Ecommerce Cross-Selling: Definition, Examples, & Guide
Cross Selling Guide (What It Is, Examples, + Tips For Ecommerce)
When a new lead enters your sales funnel, it takes time and money to get them to convert. You shouldn't go to all that effort just to see customers purchase one item and never look back.
You need to ensure new customers get the most value from your business. That way, it’ll be easier to grow brand loyalty and generate additional revenue from the same customers again and again.
Cross-selling is a useful strategy to retain customers and increase their lifetime value. This 101-guide will explain how cross-selling works, how it benefits your business, and why it's a great strategy.
Retain your customers, improve their experience, and help them discover new products using Route.
What is cross-selling in ecommerce?
Cross-selling means selling additional items or services to an existing customer. The goal of cross-selling is to get your customers to buy complementary products from you instead of your competitors.
If you do it right, cross-selling helps customers gain more value from the product or service they’re purchasing since you’ve already anticipated their future needs. It can also help your business increase revenue by 20% and profits by 30%, according to McKinsey.
Examples of cross-selling
Capitalizing on cross-selling opportunities can increase your average revenue per customer (ARPC). Here are some examples of when cross-selling improves the checkout experience.
When ordering food
If you've ever ordered fast food online from a delivery app, you've probably experienced cross-selling. When you select your hamburger, you often get asked if you want to add fries and a soda. McDonald's makes 15-40% extra annual revenue from cross-selling alone.
When purchasing electronics
When you buy a TV from an online electronics retailer, it’s likely you’ll be invited to purchase a TV wall mount. Check out this example from Amazon, and use it to think of product combinations you can offer on your site.
When buying toys with batteries
By including a one-click option to add the right batteries at the checkout, the retailer makes your experience of buying a battery-operated toy way more convenient—while convincing you to make an additional purchase with them instead of a third-party. You can do the same if you sell any products that require additional tools or equipment to use.
Cross-selling vs upselling: What’s the difference?
It’s common to confuse cross-selling with upselling. They’re both parts of the purchasing experience that help increase the average order value (AOV).
Cross-selling means selling a different but complementary product, e.g. batteries for toys. Upselling, on the other hand, means increasing the price of a product by offering higher value, e.g. changing from a personal to a Spotify family subscription.
Here’s an example that uses both cross-selling and upselling strategies. Imagine you visit the Ikea online store to buy a desk for your office. You’re planning to get a simple desk, with no bells and whistles. But as soon as you add it to your cart, you get a pop-up showing a standing desk for an extra 10%. When you open your cart, you see a “frequently bought together” sidebar offering an office chair. If you change the regular desk for the standing one, it was an upsell; if you also buy the chair; a cross-sell.
The importance of ecommerce cross-selling for your business
Cross-selling can help you improve retention but it can also attract the wrong type of customer. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of cross-selling.
Advantages of cross-selling
Disadvantages of cross-selling
How to implement an effective cross-selling strategy for ecommerce businesses
Every ecommerce business should have a personalized cross-selling strategy based on what sells and how the customers behave. To get you started, here’s a high-level guide:
When should you cross-sell?
Cross-selling works really well when your customer is already browsing your products or adding items to their cart. Here are the best times to cross-sell:
At checkout
When the customer is about to pay for their order you can:
When they’re browsing products and adding to their cart
As soon as the customer adds something to the cart, offer them the option to buy a different product.
Checking their email
Use emails as a touchpoint to offer complementary products to your customers. You can:
Through on- and off-site retargeting
Use your customers’ purchasing data to retarget ads to them on- and off-site. That means creating personalized ads that invite them to buy similar or complementary products to what they previously purchased—on your website or social media.
Cross-selling dos
Cross-selling don’ts
Route offers ecommerce cross-selling options for merchants
Cross-selling is one of the key players of the ecommerce post-purchase experience. But it does also risk generating more admin and support work.
Choosing Route as your post-purchase provider to handle package protection and tracking means you won’t need to answer customers’ “where’s my order?’ (WISMO) questions—we’ll solve them for you.
Also, if you have a Shopify ecommerce website, you can use the Route Grow plan to cross-sell. Use this plan to provide your shoppers with personalized product recommendations and improve the CLV.
Is cross-selling worth it?
Cross-selling is a highly effective sales technique that allows you to increase the average revenue per user and reduce the CAC:CLV ratio. This technique can increase customer loyalty since they have double the chances to try and fall in love with your products.
To cross-sell properly, you need to:
With Route, carbon-neutral shipping and package protection is available as a cross-sell for every merchant that uses our services. This invites your customers to build an affectionate bond with your brand as we’ll protect and replace their package in case of theft, loss, or damage—while also protecting the planet.