upsell

verbC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — sell sits at #444neutral

Other forms: upselling

To upsell is to persuade a customer to buy the dearer version. Upsell the larger size.

It works best when the difference is small and the benefit is obvious. To upsell badly loses the sale entirely, which is why staff are trained to offer rather than push.

Definitions of upsell

1verbupsellTo persuade a customer to buy the dearer version.C1
“They upsell the extended warranty on nearly every sale.”

upsell is a selling.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*selh₁-
Proto-Germanic
*saljaną
Proto-West Germanic
*salljan
Old English
sellan — give; give up for money
Middle English
sellen
English
sell
English, today
upsell

From up- + sell. sell comes from Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic salljan, from Proto-Germanic saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European selh₁-. 2 Cognate with Scots sell (“to sell”), Danish sælge (“to sell”), Norwegian Bokmål selge (“to sell”), Norwegian Nynorsk selja, selje (“to sell”), Swedish sälja (“to sell”), Faroese and Icelandic selja (“to sell”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (“to pay tribute, make an offer”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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