Techniques for Upselling?

what are your favorite ways to get them to buy more

[axgrindr]

We are developing a series of inexpensive items that will go really well with the more expensive items in our store. I want to make it really easy for people to add these to these to their carts as impulse buys along with their major purchase.

I was thinking of putting links on appropriate product pages to these more inexpensive items but,
would this distract the buyer from making the important big purchse and take them out of the funnel?

Or do I put a drop down menu on the product pages of the big items:
Add a set of 500 Widgets for only $9.95
Add a set of 1000 Widgets for only $14.95

Or do I put links to these in inexpensive items in the shopping cart?

Thanks for any suggestions / comments

[ectect]

I would put them on the cart page, once they had added the expensive item. Show them as "also bought" items or as related products but not in the cart itself.

[HighConversions]

Related products are a great idea on the product page. Also messages on the shopping stating something to the effect of 'Customers who bought 'widget name' also bought 'related widget'. Obviously the related product would need to link back to that product page.

[axgrindr]

I tried a site wide ad promoting these inexpensive widgets and got no response. These are items that sell really well on another site so I do have something pretty solid to compare it to.

I used phrases like 'Limited Time Offer' in the ad. Maybe that was a mistake.

I have removed the site wide links and will try adding little promo links on the shopping cart page and see how that goes.

[spikey]

I had this kind of thing on the first page of my cart (where you see a list of products in your cart). I a/b tested it and found it actually hurt conversion. I've pulled it.
I think the whole concept of up-selling may be a misapplied analogy from the B&M world. It's so easy to leave a website, even mid-order. It's also so easy to make another order when you decide you want another product.
My attitude now is to get them through the cart and confirmed as quickly and efficiently as possible. Don't give them any reason to think of anything else.
If anything, it might be worth doing something *after* you've closed the sale. I could imagine something on the receipt page like "We'd like you to try some of the following items, you can add these to your order now and we'll give you 5% off" or something.

[EricaAdapt]

I agree with Spikey! Display an offer for a related item on the confirmation page or confirmation email. "You may also like..." and try it with an expiration date.

Would it be too much to in turn also offer the related item(s) in your "shipment notification" email? Just a thought.

[axgrindr]

My attitude now is to get them through the cart and confirmed as quickly and efficiently as possible

Same here. I try to keep a straight funnel with no holes for them to leak out of the process.
And I have also found that anytime I add any kind of links to the shopping cart page it only caused confusion.

I might try the post-upselling like you guys are suggesting.

Maybe an email offer directly after the sale with a special price for existing customers.

[ispy]

You might as well put up links up to the inexpensive items. If they can use them they will buy. If some get distracted out of the funnel then they were unsure of the purchase in the first place and were apt to return items or cause problems later anyway.