How to Upsell in Women's Retail?

As a fashion retailer, you’ll know just how important upselling and cross-selling can be. If you want to remain in business, this is perhaps one of the most important things to be doing, and it’s a great way to make a bit of extra profit.

Whether you’re an online-only shop or you have an in-person boutique, there are so many ways to upsell and cross-sell your stock. 

So what’s the difference between the two?

Upselling is the act of selling a customer a more expensive version of the product they’re considering. For example, if a customer is looking at a £20 black dress, you can instead try to sell them a black dress that costs £80.

Cross-selling is selling add-on purchases that complement the customer’s primary purchase. For example, if someone bought a party dress, you could also sell them shoes and a bag to go with it.

How do I do this?

Before doing either of these, you should ensure you have the appropriate inventory (remember, you can find a wide selection of wholesale brands at TradeGala!). When upselling, you will need to have clothes in similar styles but at different price points. Cross-selling requires you to curate collections of items that can be worn with one another. You can read about curating collections here.

Upselling is something that will likely be much easier in a physical store, as it allows retail workers to speak face-to-face with customers. Make sure to not be too pushy, though; allow the customer time to browse for a little bit before going over to speak to them. If a customer is browsing your occasion wear, you could potentially ask what event they’ll be attending and then offer them some good options for this that are similar to what they’ve been looking at. Striking up a conversation gives their experience a pleasant and personal touch that they will remember, and can lead to them returning to the store.

Upselling is a little harder to do with online-only as the in-person benefits are lost. However, one way you can try this is a ‘Similar Items’ section that will show customers items that are similar to those they are looking at. If you have a few more expensive options here, they may end up picking one of these.

Another option for getting online customers to spend more is to have free shipping over a certain price. If the pricier item has free shipping while the cheaper option doesn’t, the customer may be drawn to what may seem like a better offer, even if it may not be.

Cross-selling can be done easily both in-person and online. In person, a retail worker can suggest items that go with the item being purchased (e.g., "we have a pair of shoes that go perfectly with that dress," or "oh you’re buying this skirt for a job interview? We have a matching blazer if you’re interested"). While online, you could have a ‘Buy The Look’ section under an item where the customer can purchase other items worn in the product photo. Or if the photo is just the item, the section could be ‘Pair With’ and include items that will look good with this product.

One great option is to have a ‘Trending Now’ section, where you can place popular items. Seeing these on the page may lead to a customer checking them out and deciding to purchase them in addition to whatever they originally came to buy from your store.