Top 10 Upselling Techniques to Generate More Revenue in 2025

Are you looking for upselling techniques that help increase your store's revenue?

According to Forentrepreneur, businesses that upsell drive 70-95% of their revenue from upsells and renewals.

And when Amazon implemented upselling, revenues went up by a massive 35%.

That’s the power of upselling. It works like magic in increasing revenue.

However, just offering any upsell without a proper strategy or giving it any thought will not bring in the results.

You need to use the right techniques effectively when upselling to achieve your desired revenue. 

But how should you offer to upsell on your eCommerce store?

This is exactly what you will learn in this blog post. Here we will talk about the 10 upselling techniques that work like a charm to bring in revenue by increasing average order value.

What is Upselling?

Upselling is a sales technique aimed at persuading customers to purchase additional or more expensive products. You can offer upsells such as: 

• A more expensive version of the item
• Related upgrades that enhance the purchase
• Other add-ons for the purpose of making a larger sale

The simple idea behind upselling is to stretch your prospects’ expenditure.

If they came to spend, let’s say $10 on your business, how can you make them spend $20 or $50 or even $100?

The best part about upselling is that it generates revenue that you don’t have to work for.

Upselling and cross-selling are similar and have the same aim of increasing order value. But they are different; cross-sale mainly focuses on selling any related products, whereas upselling mainly focuses on selling high-end relevant products to boost the order value.

McDonald’s Upsell Technique: The Business That Made Upselling Popular

A regular burger at McDonald’s costs about $2.

Ever thought about what makes it that cheap?

It's not that they don't have expenses.

They pay for staff, machines, electricity, rent, overheads, etc., then how come they're not declaring losses?

In fact, at the end of the first quarter of 2023, the company said net income rose to $14.546 billion.

How do they do this?

They've mastered the art of upselling and cross-selling.

They use low-dollar burgers to bring visitors into their outlet.

And once at the checkout, the user is cross-sold fries and drinks, up-sold a bigger, juicier burger, or even upgraded to a happy meal box.

What makes McDonald’s profitable is their systematic approach to upselling and cross-selling.

It brings in additional revenue at relatively low costs and effort.

It's what keeps McDonald’s in business.

More importantly, It’s a win-win strategy because doesn’t the burger always taste better with fries and a drink?

Interestingly lower the upfront costs, the healthier the sales report!

Here’s the proof:

McDonald's introduced a $1, $2, and $3 menu in their outlets.

A number of franchisees raised red flags, saying they expected the Dollar Menu and related promotions to lower the AOV.

On the contrary, people who used the dollar menu checked out with a higher cart value than those who didn’t!

Can you believe that?

After lowering their initial prices, they made more profits. It’s because people approached the menu with the notion of ‘affordability’ and bought more stuff.

That’s the power of upselling done right.

Now let’s have a look at some of the powerful upselling techniques.

10 Upselling Techniques That Will Work for Any E-Commerce Store

Irrespective of the products or services you sell, upselling can be a blessing for you when used in the right way. Here are some of the must-try upselling techniques

1. Offer an Upgrade or Premium Version 

Offering an upgrade and premium version is the classic way of upselling. Customers always want the best value for their money, and when you offer them something better, they are most likely to consider it as it will give them better value. 

Imagine considering the Apple iMac.

Maybe you want to do some high-end work on it. Run some memory-intensive editing software like Final Cut Pro/ Photoshop, Garage-band, etc.

You want it to be fast, serve all your needs and provide a great experience.

Apple knows that and that’s why it offers you the option to get a better and more powerful version of the computer:

You can shell out $250 extra to upgrade the configuration to Intel i7 and also, upgrade the RAM.

The customers who’ll agree to the upgrades can end up paying $3850. That’s a straight $850 lift in AOV.

2. Offer Bundles

The fundamental psychology behind bundling is to show a prospect the importance of buying a complete set over an individual item. This works like a charm as an online upsell.

Here's how Best Buy shows the option to build a bundle on the product page:

When you click on ‘Build a Bundle,’ it allows you to add a bunch of extras to your cart:

Notice how the AOV goes up from $199 to $254!

It allows you to add up to 10 items like this:

Notice the AOV has increased from $199 to $254.

3. Offer Free Shipping

According to research, 47% of online shoppers do not like to pay for free shipping. The upselling technique of offering free shipping with your upsell is a strong motivator for users to buy your offer. 

Check out this perfect example! If you add just $25 more to your shopping cart, you'll get free shipping, and they're also offering a product at a similar price. It's such a great deal that most people would probably say yes to this upsell offer.

4. Always Be Transparent About the Price

When you're upselling to a customer, remember to be super clear about the pricing. Give them all the details, and break down the product features of the different options they can choose from. 

