customers to purchase a more expensive version of the product they are considering. For instance, if a customer is looking at the product page for a basic smartphone, an upsell strategy might suggest a higher-priced model with more features.
Cross-selling, on the other hand, involves suggesting complementary or related products to the customer. For example, if a customer is buying a laptop, a cross-sell strategy might suggest accessories like a laptop bag or an external mouse.
By providing value at the right time in your customer’s journey, you can increase your average order value per customer, which can make a substantial difference in your overall sales performance.
Strategies for upselling in WooCommerce
Implementing effective upsell strategies in WooCommerce involves understanding your customers’ needs and behavior while using the right tools. One of the best ways to do this is by employing a reliable WooCommerce upsell plugin or extension. This will allow you to fine-tune important features like product recommendations, pop-ups, and customized offers.
First, make sure your upsell offers are relevant. If a customer is looking at a mid-range smartphone, suggesting a luxury model may be too big a leap. Instead, suggesting a slightly more expensive model with a few additional features can be the stepping stone to a larger order value.
If you’re suggesting an upgraded version of a product, make sure to clearly lay out the specifics of the additional value it provides. This could be in the form of extended warranties, greater functionality, or better materials.
Whether it’s as the customer is viewing the product details or navigating to the checkout page, when you present your upsell offer is also important to consider. Depending on the plugin or tool you choose, these suggestions can be automated so they appear at the most effective times and alongside the most relevant products.
Using the analytics features provided by your WooCommerce upsell plugin, you can also track which offers are converting and which are not to help you refine your strategies over time.
Strategies for cross-selling in WooCommerce
Cross-selling in WooCommerce is all about suggesting products that complement the items in the customer’s cart. Like upselling, this strategy aims to increase the order value, but it focuses on different, compatible items rather than more expensive versions of the same product.
The first step in creating an effective strategy is identifying the right products to cross-sell. For example, if a customer is buying a camera, suggesting a memory card, camera bag, or tripod as additional items can be very effective. These items are essential for the primary product’s optimal use, and customers are likely to appreciate these recommendations.
Many plugins allow you to set up related product recommendations that appear on the product page, in the cart, or during the checkout process. These recommendations can even be automated based on customer behavior and purchase history, making the process more efficient.
Additionally, you can bundle products together at a slight discount. For example, offering a camera with a bundle that includes a bag and memory card at a reduced price can make the offer more enticing to users who would otherwise skip the add-ons. This method enhances customer satisfaction by providing them with a valuable offer.
Just like upselling, you can use the analytics provided by your WooCommerce plugin to track the effectiveness of your cross-sell strategies and adjust your tactics accordingly.
Thanks to the variety of plugins and extensions available, WooCommerce makes it easy to set up related products, upsells, and cross-sells for your store.
While the default WooCommerce settings also allow for a basic level of customization regarding your related products, a plugin can drastically increase the functional control you’ll have over the appearance and timing of your offers.
The exact setup process for setting up related products in WooCommerce will depend on which, if any, of the available plugins and extensions you choose to use.
Generally, users can group products together by navigating to the Product Data section, selecting Linked Products from the dropdown, and adding products to the most relevant product group.
If you choose a WooCommerce plugin that offers enhanced functionality for managing related products, upsells, and cross-sells, you’ll want to follow the process outlined in that plugin’s support documentation.
To set up related products using the default WooCommerce settings, follow these steps:
- Log into your WordPress dashboard.
- Select Products > All Products.
- Scroll to the Product Data section beneath the main editing area, and click on the Linked Products tab.
- Enter your related products’ names into either the cross-selling or upselling fields.
- Once you’re done adding products, scroll back up and click on the Preview Changes button in the Publish widget.
- If you’re happy with the results, close the preview and select the Update button in the Publish widget.
That’s it! Once you’ve saved your changes, your upselling and cross-selling offers will be visible to everyone on your site.
Best WooCommerce upsell plugins and extensions
There are plenty of plugins to choose from in the WordPress Plugin Directory and more than a dozen WooCommerce-approved extensions available as well. It’s important to thoroughly research your options before choosing a plugin that will work best for your specific needs.
Features to look for in an upsell plugin
When choosing an upsell or cross-sell plugin for WooCommerce, these are the most important aspects to consider:
- Ease of integration: The plugin should integrate seamlessly with WooCommerce and maintain compatibility with your theme, the payment gateways you use, and any major plugins you rely on.
