You Won’t Believe Me But You Don’t Mind Being Upsold
What would you think if, while you were in the process of purchasing something, a company tried 10 different times to get you to buy something else to add to your cart?
Would you be ok with it or mad about it? I bet you answered, “Mad!!”
Really? What if I don’t think you would be mad?
In fact, what if I told you that I think you would be fine with it?
Not only that, what if I had the nerve to tell you that I think you’d not only be fine with it, you’d go back to that company to buy from them again and again?
And what if I was crazy enough to tell you that I had proof that I was right and you were wrong?
You’ve probably figured this out already. But let me spell it for you in case anyone got left behind and hasn’t caught on yet.
The company I’m talking about is Amazon.
And pretty much all of you reading this have purchased something from them.
Not once, but over and over again.
Believe it or not, Amazon makes AT LEAST 10 upsells when you go to purchase something.
You are so not bothered by them upselling you that I bet you didn’t even realize they were making that many upsells to you! (Confession: I didn’t realize it until I counted them.)
I bring up Amazon for two reasons:
- People don’t hate having a business or company upsell them. They only hate it if it’s done improperly or in an annoying way.
- Amazon can teach us some powerful ways to implement upselling in a way that’s pleasurable and not annoying.
If you stick with me, I’ll show you the 10 upsells that Amazon made to me when I went to purchase a book.
And I will show you how you can implement these in your own business or company.
Are you ready?
The 10 Powerful Ways Amazon Ethically Increases Their Profit Per Customer
Before I share the ten powerful methods that Amazon uses to increase their profit per customer, I want you to understand something important that I noticed.
Amazon doesn’t just upsell all at once. They upsell in two distinct phases.
Amazon’s Unique Two-Phase Upsell Strategy
Their two-phase strategy has a before and after focus:
- Before You Choose an Item – They offer upsells as you are shopping or browsing for what you want to purchase.
- After You Choose an Item – They offer upsells after you choose an item you want to buy.
This is really important. Because many online retailers offer upsells only as you’re checking out. On the other hand, Amazon doesn’t make any upsells once I click “Proceed to checkout.”
Upselling at check out can feel intrusive because it disrupts the purchasing flow. That can bother people, especially if you make multiple upsell offers during the checkout process.
I wonder what would happen if other e-commerce businesses tested making their upsell offers before the checkout?
Would it enable them to make even more upsells like Amazon does? Or would it lessen the cart value? Let me know if you test this. I’d love to hear your results.
With this two-phase upsell strategy in mind, let me now reveal the ten powerful ways Amazon uses upsells that I discovered.
IMPORTANT: These are upsells that I observed when I was going to purchase a new book called $100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi
PHASE 1: BEFORE YOU CHOOSE AN ITEM
The first four upsells all happen before you even add anything to your cart…
1. The social proof upsell
The first upsell they make is made before you even have chosen something to put into your cart. And it’s an interesting one to start with.
Before I even chose to put this book in my cart, Amazon was already suggesting that I not just buy this book. They’re already suggesting that I buy two other books too.
But this is important. They don’t make this suggestion as one that comes directly from them. They use social proof to do this.
In a sense, they’re saying, “In case you’re wondering, this is what other a lot of other people are buying along with that book you’re looking at.”
This is really smart. Because we are always making purchasing choices based on what we see and/or hear other people are buying.
Everyone’s buying an iPhone with AirPods? I want to do that!
Everyone’s going to see the new Spiderman: No Way Home movie? I want to go see it too.
Everyone’s buying EV cars? I wonder why? I think I should look into that too.
LESSON 1: Make sure that you are using upsells based on social proof.
Tap into this natural way that influences how we all make purchases. But make sure that you do this in an honest, helpful way. Don’t ever do this in a way that’s deceptive or manipulative.
NOTE: Make sure to check out the hidden upsell method that I reveal at the end of this article. It taps into this same social proof method. (I didn’t notice it because it’s not obvious until you click on something.)
2. The soft sell upsell
The second upsell they make before you choose what to put in your cart is a soft sell upsell. They’re not saying, “Hey! You need this. Don’t leave here without buying this too!!”
No, instead they’re just making a suggestion, “I see you’re looking at this item. If you are interested in something like that, you might also like any of these.”
