If you’re selling digital products i.e.
pdf, videos, audios…
The easiest up sell is to offer your customers
a physical version of the exact same product.
No new product, no new customers, no new
advertising … you simply pull in 31% to 38.9%
more revenue than selling the digital product
without the up sell.
If you’re not doing this simple sales technique
then you need to give this a serious try. Stop
leaving a huge chunk of revenue on the table.
P.S. I know some will doubt this works but I
have personally done this and I see others
do it as well …it just works! I guarantee it.
The key is to use a 3rd party fulfillment
house and have them print / burn the CD
or DVD and ship it out on an order by order
basis.
It’s cheap enough that you can build the
product cost into the shipping fee or simply
increase your product price point a little.
The other side of this is that your refund
rate will drop significantly when you ship a
phyiscal product versus a digital download
product so this difference alone will often pay
for the added cost of a cd / dvd / print.
Hi William,
Can you explain a bit further how this upsell is free exactly? I understand you do not have to pay to simply ask your customer to buy this physical product. BUT, you still have to pay to create, package, and ship the physical product.
Absolutely! The critical thing to remember
is that the up sell is FREE. It cost nothing
to ask for the order.
It’s also important to remember that your
customers are buying from you because they
WANT to … not have to.
So if they want your product, you’re actually
helping them get more of what they want
when you offer them a logical up sell item.
Good point. Some things are easier to sell as tangible, but some products/services this is just not possible. You think this could be done by recommending a physical product that is related to the main purchase?
It’s not a lot different than going
out to dinner just because you don’t
feel like cooking.
I pay a huge premium to have a burger
cooked for me and my family than simply
throwing some ground beef patties on the
gas grill. It’s easy, quick, cheap, etc …
but I still go to the local burger place for
no other reason than convenience.
Give an up sell a try … it’s all upside.
I would agree. It seems silly that so many customers would want to get their software or game shipped via CD in the mail as opposed to just downloading it, but some of the reason is psychological – fear of product loss/sense of security. That, and some people aren’t confident in downloading as a skill. I can understand that. If I were inexperienced on a PC, I would have trouble figuring out what to do after I click to download a product. Where did it go? Do I have to do something else? And of course some people just prefer to have something they can touch like a box or CD. Just like some people will always want to handle a newspaper over a Kindle for reading the NY Times.
The uptake rate on for example CDs for software you can download can vary anywhere from about 10% to as much as 80% depending on how it is presented on the order page (opt-in, opt-out, pricing, etc.)
- Dan from FastSpring E-Commerce
William, may I ask if your suggestion is based on experience with your own product, or is it a more broad research?
As with most great ideas …I copied it …LOL!
Actually, a friend of mine recommended that
I do it (years back when I sold products as
my business) …I tried it after he pushed me
really hard.
I was truly amazed that it worked but then a
little ticked off at myself for leaving so much
money on the table in the past. Now I recommend
this to every customer I talk to and some do it
while some do not.
But the people that follow this advice always
tell me their success stories. Never once have
I found a person that this does not work for.
Of course, nothing works if you don’t sell it.
So you need to have a mini-sales page that
describes the benefits of having a hard copy.
Keep in mind, this is 100% upside. Even if you
never sell any, you’re only out the time it took
you to write the mini-sales page and to set it
up in your cart.