upselling
persuading a customer to buy a more expensive option
In more detail
1. (noun) the practice of persuading a customer to buy a more expensive or higher-quality product instead of the one they originally wanted
2. (verb) to try to sell someone a more expensive or better product than what they asked for
Examples
- 1. The car salesman used upselling techniques to get customers to choose the luxury model.
- 2. The store upsells customers by suggesting premium versions of products at checkout.
How to use upselling
Upselling is a commercial or sales term describing the persuasion strategy of encouraging customers to purchase more expensive, premium, or higher-value items. It is commonly used in retail, hospitality, and service industries. Unlike cross-selling (offering related products), upselling specifically targets a better or pricier version of what the customer already wants.
Common phrases
- upselling techniques
- upselling strategy
- resist upselling
- upselling tactics
- upselling opportunity
Synonyms
cross-selling · trading up · upgrade selling · hard sell
Word family
upsell (verb/noun) · upseller (noun)
A common mistake
Learners sometimes confuse upselling with cross-selling; upselling promotes a superior or more expensive version of the same product, while cross-selling suggests complementary products.
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