I want you to also notice again that they’re suggesting I buy more than one thing before I even choose what I want to buy.
LESSON 2: When you make an upsell before someone has chosen what they want to buy, do it as a suggestion, not as a command.
This soft sell method is a great one to begin implementing. Why?
Because we all appreciate suggestions. None of us like it when a salesperson rudely tries to force us to buy something.
Our first instinct when we’re suggested something is to listen and consider it.
Our first instinct, when forced to choose something, is to reject it just as forcefully.
3. The sponsored upsell
Until I started putting together this article, I never noticed what makes the third upsell so unique. It looks to me like these particular upsells are all ads that people have paid for to get their book suggested.
Think about that for a second. That means that Amazon is making money whether someone takes the upsell offer or not!
This is an amazing way to offer an upsell that I’ve never thought of before.
LESSON 3: Is there a way that you can offer a sponsored upsell by offering a non-competitive product that another company would pay you just to offer?
Think of what a game-changer that could be for your business. You’d be able to add more profit per customer whether someone takes the upsell offer or not.
And, depending on you set up the agreement, if they do take the offer, it could mean even more profit for you.
4. The low barrier USP upsell
The fourth upsell that Amazon makes is one that comes after someone has scrolled down below the product details and the author description.
That seems to be important to me. If someone has scrolled this far down, there might be two opposing reasons for this:
A. They’re unsure about purchasing the item they’re looking at.
B. Or they’re really excited/interested in it and they want to know every detail about it.
Regardless of which reason it is, Amazon makes what I would call a low barrier upsell.
It’s an upsell that doesn’t feel difficult for the customer to say yes to.
Don’t miss this though.
It’s not just a low barrier upsell, it also points to what makes Amazon unique: free shipping via Prime. (*I have Prime so I don’t know whether they use this upsell with people who don’t have Prime.)
When they see someone is unsure about the item they’re considering, they basically say, “If you aren’t sure about that item, these are some similar items that would be easy (not as costly, less complicated) to get.”
This is smart because if someone is about to give up on the item that they were about to buy, offering a similar low barrier upsell will give them something else to purchase instead. (In a way, this is a down sell.)
And if someone is really interested in the item and scrolls down to see this upsell, it’s an exciting additional purchase they can add to their cart.
I also love that Amazon’s low barrier upsell is tied to what makes Amazon different in the marketplace.
LESSON 4: Come up with low barrier upsells for people who are unsure about what to purchase and/or for your committed buyers. And do your best to tie these upsells into what makes your business or company unique!
This will help you to not lose a customer. It will also help your unsure customer to get something similar to what that they needed/wanted. And it will help your committed buyers to have additional solutions and benefits to their purchase.
PHASE 2: AFTER YOU ADD AN ITEM TO YOUR CART
The next upsells all happen after you add something to your cart…
5. The sponsored upsell – Take two
For the fifth upsell, Amazon does something surprising. They offer the “sponsored” upsell again. I would’ve never even thought to do one sponsored upsell.
But Amazon doesn’t just offer one of these upsells, they offer two of them.
That means that Amazon is getting paid TWICE whether or not anyone takes one of their upsell offers or not.
LESSON 5: Figure out how you can use sponsored upsells before and after someone adds something to their cart.
Think of how this could change your business and let that be your incentive to figure out how to creatively do the same thing,
6. The “more of what you like” upsell
For the sixth upsell, Amazon takes a different tactic. They don’t try to convince you that you need or want some random, additional product.
Instead, they just let you know about new items from authors you’ve already purchased from before.
This is another way to implement the attention-getting secret I shared with you in a previous video called The Attention-Getting Secret That Marketers Can Learn from HGTV (VIDEO). (Watch the video when you get done with this article.)
LESSON 6: Make sure that you are tracking customer purchases so that you can offer them more of what they’ve already shown interest in.
The cool thing about this upsell is that your customers will end up being thankful for the recommendation and more of them will take your upsell offer in the process.
7. The peer pressure upsell
The seventh upsell is a different take on upsell #1 The social proof upsell. This is where Amazon is again tapping into the part of us that makes decisions based on popularity or what others are doing.
