Posted in Website Design Tips	March 19, 2007

Internet marketing strategy: Capitalize on these frequently overlooked opportunities to sell more products from your website and increase your average dollar amount per sale.

By Peter A. Schaible, Editor-at-Large, Mequoda Group LLC

If you’ve ever bought a product in direct response to a TV commercial, you’ve experienced the “upsell.” The operator always has a special, “today only” opportunity to increase your order or add another product at a special, discounted price.

Have you ever bought a new car? Automobile dealerships are famous for their profitable upsell offers—everything from extended warranties to undercoating.

The upsell is also a familiar Internet marketing strategy of the world’s largest online retailers.

The Amazon.com shopping experience includes a subtle but effective upsell strategy. Users buy a single book and Amazon automatically suggests another. (“Readers who bought Tom Sawyer also bought Huckleberry Finn.”)

Online publishers should be paying attention to upsell strategies. On some Internet marketing websites, as many as 40 percent of customers agree to the upsell offer, depending on the product and the price.

Why? Call it a “shopping frenzy” or an “acquisition seizure,” but when customers are in a “buying mood” they are more susceptible to your marketing message.

Is your website designed to maximize sales? Does your Internet marketing strategy include upsells and cross-sells?

Here are three frequently neglected Internet marketing opportunities:

Order page—A checkbox and an upsell message like “Today’s special: get the XYZ item for only $XX additional if ordered right now!” should be included where the customers enter their contact information.

Intermediate page—Before the customer is taken to the order form, your website design could include an intermediate page with an upsell offer. Does your Internet marketing strategy include offering the customer a deluxe or platinum version of your product for an additional fee?

Thank you page—Does your Internet marketing strategy and your website design include an automatic thank you page with an upsell offer? Or an automatic email confirmation with an upsell or cross-sell? Does the thank you page or the email confirmation include a link to your website’s catalog page and/or shopping cart?

An effective Internet marketing strategy and website design uses upsell pages to sell more products and increase the average dollar amount per sale.

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