Top Upsell Ideas for DTC Brands: Boost Sales for Fashion & Beauty Products

Are you planning to sell your items directly to your customers rather than depending on wholesalers or retailers? If yes, then as a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand, you need to explore marketing strategies such as upsell ideas to maximize your revenue. The direct-to-consumer (DTC) style of e-commerce began with easy-to-deliver items, such as cosmetics, clothing, and accessories. Now, many other industries, such as electronics, are also enjoying success in the DTC style of shipping. But how are the top DTC brands finding success? They successfully use upselling as a key strategy. If you are looking for the best upsell ideas to implement in your DTC marketing plan, you are in the right place. In this article, we will get into some of the best upselling ideas for fashion and cosmetics. Additionally, we will also look into other DTC businesses where you can implement these ideas. However, let’s start by defining what upselling is and its significance in the fashion and beauty industries.

What is Upselling?

Businesses use upselling as a marketing technique by recommending related products during the customer’s buying journey. You can offer upgraded versions of the customer’s selected item or bundle complementary products together. For example, if someone buys a shirt, you can suggest matching trousers and a belt to complete the look. This encourages customers to purchase more, thereby increasing your average order value. Besides increasing your average order value, what other benefits does upselling have for fashion and beauty brands?

Why Does Upselling Matter for Fashion & Beauty Brands?

Upselling can increase your brand’s revenue, but everyone understands that. Let’s learn its importance in brief below:

Helps move inventory faster

Every brand has slow-moving items in its inventory. Implementing upsell ideas will help quickly move those items from the storage. For example, if you have hair sprays that aren't selling, you can bundle them together with a hair oil, conditioner, and round brush and sell them as a bundle.

It’s easier to retain existing customers

80% of your long-term profits come from 20% of your existing customers. Why implement marketing strategies to attract new customers repeatedly when you have the opportunity to retain existing ones? Effective upsell ideas will increase your customer lifetime value. These customers will become your brand ambassadors to promote your products on their channels.

Increases customer satisfaction

If your customer gets good value for their money, their satisfaction with your brand will skyrocket. Moreover, providing your customers with incredible product bundles will always keep them coming back to your store. Now that the benefits are out of the way, let’s get into some practical upsell ideas that resonate with fashion brands.

5 Best Upselling Strategies for Fashion Brands

#1 ‘Complete Your Look’ Bundle

Everybody wants to wear outfits that match. The ‘Complete your look’ bundle is an excellent way to suggest items that go well with the item the customer is trying to buy. Use customer data and fashion expertise to recommend complementary items in the customer’s buying journey. You can pair many types of clothes and accessories to create ‘the complete look’ in the bundle.

#2 ‘What’s Popular’ Upsell

In fashion, people want to wear what’s trending or new. Therefore, one of the best upsell ideas in fashion is always ‘What’s popular’ look. You can use this upsell strategy in many ways. The most common one is always suggesting trending fashion outfits for customers to buy. Moreover, brands can create a bundle of trending fashion wardrobes. All these upsell ideas use the ‘What’s popular right now’ mindset in the fashion world.

#3 The Seasonal Upsell

Offering discounts during a season is nothing new for fashion brands. Yet so many fashion brands miss out on this. Fashion changes with the seasons, and offering upsell items that suit the weather will attract more clicks. This is why your upselling strategies should take the season into account. Do not suggest items or offer product bundles that are out of season. Apart from these, Black Friday & Cyber Monday are also popular examples of seasonal upsells.

#4 The Holiday Upsell

One thing people cannot get rid of during the holiday season is shopping. The fashion industry doesn’t stay behind during the holidays. If you are running a fashion store, make use of the holiday season to style and offer clothes and accessories that people want to wear. For example, you can add a filter where you can showcase your Christmas apparel for people to add to their wardrobes.

#5 Bonus Upsell Idea for Fashion

People always want to take good care of their clothes. Why not offer a bundle or add-on with laundry essentials? You could include laundry detergents, fabric softeners, or stain removers that help customers keep their new outfits fresh and looking great for a more extended period. Now that we’ve explored fashion upsells, let’s dive into practical strategies for beauty brands.

Top 4 Upselling Ideas for Beauty Brands

#1 Product Bundles

The personal care industry offers a wide range of products. Skincare, hair care, and nail care, just to name a few. Hence, it’s easy to create product bundles when you are selling cosmetics. You can simply create your bundle targeting different personal care items. Conditioners & serums for hair, manicure & pedicure sets for nails, and moisturizers & sunscreens for skincare. If you use e-commerce platforms like Shopify, apps like iCart Cart Drawer Cart Upsell can boost your average order value with their Shopify in cart upsell features. iCart provides both in-cart upsell and checkout page upsell services.

#2 Travel Kit

Travel-size beauty products are a hit with busy customers on the go. Another great upsell idea is to provide travel-size versions of beauty products. These are perfect for people who want their beauty products handy if they are going away for a vacation or just for everyday office use. Make sure the packaging of this version fits well into a purse or a carry bag. The goal of this kit is that it should be convenient to carry around. You can add products that people easily apply on their body every day, such as lip balm, hair oil, sunscreen or moisturizer.

#3 Subscription Boxes

Personal care is something people don’t just stop using. Whether you are offering nail polishes, shampoos, or makeup products, these items are everyday essentials for some people. Adding subscription boxes to your store helps you target people for whom everyday personal care is essential. Make sure you add a timeline for each box, like when they can subscribe, discounts offered, emails for reminders and add-ons to create their own boxes if necessary.

#4 Try it Before You Buy it

Beauty salons have been implementing this strategy for years, and now it has come online. Let customers try products at home to boost confidence and collect valuable reviews. This is a great strategy for many reasons. 1. Beauty influencers will do your upselling for you. 2. You can collect customer reviews and use them in your marketing strategy. 3. You can collect user-generated content about your products. Be confident in providing upselling items for free because beauty influencers can make or break your brand. These are just fashion and beauty products. Are there other DTC brands where you can implement upselling?

Other DTC Brands Where You Can Use Upselling Strategies

There are many other DTC brands that you can sell online and use similar upselling strategies as in fashion and beauty products.

Food & Beverages

• Ready-to-eat meals
• Protein bars
• Juices and smoothies
• Tea blends

Consumer Electronics

• Smartphones
• Headphones
• Smart watches

Home & Furniture

• Sofas
• Rugs
• Mattresses
• Coffee tables

Home & Furniture

• Sneakers
• Sandals
• Slippers
• Socks
• Running shoes

Wrapping Up: Mix & Match Upselling Ideas for Maximum Impact

Implementing creative upsell ideas will help increase your fashion or cosmetics store’s average order value. Of all the upselling ideas that you have learnt, select the ones based on your market research and goals. Try mixing and matching upselling strategies by analyzing the customer data. If you want to significantly boost your brand's growth in 2025, you should definitely add upselling to your marketing strategy.

FAQs

1. Where can I sell fashion and beauty products online? You can sell fashion and beauty products on online marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy, or eBay. Moreover, you can also use e-commerce platforms like Shopify to create your own store. 2. How to sell fashion products on Instagram? Meta offers an online marketplace where you can set up your store and sell fashion products on Instagram. 3. Is selling beauty products profitable? Yes. Everybody needs personal care products. So, selling beauty products is very profitable. 4. How to identify upsell opportunities? The best way to identify upsell opportunities is to analyze your customer data. See which items are frequently bought together. Create a bundle of these products or recommend any one product from the list in the customer’s buying journey. 5. How to upsell on Shopify? You can use third-party applications such as iCart, the upsell application, to upsell in cart Shopify.