Comments on: Upselling Online – It’s All in the Timing

By: johnwright

johnwright — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:33:25 +0000

Thanks for sharing your online shopping experience.

By: Barb Hartsook @OverCoffeeBlog

Barb Hartsook @OverCoffeeBlog — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:58:11 +0000

Hi Viki. A great article here, and one I relate to not only online, but over the phone via 800 numbers for ordering something that’s been advertised on TV.

I’ve done it a couple times — and would far rather go online. Over the phone I may order, and then the phone-guard must go through a list of related upsells, not only telling me what they are, but all the benefits and promises and warnings that if I don’t buy today I’ll never have another chance, etc.

I’ve spent as much as 10 minutes trying to order one thing. Two times ago I interrupted with no thank you every time a new item was mentioned. The last time I said up front I wanted to order such-and-such and absolutely nothing else. Period. Would they take my order for just that. It worked.

I also like how Amazon does it… and they have a nice Wish List page too.

By: Viki Nygaard

Viki Nygaard — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:16:41 +0000

Anita, Amazon does an excellent job with it’s upsells, IMO. They show related products, they often offer a discount if you buy a product bundled with their recommendation, etc. And they don’t hold you hostage during any part of the purchase process!

Ohhhh, how annoying about that wish list! You should email them and tell them your thoughts. Maybe if they hear from enough people, they will make changes.

Thanks, Anita, for sharing your thoughts.

By: Sliloh

Sliloh — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:13:44 +0000

Oh I so agree with this. I don’t mind the way Amazon does it, I add something to my cart and they take me to a page with related products. My cart is still there on the right so it’s easy to browse through those or ignore them.

My latest gripe was the site I had spent several days at adding items to my wishlist. Only to find out there was no way to move the wishlist to the cart. I had to click on each one separately, go to the product page, add it to the cart, go back to the wishlist and delete it there. What a hassle.

Anita

By: Bean

Bean — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:39:35 +0000

I admit it.
I have jumped ship and stopped a sale when trapped in upsell hell. Even if I had entered my credit card number, the sale isn’t going to actually happen unless I complete the sale and click that process button. I have never been charged when I have stopped the transaction before the end. I have little patience with hard sell and upselling does feel like being held hostage. That is not a business relationship that I want to continue.

I have designed several ecommerce sites and I have seen a definite inverse relationship between the number of pages a customer needs to click through to complete a sale and the number of sales actually completed.

Keep it easy, be considerate of the customer’s time and effort to complete a sale and you will retain customers.