As part of a wider initiative to up basket spend, staff at Greens Retail have seen sales soar thanks to The Big Upsell Challenge, where stores in the group are pitted against one another and tasked with upselling a particular product.
The first challenge saw 7,000 units of Swizzels Squashies sold over seven days – an increase of 500% compared to an average week. The winning store, Greens of Portlethen in Aberdeenshire, sold 809 units – 13.5% more than its target.
Another challenge saw Fisher & Donaldson Fudge Doughnut sales grow 108%.
The store achieving the biggest sales for each upsell product was given a prize and some shops have produced leaderboards to track their performance, with managers rewarding the top-performing colleagues.
Ahead of the first challenge, all stores were shown a short customer service video, while upselling techniques and phrases were communicated via a company-wide video call.
After its huge success, Green’s has made The Big Upsell Challenge a mainstay and the team is keen to boost sales further. “We review the performance weekly with all managers on a shared call, encouraging them to share their tips and tricks,” said head of marketing Jack Brady. “We are exploring how we can amplify these [upsells] with more engaging PoS and physical displays at the till point.”
Not only has the initiative worked a treat on sales, it has also lifted the spirits of employees and buttressed supplier ties. “The store teams had fun during the challenges, benefitting from a boost in morale, and being inspired by seeing what’s possible if they can all rally together behind a common goal,” he said. “Colleagues are clearly having fun coming up with clever ways to entice customers, and we’ve seen some very creative posts on social media.
“In addition, we strengthen our relationships with suppliers by showing that we can smash sales targets.”
He encouraged more suppliers to take part in the initiative by contacting Supplier Relations Manager, Dominic Plomer-Roberts dominic.plomer-roberts@greens.co.uk.