The thing I want you to notice is that they first used this type of upsell at the very beginning of this process before you even put anything in your cart.
Now they’re doing it again after you’ve added an item to your cart. But, again, they’re doing it in a very casual way.
LESSON 7: Think of ways you can use customer purchase habits to make suggestions to your customers that can give them insights into what others are purchasing.
But the key with this is to do it like Amazon does, in a very casual, non-pressured way.
8. The more to explore upsell
The eighth upsell Amazon makes gives you even more suggestions based on your purchase history. But notice the difference in this upsell and upsell #6, the “more of what you like” upsell.
Instead of just suggesting new items from an author you’ve already purchased before, they are now making suggestions of additional books from other similar authors.
LESSON 8: Make sure that you don’t use customer purchase history to just offer them more of what they’ve already shown they like. Use it to also make recommendations of similar items from different providers or suppliers.
This is a great way to serve your customers while making an upsell.
Why? Because you’re educating them on other products from other providers that are similar to what they already like.
9. The mind reader upsell
The ninth upsell Amazon makes is not made based on your purchase history. It’s made on your browsing history. This is an interesting upsell to make it.
It seems to be based on the idea that people are giving hints to the types of things that they care about by the things that they’ve paid attention to in the past.
That means you don’t have to just guess about the things to upsell your customers.
Your customer’s previous browsing history enables you to almost read their minds and make powerful upsell recommendations inspired by this history.
LESSON 9: Realize that your customer’s past browsing behavior provides powerful insights that can help you to make upsell recommendations that your customers will be more likely to say yes to.
This should go without saying. But that means that you need to begin paying attention to, and begin gathering, your customer’s browsing history and not just their purchase history.
If you’re not currently doing that, start doing it today.
10. The telegraphed upsell
For the tenth upsell, Amazon also taps into that same browsing history.
But instead of making a recommendation that is inspired by that history, they make a direct recommendation of something you looked at but didn’t purchase.
This seems to be based on the knowledge that people often look at an item multiple times before purchasing it.
Because Amazon understands this, they don’t assume just because you didn’t purchase something last time, you won’t purchase it this time.
LESSON 10: If your customers have been to your business, company, or website before, there’s a good chance that they’ve already telegraphed the exact things they’ll be interested in buying in the future.
Your job is to just pay attention to these hints and then recommend these unpurchased items to them when they come back to purchase from you again.
BONUS: Amazon’s hidden upsell offer
When I was studying Amazon’s upsell methods, I thought I had noticed and noted all of their upsells.
That was until I just happened to click on something and discover a hidden upsell offer.
It happened when I clicked on the “Look Inside” feature for the $100M Offer book.
I then began reading the preview of the book. When I got to the end of the preview, I came across something I wasn’t expecting…
It was a hidden upsell that seemed to be designed specifically for two purposes:
- It was designed for someone who was interested enough in the book to take a look at its contents.
- It was designed to get that person aware of more books they could also buy.
BONUS LESSON: What are some ways that you can make a special offer to people who express their deep interest in a product?
If you can figure out how to creatively answer that question, you’ll have a chance to test how this kind of offer can impact your profit per customer in a way that most of your competitors will never think of.
Why I Think Amazon’s Upsells Work So Well
After discovering these upsells Amazon has been making right under my nose – without me even noticing it or being bothered by it – I asked myself this question…
How is it possible that Amazon can make 11 upsells and I not only don’t get upset about it, I gladly keep buying from them?
I’ve thought about it and I’ve come up with these four reasons:
- The upsells never feel forced on us.
- They are always something we’re in control of.
- At any point, we can stop the upsells or continue to look at more of them.
- They are presented in a non-pressured and even pleasant way.
The reason that upsells from other companies seem to bother us so much is because they feel forced on us.
We don’t feel like we have any say about how many we see. And we definitely feel pressured to take them.
The upsells from these companies feel involuntary and Amazon’s feel voluntary.
I would encourage you to really think about how Amazon uniquely uses upsells.
Because I believe these upsell methods are one of the key reasons that Jeff Bezos was able to build Amazon into such a successful and profitable company.
If that’s true…
What does Amazon know about upsells that everyone else doesn’t?
