A 2014 study by Ehrenberg-Bass Institute of Marketing Science confirms the average consumer spends a mere 13 seconds making a purchasing decision in-store. Consumers tend to stick to products they know without giving a second thought to whether it’s what they truly desire, or if they’re simply purchasing out of familiarity.
Simply, consumers have been programmed to be drawn to certain products and brands through advertising and marketing. As a C-store owner, you’re undoubtedly familiar with this effect. Soft drinks, candy, and even gasoline are helped through the power of brand imagery.
Upselling is the practice of suggesting a customer head to that higher priced name brand product or suggest an additional product that complements the original purchase. The latter is frequently referred to as “add-on selling,” although the terms have been used interchangeably.
Why Upsell?
Companies use upselling for a variety of reasons. It can be an opportunity to introduce a customer to a new product, for example. This gives your company the chance to test out trial products from new vendors and different products from existing vendors to see how well they would fit in your market.
Upselling can also be used to help clear out underperforming products, and in doing such, can help open space to dedicate to well-performing products, or make room for something new.
Ultimately, upselling is used to sell more merchandise and increase revenue. Deciding ahead of time which products your company is going to focus on upselling gives you the opportunity to ensure you’re pushing items with higher profit margins. To keep things in order, many C-stores and gas stations turn to online inventory management software.
Upselling and Inventory Management
Upselling is a tried and true tactic. Online inventory management software not only helps keep your products well accounted for, it can also be used to assist your sales team. Through identifying trends in sales items, and accurate analytics, online inventory management software will help determine what products pair well together, and where your upselling has been most effective.
Since you already know that coffee is going to sell well, it doesn’t make sense to make the coffee the target of the upsell. Instead, choose an item that goes well with coffee, but might be underperforming during that time on its own. Consider incentivizing the additional purchase of donuts, granola bars, or even gum (for coffee breath!)
The additional product increases your price per ticket and offers you the opportunity to upsell as well as add-on sell additional items. Creating promotional combinations is easy with CStore Essentials' Pricebook Management feature. Pair that coffee with a higher-priced granola bar for a nutritious breakfast. Or pair it with a lower-cost granola bar that you want to clear from your inventory.
Increase Sales and Get Your Inventory Moving
Both upselling and add-on selling are effective ways to increase sales and move products. Learning to identify what products pair well and how to move them is where you want to go. Using online inventory management software can help you get there. Schedule a Free Demo today to discover how to achieve this with CStore Essentials.
