I saw this question posted on a forum recently:
I apologize if this seems like a long winded question. I am looking for a robust solution for my shopping cart and autoresponders. However, I need to know how to automate upsells. When I bought a recent product, there were 5 upsells. Please advise how to do automated upsells, preferably integrated with 1shoppingcart. Thanks!
The sales process that is being described above is also referred to as a one time offer. I’m sure you’ve seen the process used before. It can be used on a salespage to give first time visitors a special incentive to purchase. Or on a thank you page once someone has opted in to a newsletter or special report. Or even used as part of the order process once a visitor has already committed to the purchase of a product. The process being described above the order process one time offer (or OTO) or upsell.
The Order Page Upsell or One-Time-Offer
Let’s describe the one time offer process. I’ll describe only one upsell rather than the five noted in the question above.
I visit your salespage and decide to buy. I click on the order button and commit to the order. Let’s say I’m ordering an exercise DVD. I click order and it’s added to my shopping cart and I’m taken to a new page. I am now presented with an additional offer to add resistance bands at $19.95 to enhance my weight loss. I can choose to add it to my order or say “No thanks” and continue with my order. If I add it to my order, I pass straight through to the checkout page with both items in my shopping cart. If I pass on the offer of the resistance bands, I pass through to the checkout page with only the DVD in my shopping cart.
Without any additional coding, the process above is strictly an upsell process. Every time they buy that DVD, they are presented with the same offer of the resistance bands. Now what if instead of just adding the resistance bands at full retail, you were to offer them at 50% discount if they order with the DVDs. It would be a one time offer only at the point of sale, the first time they purchase. So now, instead of being offered the resistance bands at full-price, I can add them to my order for $9.97 but only if I order today. I will never see this offer again. If I say yes, I pass through to the checkout page with both items in my shopping cart. If I say no, I pass through to the checkout page with only the DVD in my shopping cart.
Seems the same, right? Except that now instead of paying full retail, they’re paying half price for the upsell.
Let’s take the example a step further and focus on the buyer who said no to the offer of resistance bands at a 50% discount. They’re just about to check out and change their mind and want to add the resistance bands to their order. So they click back on their browser window to return to the previous page where they were offered the resistance bands at 50% discount and they’re presented with a different offer on the bands. Maybe it’s only a 25% discount or no discount at all. They will never be able to see the 50% discount offer as it is only presented to them one time.
That’s how the OTO is integrated into the upsell process.
Integrating Upsells or OTOs into 1ShoppingCart
So how does this work with 1ShoppingCart? The upsell module in 1ShoppingCart is fairly new, having been added in the past year. It’s not an intrusive upsell but works more like Amazon’s upsell by displaying items that are related to the item being purchased (Customers who bought this book also bought…). But you can still integrate a more conspicuous upsell and OTO by setting up different pages on your hub site.
Let’s look at the upsell at full retail first:
The first page you would need is the salespage for the exercise DVDs. Your buy now button would lead to a different page on your site describing the resistance bands upsell with another order button or a no thanks button. In 1ShoppingCart, you would need to set up a product for the Exercise DVDs and a different product for the Resistance Bands. Then you would need to set up a bundle offer in 1ShoppingCart to bundle the DVD with the resistance bands. The product link for the bundle is attached to the Buy Now button and the buyer passes through to the check out page with both items in their shopping cart. The No Thanks button is coded with the product link for the Exercise DVD only and the buyer passes through to the check out page.
The One Time Offer Checkout
Again you would need a salespage for the exercise DVDs. Your buy now button would lead to a different page on your site describing the one time discount of 50%. This page would need to be a true one time offer page that would drop a cookie to indicate that the buyer has seen this page. If they try to browse back, they are prevented from seeing this page and prevented with the non-OTO page from your hub site. So you would need to set up two different pages: one with the one time offer and one with the non-OTO offer (what they will see if they decide to bypass the original offer). In this example, we’ll offer the resistance bands at 25% discount.
