Sunday, December 5, 2010

Stealth Up-Selling

In my vast experience as a shopper, I have seen many tricks for "upselling." Suggesting, hinting, cajoling, discounting- it goes on.

The other day at Footlocker though, really stuck with me.

We were buying a pair of running shoes. When the employee got the right size for us, he let my cousin try the right shoe on- as is.

For the left shoe on, he had already stuck on an insole (worth $19.99) while he was still in the back. He did not mention anything about it to us. But as soon as my cousin tried the left shoe on, he could FEEL the difference.

Of course, he asked why the left one felt better. The salesperson, conveniently waiting for this question, launched into an explanation of the awesomeness of the insole.

Needless to say, we bought the insoles with the shoes.

Letting the customer experience the difference- the product benefits- without acting like it is an "upsell" - can be much more effective.

Thank you for the photos in this post.


  1. haha, that's really true - happened to me as well!

  2. And you guys fell for it ? Haven't you considered that maybe the insole that came with the shoe may have been replaced with a shoddier version or maybe taken out all together to make the $20 sole "feel" great ? Personally, such a selling tactic would have forced me to take my business elsewhere along with a few profanities aimed at the unscrupulous sales person.

    But then again I'm also not the type of person who would be buying running shoes in December.

  3. Haha sneaky. I like it.

  4. Congratulations on your smart shopping habits Anonymous! I'm pretty sure nothing was done to the other shoe- but the tactic forced us to try the insole we otherwise would've refused to.

  5. I like this anonymous fellow. He sounds like someone who would willingly pay $350 to take a girl to a Taylor Swift concert on a first date in the hopes of getting lucky at the end of the night. So at the end of the day, I guess someone's getting 'screwed' one way or another.

    But then again, I'm not the type of person who would make general assumptions about other people.

  6. Good to see that you haven't given up on blogging. Judging from the frequency of your posts these past couple of months, I was worried we weren't gonna see anything from you this month.
    Good luck on your exams :D.