How to Upsell Fashion, Clothing & Apparel on your Shopify Store
The fashion industry poses a unique challenge for online stores. Without virtual changing rooms, return rates remain high due to incorrect sizing or differences between online and in-person appearances. As a result, every completed sale means even more to your business.
At the same time, fashion has the benefit of being a highly upsell and cross-sell-friendly industry thanks to the demand for coordinated outfits, matching accessories, and a variety of options to choose from.
If you’re looking to grow your revenue and average order value (AOV), try these upselling and cross-selling strategies tailored for clothing and apparel stores.
1. Learn to cross-sell relevant products
Cross-sells are complementary product or service offers you make based on a customer’s primary purchase, designed to help you increase your average order value.
Once you’ve identified the products in your store that work well together as a cross-sell, you can add them to any step of the sales process to tempt customers. However, the way you present them and where they are matters.
For example, you might include styling guides or “buy the look” bundles on product pages featuring suggestions or recommendations for styling included in the description.
Then, at the cart, checkout, or post-purchase pages, recommend items to complete the look such as jewelry, matching shoes, or a handbag if the customer is purchasing a dress.
2. Use different forms of upsells
Don't limit yourself to only adding upsells and cross-sells to product pages. Upsells and cross-sells can be implemented at every step of the sales process, and there are multiple different ways they can be used to help you increase your AOV.
Rather than limiting yourself to one approach, consider making recommendations based on purchases past customers have made, suggesting bundle or BOGO deals, or offering an upgraded or higher-quality version of the item in the customer’s cart.
With the right Shopify upsell app, you can also experiment with pop-ups, checkout offers, and product page suggestions to see what resonates best with your customers.
3. Set up automated upsells for certain products
Automation can improve and simplify the upselling process, with AI tools and Shopify apps enabling you to leverage customer data like their purchase history or the source of their traffic.
To ensure the right upsell offers are made at the right time, you can set up automated upsells based on customer behavior, what products they are interacting with, or what items are in their cart. Tools like the product recommendations API from Shopify, along with an upselling app, help simplify these offers.
By tailoring your upsells to your customer’s interests, you’re more likely to make the sale and increase your conversions.
4. Don’t overload your upsells
Offers should be accessible, but not inescapable. The more steps it takes to complete the checkout process, the less likely your customer is to complete a purchase, and too many offers can quickly become frustrating.
You should also avoid making your offers too complicated or expensive. Complex deals like volume-based discounts and build-your-own-bundles can encourage larger purchases, but most people don’t want to quadruple their order total or figure out how to get the best deal using math.
Remember to stick to only one or two offers if you’re using pop-ups to avoid frustrating customers or making them feel pressured, and keep your offers simple and straightforward to increase conversions.
5. Use free gifts on your upsells
Incorporating free gifts as part of your upselling strategy is a great way to increase your average order value and move excess or slow-selling inventory while also adding value to the customer’s purchase. Customers want things for free, even if it means they have to spend a bit more than they intended.
The best way to offer free gifts is by automatically adding the item to their cart when they hit a specific total or when they add a specific product to their cart. For example, spending $100 or more may earn the customer a free tote bag while a certain pair of shoes comes with colored laces they can switch out to fit their outfit.
With that in mind, the product offered as a free gift should still be relevant to what your customer is shopping for, such as free socks with the purchase of two pairs of running shoes. Otherwise, they may feel deceived.
6. Offer low-cost upsells and cross-sells
Upselling and cross-selling are supposed to be in addition to the main purchase, not an entirely new purchase. While it’s tempting to double the amount a customer spends with a high-value upsell, it’s a much harder sell – especially in fashion.
As we mentioned earlier, fashion lends itself well to upsells and cross-sells. Discounted buy one, get one upsells can work well for lower-cost items like t-shirts, hats, and other apparel that come in different colors or that people like to switch out with their outfits.
However, without a significant discount or with items that are higher in price, it’s a large commitment for customers to accept an offer at 50-99% of the original item’s price. It’s best to keep your offers below 40% of your store’s AOV to make the added cost easier to swallow.
Accessories, on the other hand, do extremely well for fashion stores and usually come at lower price points than primary purchases. Fashion-forward shoppers want to complete their look, so they seek other items they can wear that match their primary purchase.
For example, t-shirts lend themselves well to matching pants and dresses can go well with matching hats or handbags. Other accessories are more versatile and can be applied to a variety of cross-sells, including bracelets, rings, necklaces, and earrings.
Use your customer data and industry experience to ensure your offers are relevant and priced accordingly, and don’t ask too much of your customers for the best chance at an upsell.
7. Consider adding mystery product upsells
A common strategy for upselling is adding mystery product upsells that offer a random item at a discount. These offers rely on curiosity and excitement to encourage customers to spend more to see what they’ll get, usually at a discount.
Mystery gifts work well for certain industries, and fashion is one of them. The key is that whatever mystery gift you offer needs to have value to the majority of your customers or specify the type of product it is so customers can qualify whether it applies to them on their own.
Fortunately, products like t-shirts are relevant to most customers as long as they can choose their sizing. Sunglasses are another candidate for mystery gifts because most people can wear them and they come in a variety of colors, designs, and styles, adding to the excitement.
ALT Fragrances is a great example of using mystery items to increase AOV. Outside of personal taste, their perfumes are relevant to most customers. Their trial-sized mystery bottles were a hit, generating over $1 million in upsell revenue in the first year.
Tailor your own fashion upsells with UpsellPlus
Fashion, clothing, and apparel present a lot of opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. From buying one in every color to matching outfits to completing the look with accessories, you can grow your average order value and generate more revenue with fashion upsells–if you have the right tool.
UpsellPlus is a versatile, all-in-one upselling and cross-selling app for Shopify that works throughout the entire sales process, including product, cart, checkout, and post-purchase pages. You can use it to automatically create upsells using Shopify’s product recommendation API or build your own offers, with custom logic to ensure you don’t recommend a fashion faux pas. It also enables free gifts with promo codes or cart totals, including free shipping, and allows you to add mystery items with a single click.
Get started with a 7-day free trial today.
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