Upselling Techniques for Etsy Product Creators

What is Upselling?

Upselling is defined differently, depending on who you are speaking to, but Wikipedia had a good definition:

Upselling (sometimes 'up-selling') is a sales technique whereby a saleperson induces the customer  to purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale. Upselling usually involves marketing more profitable services or products, but upselling can also be simply exposing the customer to other options he or she may not have considered previously. Upselling implies selling something that is more profitable or otherwise preferable for the seller instead of the original sale. A different technique is cross-selling  in which a seller tries to sell something else.

You may already be successfully upselling without even knowing it. Perhaps you've asked a customer if they'd like to add on since the shipping would be the same price. Or maybe you made a recommendation and ended up with a larger profit margin than you would have if the customer just checked out without chatting with you first. The art of upselling is easy to master once you understand the situations in which upselling works and how to maximize its potential to help your bottom line.

Why is attempting to upsell important?

The biggest reason to attempt upselling is because it means a larger sale or return profit down the line. Many sellers get scared of the thought of upselling because speaking to a customer (especially virtually) and trying to get them buying more can come off as 'salesy' but you don't need to worry because if it's done in a casual, interesting way, people will actually thank you for giving them direct and useful information that helps them economically while increasing your own profits.

I always enjoy hearing upselling tricks and techniques from other people but the lack of information for handmade sellers had me wanting to give some scenarios, tips and tricks so those who create and sell products on Etsy could find useful ways to increase their profits, regardless of their experience and know how.

Ways to Easily Upsell:

1. Shipping Costs

You know how this goes but maybe you aren't shouting it loud and clear to your customers. This particular upsell works well with soap makers who I think have quite the hard time since one bar of soap costs so much to ship based on weight.

You have an item that ships for $2 but if you ship two to three similar items, the price of shipping is still only $2. Instead of letting a bunch of customers purchase that one item (giving you, just for argument's sake, a profit of $10) you put in your shop announcement, listings and relay in convos that if they purchased additional items, NO ADDITIONAL shipping charges would be added. If you get those same bunch of customers, three may take you up on that offer giving you a $90 profit rather than just a $30 one.

Tip: Always make it VERY CLEAR if there are special situations where a customer can get more than one item for the same shipping price. Personally this has done very well for me in the past (and I didn't even know at the time it was upselling) because people seriously get a kick out of buying more items and paying less for shipping. As an Etsy seller you should have this information in your shop announcement, policies page, listings and again, let customers know when they inquire about your products and/or shipping prices, just so they get the full scope of your offerings.

2. Matching Items

Lots of sellers do sets on Etsy. You make a pair of earrings and then make a necklace to match, easy right? When I use to sell on Etsy I sold heaps of sets by slightly discounting the matching set and putting the listings in their own store section for easier browsing.

Tip: Matching sets are not something new, but a few tips that come to mind are:

- Putting a mish mash of hard to move items together with a slight discount so you can get rid of older stock while making a larger sale.
- Sets based on holidays or events, which will appeal to the gift giver and bride to be.
- Large lots of the same item, such as happy birthday cards that are useful for people to have year round.
- An assortment of items for one of each family member, such as a knitted scarf for mom, dad, children and pet.
- A larger time based set, such as beer soap for a bachelor for an entire month (what bachelor wouldn't love that!).

3. Recommendations

I use to always get convos from potential buyers asking questions about different items in my shop. Sometimes the questions were more about style choices (when gift givers aren't sure if your product will be well-suited for their friend or relative) and other times it had to do with pricing and shipping costs.

The best way to turn those convos into not only sales, but upsells is by recommending something based on their situation (say they need something economical and you just so happen to be putting a few things on sale that all ship for one low price) that would actually help you MORE than if they didn't get that recommendation. Another example is someone is trying to decide over two similarly priced items but one item has a higher profit margin. Try to get them to take that item home and you've made yourself more money without costing them more money.

Tip: Be casual and not pushy when it comes to recommendations. Picture this person as your friend and use honesty and care to ensure the customer isn't put off by your ideas on the products that would best suit them. They are going to make the final decision after all, so it's a good idea to come off as nice and helpful at all times.

