upsell

English

Etymology

From up- +‎ sell.

Verb

upsell (third-person singular simple present upsells, present participle upselling, simple past and past participle upsold)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To persuade a customer to buy more items, or more expensive items, than they had intended.

   I gave up on subscribing to their SaaS because they wouldn't quit the constant attempts to upsell.

   They were obsessed with trying to upsell me over and over again.

   • 2018, Roddy Mullin, Promotional Marketing‎^[1], Routledge, →ISBN:

     Communicate an amazing deal to get people into your store and then when that product is no longer available, switch them and upsell them to a more expensive product.

   • 2024 September 20, Nathaniel Meyersohn, “McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks were feared as job killers. Instead, something surprising happened”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Even some of the benefits of kiosks touted by chains — they upsell customers by suggesting menu items and speed up orders — don’t always play out.

Related terms

• oversell

 

Translations

to persuade a customer to buy more than intended

• Arabic: زَايَدَ (zāyada)
• Spanish: sobrevender (es)

See also

• bait and switch

Noun

upsell (plural upsells)

1. The act of making such a sale.

Anagrams

• sell up