You will also need to obtain an OTO script so that your offer is truly a one-time offer. There’s nothing that destroys trust and credible more than saying it’s a one-time offer and then failing to deliver on that promise. You can access a free one-time offer script that I’ve used in the past by clicking here. Or you can checkout iQuanSite.com for no mess, no coding one time offer pages that you enable with the click of a button rather than having to install a script.
In 1ShoppingCart, you would need a product set up for the exercise DVDs, a product set up for the resistance bands at 50% retail and then a product set up for the resistance bands at 25% retail. You would also need to set up a bundle for the DVDs and Resistance Bands 50% Discount and a separate bundle for the DVDs and Resistance Bands 25% Discount.
Let’s focus on the OTO page first. This page would describe the offer of the resistance bands at 50% discount and stress that it’s a one-time offer – if they click No thanks, they will never see this offer again.
The Buy Now button on this page would be coded to add the bundle DVDs + 50% discount to their shopping cart and pass them through to the checkout page.
The No Thanks button would be coded to add only the Exercise DVDs to their shopping cart and pass them through to the checkout page. This buyer decides at this point that they really do want the resistance bands so they click back to add them and are taken to the non-OTO page.
The non-OTO page needs to describe why they are not seeing the original offer and the replacement offer of the 25% discount.
The Buy Now button on this page would be coded to discard the original product (exercise DVD only) in the cart and add the bundle Exercise DVDs + 25% discount and pass them through to the checkout page. The No Thanks button would just pass them through to the checkout page.
One time offers and upsells are great persuasive triggers that can easily be incorporated into any sales process. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them by clicking on the comments link below.
[…] had experience with OTO’s and have written about one-time-offer strategies before but had previously only used them on a hosted blogging platform or on a stand alone […]
I read that the upsell offer should only come AFTER completion of the sale, not before it as you recommend. What’s your reasoning? Thanks!
I strongly feel that OTOs just make your customers angry and trust you less.
Jill, as a customer, I generally don’t like them and agree with you, however, as a marketer you can’t ignore the facts. And the fact is: they work….if you do them after the initial sale is completed. So why not just make the full offer up front or before the purchase? Because, people are more likely to spend money if whatever they are buying costs less. However, after they have already bought from a particular vendor, they are more likely to spend with that vendor again.
For example, let’s say I had something I wanted to sell and I planned to sell it for $20. However it’s a service and I also could split it up into something that costs $5 and something that costs $15. So I basically have 3 options for how to do this:
1. Sell the whole thing for $20 all at once
2. Sell it for $5 with a $15 upgrade or option shown right on the page so people can buy it with or without the more expensive add-on.
3. Sell it for $5 never mentioning the other option until after the sale has gone through and then offering the additional features / service for $15 separately.
If I go for the #1 option, and only offer it as a $20 service with everything, I’m going to have less sales because I am forcing customers to commit to a larger purchase. They only have 2 choices, buy or don’t buy. Only people who really want everything the $20 package offers will go for it.
If I go for #2, now they are given a choice, but they may decide not to buy in this case because they want to think about if they are going to get it with the optional service or not. Meaning, Even if they know they can add the optional service part later, it makes some buyers hesitate, and they just think “oh I’ll come back after I decide” (and some never come back)
With #3, I’m offering them something at a very low price with no options. They can evaluate the offer with no confusion, no doubts. either they agree it’s a good deal and something they want or they don’t. It’s only 1 choice again (buy or no) but I’m making it less “painful” to decide because I have a smaller offer.
Now they decide to buy, and after completion I offer the optional service / upgrade. Some might get mad, but some will also think about it, and some will decide to buy it. The people who would have likely purchased the $20 all at once deal will still do so, and some of the people who would have wanted to think about it, and even some who would NOT have bought the $20 deal, will now do so because they already have decided to trust you and spend money.