What is cross-selling exactly?

and up sell

[hairycoo]

Sorry for the newbie question but what exactly is it? Is it promoting side products to your main product? What about "up sell"?

[hannamyluv]

A cross-sell is when you sell something to them in addition to what they already bought. An upsell is when you sell them something not nessecerily related to what they bought.

For example, if you sell them a widget and at checkout you ask if they would like to add a widget binder to their cart, that's a cross-sell.

If at checkout, they buy a widget and you see that many people who by widgets also buy sprockets, you might offer people who buy widgets the opportunity to buy sprockets at that time too, that's an upsell.

[hairycoo]

But how does cross-selling apply to affiliate sites? I read a post by graywolf about doing this with an Amazon ad.

[hannamyluv]

Say you have a page about Britney Agulara Simpson. The page may be aimed at selling say, MP3's through the site, but you throw up a few links to amazon for her biography. Just in case a few of your visitors decide they don't want the MP3 but they want the biography. The idea being that sincethey arrived at a page about Britney Agulara Simpson, they are interested in her.

[jcoronella]

Sell milk on a page dedicated to ranking for and selling cookies.

You generally won't sell fewer cookies, just an additional kick in revenue from the milk.

You could also sell Coke on a page about Pepsi and give the user a choice. Generally in this case you have to be careful that Pepsi doesn't steal your Coke revenue if Pepsi pays out less.

[nakulgoyal]

does cross-selling REALLY work?

[hannamyluv]

Granted, my company is doing phone work mostly but we also do it on the web. We upsell a few different programs at the end of EVERY sale. That brings in 20% of the company's income.

[graywolf]

I read a post by graywolf about doing this with an Amazon ad.

does cross-selling REALLY work?

I made $200 in sept cross selling books on amazon, so not super aff money by any means, but $200 more than i started with.

[rfung]

I made $200 in sept cross selling books on amazon, so not super aff money by any means, but $200 more than i started with.

So, just make 10 more sites like that?:)

[Michael Anthony]

Yes, cross selling works, always. And up selling, by my definition, is selling the customer a higher priced item than they originally asked about e.g. they asked about a bargain widget, but you convinced them that the Golden Widget Offer was a much better fit for their needs.

[aleksl]

up-selling is when you go to buy Toyota Corolla and roll out of the parking lot in a brand spankin' new Camry, because you couldn't tell a salesman to back off.

some people also call it screw-selling. it's when a customer gets screwed on big money.

problem on the web is that your web page is doing selling, and all a sucker needs is a click of a mouse to shut your sales pitch.

...you can get it from my rant I don't like salesman too much...

[Michael Anthony]

Upselling online is nigh on impossible.

"Click here if you are prepared to spend more money on some features and benefits that you don't really need, but may just inflate your ego and briefly, until u get your credit card statement, your satisfaction with the purchase" :)

Cross selling online is good business - e.g. you PPC for traffic for long haul flights, but the visitor wants a local flight. Much better to offer the lower margin item than just waste the visitor.