This way, they'll know exactly what they're getting. Being open and honest builds trust and makes your customers feel more comfortable with their choices.

The pricing page by WPForms is a great example, as it clearly illustrates what each package has to offer and how users can get more features by spending a little more.

5. Show social proof

One of the effective ways of showing social proof on an eCommerce website is to show how many people have bought the item before you. You can use this same upselling technique by introducing a section called “frequently bought together.”

Look at this example by Amazon. Right after a user adds an item to their cart, it shows all other products people bought along with the particular item. This works as social proof, silently saying these products are worth buying together.

6. Offer a discount on the upsell product 

According to research, 80% said they would buy new brands if it offered them a discount. You can cash in on this buyer's psychology to increase your upsell sales by offering some amount of discount on the upsell product. 

Check out this awesome example from Speedo! They're offering a secret discount on an upsell using a pop-up. You won't know the exact discount until you add it to your cart, adding excitement and curiosity. This curiosity will make users add the product to their carts.

7. Maintain a maximum price margin

According to Bitcatcha, upsells should be at most 40% more than the item customers are already considering or purchasing. In fact, Retail Doctor advises an even lower figure, proposing that the upsell should not surpass an additional 25%.

So make sure to set a maximum limit on the price difference for the upsell, ensuring it remains attractive and reasonable for customers.

Look at this upselling example by Dollar Shave Club. This is one of the best upselling examples when it comes to putting a limit on the price. 

Here the base purchase is $18.90. Considering the base amount, the upsell pricing is extremely low, making it hard for users to say no.

8.  Use the Rule of Three

People tend to respond better when they are given options, and that’s what makes the “rule of three” one of the most effective upselling techniques. Using this technique, you empower users with multiple options, allowing them to decide what they want and feel in control easily. At the same time, you can arrange the options keeping the profit margins in mind.

Have a look at the example by MailChip. Here, they offer three options along with the price and value users will receive for that price.

9.  Post-purchase upsell

Though product or pricing pages are common places for upsell offers, they aren't the only ones. You can seize opportunities to upsell even after customers have made their purchase using a one click upsell. 

Post-purchase upsell, or one-click upsells are one-time special offers that you show to the customers right after they’ve submitted their credit card details for the main purchase, but before they’re shown on the “thank you” page. This is one of the best upselling techniques. 

Have a look at this example. Here they are offering the upsell right after purchase. It clearly mentions the price making it easier for the user to make a decision. Also, it ensures user experience by giving users an option to decline the offer with a clear CTA. 

Note: you can present multiple one-click upsells to your customers. For more details, read our blog “How To Set Up Multiple One-Click Upsells On A Single Offer.”

10. Upsell via Email

Approximately 75% of consumers state that they thoroughly search through their inboxes specifically to find relevant discounts. That’s you shouldn’t ignore the power of upselling. You can use email as an upselling technique by offering them upsell in an order confirmation email, purchase anniversary email, post-purchase email, and so on. 

Notice this upsell email by Lowellita. They are offering the latest release as upsell in their post-purchase emails. The idea should be to offer relevant products as upsell in your email. This upselling technique works because if the user is happy with their previous purchase, they are highly likely to buy again.

This was all about the effective upselling techniques you can use on your online store. 

How to Upsell in WordPress Using FunnelKit?

If you have a WordPress-based online store, then you can easily offer upsells on your site using FunnelKit.

FunnelKit Funnel Builder is a sales plugin that is dedicatedly designed to improve the AOV of your online store. This WooCommerce plugin is totally compatible with popular page builders such as  Elementor, Divi, Bricks, Gutenberg, Oxygen, etc. For other page builders, you can use a shortcode. 

You can offer upsell using all the upselling techniques we discussed using this one plugin. 

FunnelKit offers multiple templates you can import and use to offer upsell on your WooCommerce store. Moreover, you can A/B test your upsell offer as well. 

In case someone rejects your upsell offer, you can offer a down-sell. A down-sell offer is the one that you make to your customers after they’ve turned down your initial upsell offer. Learn How to Set Up Post-Purchase Downsells Using FunnelKit.

Ready to Boost AOV with Effective Upselling Techniques Using FunnelKit Funnel Builder?

We have talked about many upselling techniques that will help you to up your upsell game and boost the AOV of your store. You can implement multiple techniques from the list we shared depending on the products and services you offer and your upselling strategies.

Remember, whichever upselling technique you may want to implement on your WooCommerce store, FunnelKit can help you with that. 

You can create beautiful upsell pages, offer upsell on the slide-in mini cart and upsell in post-purchase emails using FunnelKit. 

So, what are you waiting for?

Start implementing your favorite upselling techniques with FunnelKit today!

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