Upsell is the sale of a higher or expanded version of what a customer is choosing, while cross-sell is the sale of a complementary product or service related to the purchase. Both techniques increase average order value and are significantly cheaper than acquiring a new customer, because trust already exists. The condition is relevance: the offer must be based on what the customer is actually trying to solve, otherwise it feels like pressure and damages the relationship. In an online store, it is applied through recommendations on the product page and in the cart; in services, through the regular reassessment of needs among existing clients. Effectiveness is measured not only by the share of offers accepted, but also by whether the rate of returns and complaints has not increased – that tends to be a signal that something unneeded was sold.
See also: Product recommendations, Customer retention, Key account management.
