Cross-selling
What is cross-selling?
Cross-selling is offering a product that completes the one a customer is already buying — a case with a phone, filters with a coffee machine. The offer sits on the product page, in the basket or in the email after the order, and it works when the connection is obvious. It is not an upsell, which offers a more expensive version of the same product.
Example
A shop takes 1,000 orders a month at an average of €48, so €48,000 of turnover. Filters and a cleaning solution are offered alongside the coffee machines; 9 per cent of orders take one, at €11 on average.
That is 90 accepted offers at €11 — €990 of extra turnover, and an average order of €48.99 instead of €48. Small per order, and not small over a year: about €11,900, from the same customers and the same advertising budget.
That is what makes cross-selling cheap growth: the customer acquisition cost has already been paid. The amounts are illustrative; the shape of the sum is not.
Why it matters for a business
The completing product often carries a better margin than the main one, and it is chosen in seconds because the decision has already been made. The link has to be real, though: filters with a machine, yes; a second machine with a machine, no.
Placement matters. On the product page the offer informs; in the basket it distracts if it is large; after the order it interrupts nothing and is often accepted. Two suggestions are enough — a list of eight is scrolled past.
One practical condition: the suggestions have to know the stock and never show a sold-out item. On a small catalogue, pairs set by hand beat an automatic recommendation, because the algorithm needs volume to be any good. We set those rules up during online store development.
How to improve it
- Start with the five best sellers and give each of them two sensible companions.
- Offer the cheaper item with the dearer one, not the other way round.
- Watch the conversion rate: more revenue per order across fewer orders is not a gain.
- Try the email after the order before rearranging the basket.
- Hide suggestions for out-of-stock items automatically.