The upselling and cross-selling techniques used on online portals and in physical stores are very similar.
For example, consider e-commerce sites like Amazon and Zalando. Imagine that the product you have selected is a “BRAND” camera costing €250. You will notice that the e-commerce application running the site also suggests that you buy a backpack to carry your future camera around with you.
This is an example of “cross-selling”. Cross-selling is simply a situation in which the e-commerce platform helps the company to see a product related to the one already chosen by the customer.
Now, let’s imagine you’re thinking about buying that “BRAND” camera for the price of €250 again. As you are about to make the purchase, the application that runs the e-commerce site suggests a model superior to the one you have chosen for a special price that is only a little more, but only if you buy within the next hour. This is an example of “upselling”. Upselling is when the platform or application helps the company to sell a product that is better than the one chosen by the customer.
This technique is normally used in an attempt to sell high-end products that would rarely be purchased by customers unless they were offered at a discounted price.
The same sales techniques are also employed in physical stores. Seasoned sales assistants use these two methods to increase turnover and get rid of stock more quickly.
While upselling and cross-selling are more closely linked to real-life contexts such as physical stores, brand awareness and brand engagement are primarily web-based concepts that are not easy to apply in physical outlets. This is due to the association created by marketers, for whom these two concepts are usually the end goal of any social media communication campaign.
Nevertheless, it is true that the concepts of BE (Brand Engagement) and BA (Brand Awareness) can also be linked to the physical world…but how?
To improve the customer experience in physical stores, the idea is to implement a Next Best Action strategy. This new way of engaging with customers can have positive results for Sales Associates and Store Managers in two different ways:
• Firstly, it becomes easier to employ upselling and cross-selling techniques with customers.
• Secondly, the strategy creates a sense of empathy with customers. This can be achieved by anticipating their desires and expectations before they make them overtly clear.
Stores and retail chains can improve their brand engagement and brand awareness using these new sales methods. Naturally, combining the use of these techniques in physical stores with targeted customer engagement via e-commerce portals helps companies to improve their customers’ perception of the brand.
SB Soft’s Next Best Action platform harnesses the power of innovative techniques and high-performance algorithms based on Microsoft Power BI. For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
