Cross-selling (offering items related to the product like accessories and warranties) and up-selling (suggesting more expensive alternatives) are effective merchandising tools both online and offline. You could think of cross-selling as an etailer’s answer to “would you like fries with that?”
Cross-Selling and up-selling have a number of benefits, and can increase:
- average order value
- conversion rates by guiding customers to appropriate alternatives if a product they’re viewing isn’t right
- exposure for high margin items
- customer satisfaction by suggesting related items to enhance or augment the product and user experience
- awareness about the depth of your product offering
There are many places on your website where you can cross-sell, the most common being the product page and on the view cart page - right before checkout. You can also cross-sell on the home page (if you logged a user’s last visit or they sign in) or in a post-purchase email. Today we’ll just focus on the product pages and view cart.
Not all retailers use cross-selling in both areas, some only cross-sell on the product pages to avoid confusion, indecision and cart abandonment upon checkout. It’s important to cross-sell wisely on view cart pages as this is a valid concern - let’s look at some dos and don’ts for both product pages and view cart pages, and then dig into some real life examples from top retailers.
Cross-Selling Dos
- Show relevant items whether they are accessories or alternatives to the same product
- Show larger sizes or other same-product up-sells when possible (Example: Tiger Direct)
- Use personal words like “you” rather than “we” - “You Might Also Like” vs. “We Suggest”
- Use emotional words like “need” and “want” (Examples: Palm.com “Need accessories?” and McDonald’s “Do you want fries with that?”)
- Use words like “Special Offers,” “Special Offers for You” or “Great Deals” to communicate savings and value
- Create urgency with “Limited Time Offer” or “Limited Quantities” (Example: Tiger Direct)
- Do save your sale / low margin items for the view cart page. Show regular priced / high margin alternatives from the product pages.
- Make it easy to return to the product page after you add a suggested item - even better to keep shopper on the product page but clearly let the shopper know an item was added to the cart
- Offer a mix of price points when suggesting items on the view cart page
- Show “no brainers” like gift cards, warranties, batteries et cetera that are easily understood by the customer, don’t require a click away from the page and are easy sellers
- Offer discounts on one item when you buy another item on the “view cart/bag/basket” page (Examples: Blue Nile and Macy’s)
- Provide enough detail on add-ons (thumbnail, price and description) so customer is less likely to click away from cart page
- Let the customer check off add-ons from the view cart page rather than buttons for each product. Customers may think adding a product to the cart will take them away from the cart page and they’ll get lost (Example: Palm.com)
- It’s a good idea to show “top rated” suggestions along with review content to build trust and catch interest. I haven’t found an example of this, please comment if you’ve seen one
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Cross-Selling Tips for Online Retailers »
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Comments(5) 
We just wrapped up our webinar on merchandising (cross-selling and up-selling) with Mike Svatek of Baynote. 
