Comments on: User Generated Cross-Sells? Why Is Nobody Doing It?

By: Sarah Cooper

Sarah Cooper — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:56:05 +0000

Linda – Thanks so much for the wonderful post! Interested readers can learn more about Polyvore on our About page here: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/about

Our application is also available as a branded experience on retail sites. What’s great about Polyvore in terms of gathering cross-selling information is that users don’t really need to be motivated by external factors to do this – they can be motivated by simply wanting to create a cute outfit for themselves! The resulting content, as well as the data about complimentary items, would be invaluable to online retail sites and improve the online shopping experience tremendously. Learn more about our retail application here: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/about#partnerships

-Sarah Cooper
Polyvore, Inc.

By: Carolyn Gardner

Carolyn Gardner — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:41 +0000

I totally agree with the credibility piece you mention here. Answering the “why” is so important and computer generated “here’s what others have bought” simply misses the mark. Adding the consumer generated option to answer WHY via “they bought this BECAUSE” gives other potential buyers that extra nudge. Great post!

By: Crowdstormer

Crowdstormer — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:14:18 +0000

I really like this idea and think it could be a lot more successful than the classic ‘write a review’ concept: review writing takes time so is only for the truly dedicated (which is very few people). I think people would find cross-selling attempts much less annoying if it looked like the recommendations were from real people.

By: d-dub

d-dub — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:07:38 +0000

iTunes does this with their iMixes: Customer generated sets of songs reminiscent of the old skool “mix tape”. As far as I can see, there are no incentives for users to create these sets, yet there are many participants. I have to admit that the cross-sell worked on me – I was looking for one song, but ended up buying an entire iMix because the creator had the same taste in music as me. Plus, it saved me from having to put together my own mix!

By: Webanalyticsbook

Webanalyticsbook — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:20:54 +0000

Would be a great idea for a CSE. A CSE could take all the merchants content and let the users play with it.Great post.

By: Arvind

Arvind — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:02:20 +0000

True!! at first glance a great idea. But the challenge lies in getting users to suggest crossells. Maybe offering an incentive to suggest crossell or displaying a list of books to click on so that the user’s choice and selection is made simpler … still thinking

By: Linda Bustos

Linda Bustos — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:45:59 +0000

Hi Tomer, I assume you’re referring to the “I bought XYZ because…” idea. Yeah, it would take a lot of encouragement to get users to participate. And it must be multiple sale customers so that makes it more difficult.

I’d love to see more of the Polyvore idea on fashion websites.

By: Tomer

Tomer — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:26:27 +0000

Yeah that’s a good idea, but you need a fairly large store and lots of time to build up that kind of cross selling database… Because only a small % would take the time to write all that info…

But I may give it a try… Nice idea

By: Kristine Remer

Kristine Remer — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:59:11 +0000

My experience with customer-generated cross sells has been wildly successful. I really like the idea of giving customers the opportunity to create recommended sets on behalf of the merchant. What a great way to keep highly engaged users on the site even longer.