5 ways to experiment with upselling based on value
People are spending more money online than ever before and one of the main reasons that people turn to online vs. offline - aside from convenience - is the opportunity to seek the very best value for what they are intending to buy. From frequent “low-involvement” purchases like your weekly shop to bigger, grand expenditures like a new TV - the UK is, like many, becoming a nation of price checkers and deal-seekers.
With this in mind, it is more important than ever before for online brands to portray value in their offering and with a few old-school sales tactics it could be easier than one may think. Check out my five favourite ways to present great value on your site:
1. The “Cheaper Alternative” option
In markets where brands are challenged by being the best value, with the lowest prices there are some instances when showing cheaper alternatives provide a win. For instance, supermarkets that sell a great range of own-brand products - with great margins - might promote the odd product to tempt people away from brands and keep customers happy by shaving pennies, and pounds, off their food bill.
Aldi is possibly the most famous supermarket for taking this approach recently – with their high proportion of own brand products versus the odd branded (although not well known) stock – it’s become quite the memorable campaign:
Slightly more subtle is My Supermarket’s use of “Swap & Save” on their handy money-saving site. Without the politics that supermarkets face with upsetting their branded suppliers, My Supermarket calculates and recommends savings as you shop, allowing you to trade items and even switch between supermarkets to get the very best deals.
At the end of your shop you can even work through all saving recommendations – cutting prices (and maybe quality) where you choose:
2. The “Most Popular” option – aka. Asymmetrical Framing
Quite simply, this is when companies “frame” and display the most ideal option for customers to buy, by making it appeal more than other options. As demonstrated by Shopify, their “Most Popular” option is the friendly looking middle ground package – with a healthy list of features plus clear examples of what you don’t get – but do those things matter? After all, it’s an extra $100 dollars and “most” other people don’t need them. Looking at the cheapest option, I assumed it was too basic and in fact, I almost didn’t pay any attention to the basic package.
This approach is being tried and tested across a number of sites but really it originates from an old adage of corner shop owners and if they wanted to increase sales of their more expensive wine. Originally they would have stocked two types of wine, a cheap option and a bottle for a couple of quid more. By introducing an even more expensive alternative into the mix (which wasn’t expected to be sold), shoppers began to buy more of the middle option – keeping the corner shop owners very happy!
3. The “Buy Together and Save” option
A great way to squeeze that bit extra of money out of people is to offer an irresistible combination of products – offline the perfect example is going to the cinema. Do you buy just an overpriced cup of Coca-Cola, or pay the extra £1.00 and go for the “Popcorn Combo”, which probably should have cost a tenner separately?
This can also be applied online in a number of industries but one of my favourite executions of this is within the travel sector. Expedia aren’t shy to let people know that booking flights and hotels together is on average 15% cheaper – and expedia don’t promote the fact that it’s also easier to book together too!
The good news doesn’t stop there either – when searching for the perfect getaway it’s clear how much money can be saved. How believable these deals are may be questionable but it’s certainly eye catching!
Ironically – the Expedia iOS app only lets you book flights OR hotels at the moment. #Fail. Let’s hope they update this soon!
4. The “Price per XX” options
For savvier shoppers it won’t be too surprising that working out the cost of a product by “Cost per Weight/Size/Volume” or “Cost per Use” is a great way to compare values of products versus alternatives. Although some products might not be suited to this approach, when margins and scales of economy work in your favour, this can be a great way to get people to spend that little bit more.
Marks and Spencer is one of the first “big brands” I have noticed to adopt this approach online and make a decent job of using “Price per 100ml” to show the value of their fragrance range:
I would really love to see this rolled out on sites like Selfridges who sell branded perfumes in different size ranges too! If I didn’t have to manually calculate that buying the 50ml bottle of perfume would save me about £15.00 based on how much the 30ml bottle costs, I’d probably quite happily spend that little bit extra for the bigger bottle. Although margins may vary – at the end of the day Selfridges would still be getting an extra £28 through their books than if I bought the smaller bottle. #CaChing
5. The “Spend More to Get Free Delivery” option
Another one of my favourite sites for User Experience is Benefit Cosmetics and they are a great example for my final tactic – the “Spend More to get Free Delivery” idea. It’s concluded that in the UK shoppers respond better to free postage offers than saving percentages off the price of items, even when the latter has been the better saving.
More and more online stores are realising the value in free delivery and so with many enticing products and treats on offer, Benefit realise it won’t be too difficult for their shoppers to top up their basket and spend £40 for free delivery:
So, if you are looking to drum up revenue – and Average Transaction Value – have a think about how these up sell ideas could make a huge difference to your site.
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