What is Downsell? Where, When, and How to Use It As A Solution!

Owning a WooCommerce store is not easy. Why? Because you can incorporate all the essential marketing strategies, and your customers are still not ready to say “yes” to your first appealing offer. Sometimes, the hesitation is not necessarily about your product or how you are marketing it. Mostly, it is about the price or the fear of commitment to your brand. This is where the concept of “Downsell” comes into play.

Downselling is the art of offering products at a lower price or presenting the customers with alternatives when they decline the primary offer. By incorporating this marketing strategy, you can avoid losing the customer entirely, making your WooCommerce store more affordable and flexible.

The outcome? The customer stays engaged with your store.

This blog educates merchants on the concept of downsell, when to use downsell strategies, and how to implement them for your WooCommerce store.  Furthermore, we will demonstrate how Upsell Funnel Builder can be used to effectively incorporate downsell strategies for your business.

What Is Downselling?

Let’s start with the basics – What is Downselling?

Imagine you are on a website, and you add a product, say a gym membership of 6 months for $33, to your cart, but end up abandoning it. In this situation, the marketer can offer you the same gym membership for say $28. Now, you will not only make a purchase but will also be more inclined towards this particular brand. This is downselling in a nutshell.

This marketing strategy is different from upselling, while upselling marketers offer a premium or upgraded version of the product. In the case of downselling, the objective is to keep customers from walking away entirely.

The real power of downselling lies in the customer’s psychology. When you show empathy for budget-conscious customers by offering better, affordable options rather than hard-selling, you win your customers’ trust. Even though you see the immediate revenue per transaction is low, you end up gaining a loyal customer who may return later for a bigger purchase.

Let’s address the main question – why should businesses care about downselling in the first place?

Why Does Downselling Matter To Businesses?

Before we jump into the examples and different practices to implement down-selling, we should also understand why it is so important and why down-selling matters to businesses. It not only boosts sales but also provides other benefits.

Did you know that there are different types of downselling?

There might be many reasons why businesses should start downselling. We will address the important ones in this blog…

• Helps In Recovering Lost Sales & Opportunities

When a customers reject your primary offer, it doesn’t always mean they are not interested. This also means that maybe the price that you are offering is higher than your competitors or their expectations. Cart Abandonment Trends for 2025 shows about 48% of customer abandoned their carts because of extra costs for a product that they wanted to buy.

Downselling in this case allows merchants to step in and offer a solution that might be low, but helps to capture the revenue instead of losing the sale entirely. Always remember – a smaller transaction is better than no transaction at all.

Another reason to implement downselling – many eCommerce merchants suffer from the problem of overstocking. This can become a huge concern over time. Downselling comes to the rescue when you are overstocked. How? Merchants can offer products at lower price levels than other similar items. So, downselling not only helps with customer retention and boosts revenue, but it can also help you eliminate the issue of overstock.

• Helps With Customer Retention & Loyalty

Customer retention is extremely important to fight today’s competitive environment. Downselling is not just a way to save a sale, but also to retain the customer and build long-lasting relationships with them.

But why do merchants put such emphasis on customer retention? Let’s find out…

When you are downselling a product or service, you are offering your customers affordable options more the same product that they refused. This flexibility builds trust and keeps customers from turning to your competitors. The same flexibility also shows that you care about your customers and their needs.

Think of downselling as a display of empathy that your brand shows towards its customers. The results? Loyal customers become brand ambassadors and refer more customers to your business. Now that you are well aware of the advantages, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of downselling…

When And Where To Use Downselling Strategies?

Downselling is most effective when used by the right industries at the right time and place during a buyer’s journey. Because if you offer it early, then it may lower the perceived value of your primary offer, or if placed too late, you might be at risk of losing your customer.

What is the key to mastering the art of downselling? Balance.

1. At Checkout, when the customer is all set to leave your WooCommerce store, after not only rejected your primary offer but also your upsell offer. For example, if a customer refuses an offer of a 3-month membership of $99 for a WooCommerce plugin, try offering a trial pack of $69 before they complete the payment.
2. During Cart Abandonment, the customer has added a product or service to their cart but is hesitant to make the final purchase. In this scenario, you can offer a smaller package, a cheaper variation of the same product/service, or a discounted add-on to encourage them to finish the purchase.
3. On Product Pages, while displaying your premium products, you can try downselling by showcasing cheaper variations of the same product or affordable alternatives. This reduces bounce rates on your website.
4. In the form of Subscription Plans, in most cases, your customers are hesitant to purchase a service because of commitment issues. To solve this issue, merchants can offer a monthly plan, a trial period, or a basic package to keep them hooked to the website.
5. Sending follow-up post-purchase or cart abandonment emails is another way of downselling. Follow-up emails displaying a free trial, a smaller package, or an affordable subscription.

Now that we have addressed when to use the downselling strategies, let’s also discuss where to use them.

Where To Use the Downselling Marketing Strategy?