- Customizability: You should have the ability to customize the appearance and placement of upsell and cross-sell offers.
- User interface: The tool’s interface should be user-friendly and intuitive for even users with minimal coding experience.
- Automation and personalization: Some tools make upselling easier by including automated recommendations based on customer behavior, purchase history, or browsing patterns, allowing for more personalized user experiences.
- Analytics and reporting: Plugins with detailed analytics can help track the performance of your upsell and cross-sell campaigns.
- A/B testing: Built-in testing capabilities will allow you to compare different offers and determine the most effective ones as you tinker with various placements, designs, and strategies.
- Support and documentation: Any plugin you choose should be backed by reliable customer support to assist with any issues or questions as well as comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and guides.
- Security: The plugin should adhere to both WooCommerce’s and WordPress’ security standards and show a history of regular updates.
- Additional features: During your search, look for tools that integrate with the email marketing tools you use for follow-up campaigns. International stores should also look for tools that support multiple languages and currencies.
Cart Upsell for WooCommerce
The Cart Upsell for WooCommerce extension allows you to display simple product upsells on the cart page based on customizable conditions. Conditions can relate to products, categories, or cart totals and upsells are shown by default, even if no conditions are selected.
The extension is fully customizable, allowing users to set product titles, images, and colors for each upsell. It’s also an affordable option at just $29 per year.
One-Click Upsell Funnel for WooCommerce
The One-Click Upsell Funnel for WooCommerce plugin enables merchants with the ability to create post-purchase upsell and cross-sell offers that customers can add with a single click, bypassing the need to re-enter payment details. The plugin supports advanced designs with Divi Theme and Elementor Page Builder.
Key features of the free version include the ability to create upsell and order bump offers directly from funnel lists, display pop-ups on upsell pages when customers try to exit the browser, create unlimited sales funnels, set shipping prices for cash-on-delivery upsell offers, show one-time offers based on order email to boost conversion rates, test and customize upsell funnels before going live, streamline the checkout process with one-click upsells, and more.
Product Recommendations
Made by Woo for Woo, this extension is slightly more expensive than the others on the list ($99/year) because it allows sellers to leverage the power of smart product recommendations through intelligent, automated engines that generate accurate recommendations using a lightweight search algorithm.
The system analyzes orders, adapts to new trends, and detects seasonal patterns, allowing for quick and efficient recommendations, including upsells and cross sells like Frequently Bought Together item bundles. Store owners can easily add upsells and cross-sells across their entire catalog, bulk create recommendations using category, attribute, tag, or price filters, and use amplifiers to boost specific results based on popularity, rating, creation date, conversion rate, or other criteria.
UpsellWP
This plugin allows you to create one-click upsell offers and present special offers on the checkout page, and it’s compatible with WooCommerce Cart and Checkout blocks, WPML, LocoTranslate, Discount Rules for WooCommerce, and most modern themes and configurations.
The Free version of UpsellWP includes several upsell features, including the ability to display upsells on checkout or cart pages, bundle frequently bought together items, generate and display unique coupons after a purchase is made, set conditional upsell offers, schedule campaigns and offers, and customize the headings, backgrounds, text, calls to action, and placement of these offers. And, with the inherent reporting and analytics capabilities, you can make data-driven decisions to drive higher conversions over time.
WooCommerce Checkout Add-Ons
The WooCommerce Checkout Add-Ons extension allows you to offer free or paid add-ons and services at checkout. This can look like additional fields for accepting tips, offering shipping insurance or rush handling, offering gift wrap and message options, or adding fields for upsells.
With various field types, you can customize your checkout page to meet your needs. The paid extension is billed annually at $79, and it’s easy to get started by simply downloading and installing it into your WooCommerce store.
Upsell effectively using WooCommerce and WP Engine
Leveraging cross-selling and upselling strategies through WooCommerce can significantly enhance your revenue potential and customer satisfaction. By integrating these techniques within the shopping experience, you can effectively recommend complementary or premium products and create personalized suggestions based on customer behavior and previous purchases.
To keep your store as fast and responsive as possible, make sure you’re using high-quality hosting for your WooCommerce store with a reliable provider like WP Engine!
