An example from Raphael
Here’s a good example of how to offer upsells/cross-sells when adding to cart. This was extracted from a video shared by CRO expert Raphael Paulin-Daigle on his LinkedIn.
See the other two ways he talks about by watching his video on LinkedIn:
Relevance, relevance, relevance
In the example below of what not to do, I added a dress for a todler of 12-24 months. And one of the products recommended is for kids 5-6 years old. That is not a relevant suggestion.
Same with OKA below
I just added a chair, and it recommends similar chairs. It might cause me to doubt my choice and compare, which will delay my buying decision. Cross-sells would be better here.

Stats by VWO
According to VWO (Source), about 4% of customers buy upsells while less than 0.5% of customers go for a cross-sell. But in the checkout page, cross-selling goes up to a 3% conversion rate.
Upselling
- Promote your most reviewed or most sold products
- Give more prominent space for the upsell, display testimonials for the upsell
- Make sure the upsells are not more than 25% costlier than the original product
- Make add-on features like insurance pre-selected and ask customers to deselect if not required
- Explain why the upsell is meant for them, why it’s better for them
And make sure the products are from the same category!
Cross-selling
- Cross-sell products should be at least 60% cheaper than the product added to cart
- Go for products that are easily forgotten
But if your cross-sell section isn’t convincing enough, it could do more harm than good, as demonstrated by this case study – they improved their conversions by 5.6% by removing the cross-sells from their product pages.