These are some of the many industries that can incorporate downselling strategies and can actually benefit from them –

• Software as a Service (SaaS): Imagine this scenario, a customer rejects the Professional plan at $99/month. Merchant immediately offers a trial plan at $19/month, with fewer features but still enough to cater to their basic needs.
• Online Course: You offer a student a flagship course for $999, but he says no. On the next page, you can display a single module from the course or a complementary eBook for $49.
• Service Business: When a client refuses a full brand strategy package at $5,000. You downsell by offering a smaller service, maybe a logo design package starting at $500.
• eCommerce/WooCommerce Stores: A shopper abandons a cart with a full-priced skincare set. An exit pop-up offers them a single travel-sized bottle of the most popular product for a fraction of the price.

Examples Of Effective Downsell Strategies

Let us now see how popular brands are successfully incorporating downselling into their businesses –

1. Netflix – Premium vs. Basic Plan

Netflix implements downselling when viewers are hesitant to pay for the Premium Plan ($22.99/month in the US) or Standard Plan ($15.49/month). Instead of losing them, Netflix offers a Basic Plan ($6.99/month with ads), letting viewers still access the service at a much lower price point, with fewer plan features.

2. Amazon Prime – Annual vs. Monthly Membership

Amazon, on the other hand, promotes its Annual Plan ($139/year) as the best deal. But to make the pricing affordable for customers who are hesitant to pay upfront, Amazon offers a Monthly Plan ($14.99/month).

This acts as a downsell since it reduces the annual commitment while keeping customers within the Prime environment.

3. Spotify – Premium Tiers vs. Free Version

Spotify’s Premium Individual Plan costs $11.99/month, while Family and Duo plans are higher. If a user decides not to pay, instead of losing them completely, Spotify offers a Free Plan (with ads, limited skips, and no offline downloads). And also offers a free trial period for all plans at $0 for 3 months. This downsell ensures customers still engage with the brand and often upgrade later.

How WooCommerce Stores Can Implement Downsell Easily?

Did you know that you can easily implement downselling as a marketing strategy? How? The answer is simple – Upsell Funnel Builder.

Features That Power Downselling with Our Upsell Funnel Builder –

• Multiple Funnel Offers: Merchants can create multiple bump and funnel offers on a single checkout page. This feature is perfect when the customer rejects the upsell offer; you can offer a downsell offer.
• Smart Skip Offer: Upsell Funnel Builder gives you access to the Smart Skip global feature skips the upsell and bumps the offer if the user has already bought the product. Merchants can hide the downsell offers if the customer already has the target product in the cart.
• Select the Target Products & Categories: You can select the products and categories that trigger WooCommerce upsell offers upon purchase. Offer downsells tailored to specific products or categories.
• Create Abandoned Cart Bumps: Utilize the compatibility with the WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recover plugin to create bump offers targeting the customers who have abandoned their carts. Merchants can offer downsell offers when a customer has abandoned their cart.
• Bump Product Recommendations: With this feature of the funnel builder, the merchants can set bump recommendations for bump sales, and different products listed on their platforms will reflect on the product and cart page when the customer adds a product to their cart. Offer downsell product recommendations so that the customers do not leave your website.
• Evergreen Countdown Timer: The merchants can utilize this feature to incorporate an evergreen timer on the WooCommerce checkout page, which automatically resumes whenever the page is refreshed. Use this feature to display downsell offers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• Is There A Separate Plugin For Downsell?

You will be delighted to know that Upsell Funnel Builder helps you run different kinds of offers – upsell, cross-sell, and downsell.

• What Is The Difference Between Up-Selling And Down-Selling?

This marketing strategy is different from upselling, while upselling marketers offer a premium or upgraded version of the product. The objective here is to keep the customers walking away entirely.

• When Is The Best Time To Use A Downsell Offer?

Downselling is most effective when used by the right industries at the right time and right place during a buyer’s journey.

1. At Checkout, when the customer is all set to leave your WooCommerce store, after not only rejected your primary offer but also your upsell offer.
2. During Cart Abandonment, the customer has added a product or service to their cart but is hesitant to make the final purchase.
3. On Product Pages, while displaying your premium products, you can try downselling by showcasing cheaper variations of the same product.
4. In the form of Subscription Plans, in most cases, your customers are hesitant to purchase a service because of commitment issues.
5. Sending follow-up post-purchase or cart abandonment emails is another way of downselling.

• Will Downselling Devalue My Main Product Or Service?

Merchants might think that downselling can devalue your main product or service in the short run. But that is not the case because you are actually making your customers stay instead of losing them entirely.

• What’s The Best Way To Follow Up With A Customer Who Has Purchased A Downsell?

The best way to follow up with a customer who has purchased a downsell is to send a thank-you email. In this email, you can highlight the value of their purchase, and when you have established trust, you can reintroduce upsells or premium versions of your product.

Over To You

Downselling can benefit your WooCommerce store when used strategically, keeping in mind the customer’s experience and satisfaction. And in the long run, downselling can do more than just fill up blank spaces on your product pages.  It eventually helps you increase profits and overall revenue.

Upsell Funnel Builder is a WooCommerce plugin that you can use to display downselling offers in the best possible way. Functionalities like evergreen timer, cart abandonment offers, bump recommendations, and many more.

Remember, at the end of the day, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by simply adding downselling to your existing marketing strategy.