How to Polish Your Online-upselling Program

For example, if you sell higher-price-point merchandise, you may offend customers with aggressive upselling or discounting. You may get better results by keeping your upsells on a more subtle level.

Petra Schindler Carter, director of consulting services at Fry Multimedia, an e-commerce consultancy, recommends presenting the upsell from an angle of guidance rather than salesmanship. For example, she says, retailers selling apparel could offer a suggestion from a style advisor: “You’ve put that Prada suit in your cart; now how about this pair of shoes that matches it?”