Upselling consumables: refills, bigger sizes and the second unit
If your products run out — coffee, skincare, filters, supplements, pet food, candles — you have an advantage most stores don’t: the customer will need the same thing again. Upsells in these stores are less about persuading and more about timing: offering now what the customer would otherwise order next month.
1. The refill, or what goes with the device
The device and what goes in it: the diffuser and its oil, the bottle and its filter, the razor and its blades. It is the clearest offer there is, because the customer sees at once that they will need it. It is also a good fit for after payment: no choice to make, a moderate price, an obvious link.
2. The bigger size
A customer buying the 250 g bag is a candidate for the 1 kg bag, if the price per unit is visibly better. That is a true upsell — a better version of the same purchase — and it belongs before payment, while the order can still change. Show the saving per unit, not only the total.
3. The second unit
“Add a second one for 20% less” works when the product is used up at a steady pace. It is the order most customers would have placed themselves a few weeks later, brought forward with a small incentive.
The trap: the product already in the cart
Many upsell apps refuse, by design, to offer a product that is already in the order. For most stores that is the right rule: a second pair of the same shoes makes little sense. For consumables it is exactly the wrong one, since the second unit is the offer. Check that your app lets you allow it, offer by offer.
Don’t give away what would have come anyway
Your regular customers were going to reorder. A discount on the second unit brings their next order forward; it doesn’t necessarily create a new one. Keep the discount modest and judge the offer over a few months. If sales per customer rise, it works. If customers simply order less often, you have moved revenue around and paid a discount for it.
A word on subscriptions
If you sell subscriptions, the question changes: the best offer is often to add an item to the subscription rather than to a single order. That depends on your subscription app. A classic upsell app only adds to the current order.
With FlatUpsell
FlatUpsell won’t offer a product that is already in the cart or in the order, unless you allow it for that offer. The switch exists for consumables: turn it on for your refill and second-unit offers, and leave it off everywhere else.