Upsell email examples and strategies

This email from Underwear Expert lets the customer know their order is about to be shipped while offering them the option to add some funky socks. The call-to-action buttons are very clear. They don’t send the customer back to the online store but allow them to instantly add socks to their cart for easy checkout. This makes it very easy for them to purchase more than they initially intended to.

If you sign up for MailCharts and browse around our database, you’ll see many upselling email examples like this one from top ecommerce brands.

Easier than offering an upsell is recommending complementary products to the one the customer just bought. These can even be lower-priced, making an impulse buy more likely. When it comes to cross-sell email examples, this one from Adidas is really good. It thanks the customer for their recent purchase but also illustrates their look might not be complete yet through an animated headline that at first has letters missing. The brand then suggests a few products that would go great with the customer’s purchase, making it easy for them to click and buy.

Sending cross-sell emails can be a great tactic for subscription services. In this example, Hydrant alerts subscribers of their upcoming subscription box delivery. They remind the subscriber of their exclusive member pricing which lowers the chance of them canceling their subscription.

Hydrant then uses a big bold font to indicate not only what the customer already ordered but also to ask if they “want more?” And again, subscribers get discounted rates if they add a product to their order. The choice to do so is low-risk as the extra product is just a one-time add-on. 

If your product doesn’t have a premium version or your customer already bought your most expensive product, see if you can upsell through an inherent product feature or by extending your service. Book of the Month offers its subscribers a discount when they lock in their subscription for a year. They call it the “savvy” thing to do, and who doesn’t want to think of themselves as savvy? The email design is simple, focusing on nothing but the upsell offer, with a clear call-to-action to “upgrade to yearly”.

If you track purchasing behavior, you know when your customers are most likely to stock up on their favorite products, and when they don’t, you can simply send them an email to remind them they might be running low. That’s exactly what Cure does in this upsell email example. On top of that, they’re offering a $10 discount and they make it clear they’re just an email reply away if the customer has any feedback or questions. Both of these tactics serve to eliminate any doubts the recipient may have about buying a new pack of Cure.

While technically not a direct upsell, you can always offer customers a discount on their next purchase like Crocs does in this email. It’s a great way to get people to come back, especially if you put an expiry date on the discount code. Sometimes it’s better to use this tactic than to try and force an upsell or cross-sell with products that aren’t relevant to the customer.