4. Warranties & Guarantees

Whenever you go into a specific type of store, like one with electronics, they try to get you to buy a warranty (ahem, that's an upsell) so if your item breaks, you can bring it in and not have to pay for the repair fee (for a certain time period, usually 1-3 years). You can do the same thing with your products, that way if something breaks (that you can repair or replace easily) they have a guarantee and don't need to pay any more for the damage. Here's the thing, unless your products aren't made of good quality, they aren't going to break very often. That means you can collect money for offering a warranty without ever having to do additional work on it. Think back to that electronics purchase: sometimes it breaks, more often it doesn't. But people like to feel covered in case of emergency. That's money in your pocket for their piece of mind.

Tip: Warranties aren't going to work for every product so get serious if you sell something like handmade cards or soap (no one is going to go for that!). For expensive products, however, like metal jewelry and upscale clothing, people will go the extra mile to ensure their purchase is safe. Make note of the warranty offer in your listings, shop policies page and announcement area so people are fully aware that your products are 100% guaranteed.

5. Upgrading Products

This upsell technique is similar to recommendations but instead of giving your personal preferences, you upgrade the price or profit of the sale by adding something on to the product. For instance, say someone is purchasing a bar of soap from you but would like a custom mix of fragrances. You normally only offer specific (and premade) bars but you offer an 'custom upgrade' listing that actually costs you the same as a premade bar of soap, but you charge more for the customization. Or another example would be to offer a necklace at a specific price but if a consumer wants to upgrade for a prettier clasp, they would pay an additional fee (and of course, the clasp would be worth the same as the less pretty clasp meaning you gain more profit without spending more in materials).

Tip: Don't go crazy and try to offer an upgrade for every item in your store because you could end up overwhelming a potential customer and allowing them to get frustrated and not checking out with any of your items.

6. Discounts or Free Shipping over ($$$) amount

This one is fairly straight forward and most people already do it. If you want to get higher value (or more) items sold, why not offer a discount or free shipping over a certain price threshold, as long as it makes financial sense for you.

Tip: If your items are in the lower range, don't get too greedy with the price threshold because one, noone will go for it and two, you will look greedy or inexperienced. On the flip side, if your items are in a higher price range, go for a larger number that would encourage the sale of two or more items, that way it actually makes a difference to your bottom line.

7. Repeat Customer Discounts

While almost everyone does this, its still worth mentioning. When you want a customer to come back you offer them a discount code or special offer in their package, that way the next time they are in the market for what you're offering, they have something that entices them back to your shop. I'm sure this works for some sellers but I do caution that going out of your way and spending tons of money to make snazzy cards on high quality paper is a waste of money because most people will lose the cards/coupons or never even redeem them.

Tip: I really like the idea of an ongoing discount for return customers (like 'shop with us again and receive 10% off any future purchases') because this a) really tells a customer you value them (since you are giving them a discount forever) and b) it ensures they won't need a silly coupon code or magic word to get their discount again. If you do want to offer a time based or memorable coupon, why not try scratch offs or get magnets made so they can actually use the code for something useful!

8. Subscription Based Listings

I am loving the subscription based model for handmade sellers. How this works is you offer a listing in your shop for a three, six or twelve month subscription and so a person comes to your shop, loves your product and decides to pay up front for the products but they get them once monthly, much like a magazine subscription. I've seen this several times now and I think it's such a great way to not only get a larger sale up front, but keep the customer reminded of your shop and service each month.

A few examples of this model are:

cookoorikoo's Ring of the Month Club - Available in different months, this model has a new surprise (people can choose preferences) ring delivered to the consumer each month.

Recession's Underwear of the Month Club - available in different subscriptions and also allowing recurring payments so customers can be billed each month.

Soap that Makes Scents' Soap of the month club - Available in different subscriptions, this one the buyers can choose the scents they like and it arrives the first week of every month.

Tip: Make sure doing a subscription based listing will work for you financially. For instance, if you are shipping the product out each month, be sure to factor in the cost of shipping (for every month of the subscription) into the shipping cost OR a better idea would be to add it to the cost of the listing, just so it's not too overwhelming for a potential customer when they are considering your listing. Undervaluing your work for the sake of a larger sale just means less profit and more headaches down the line.

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