You may not be familiar with the cross-selling and upselling concepts or you may confuse them, but I want to share something with you: they will help you sell more. These strategies are almost always present every time you shop online.
If you buy online, surely you have witnessed different cross-selling and upselling strategies: you may have identified some of them, but many are so subtle that, when you finish the purchase process, you wonder how you spent so much. That is why it is important that you apply them in your eCommerce NOW.
A example One of these sales techniques is when you go to buy a plane ticket: before hitting the gold button “Finish Order”, they offer you to change the seat, add luggage, add boarding priority (upselling)… and on multiple occasions you They offer parking at the airport, and even an accommodation site for your destination (cross-selling).
Both upselling and cross-selling are usually related to each other and sometimes it is difficult to differentiate them… but they are essential both in online and offline environments. Although they are perfectly handled by lifelong salespeople, these techniques cannot always be applied, but it is important that you discover it for yourself and see its effect. In this article you will discover the definition of cross-selling and upselling in ecommerce and how to use it for your online strategy.
What is cross-selling or cross-selling: definition
Cross-selling, or cross-selling in Spanish, consists of offering the client or potential client a complementary product to their main purchase intention, whether or not they have completed their purchase.
Before continuing, we must gut this definition:
- Cross-selling consists of the strategy of selling one or more complementary productssa the main purchase intention.
- In this definition we have mentioned clients or potential clients: we need to bear in mind that this technique It is not only used with clients. You can use this technique with potential customers as well.
From a simple burger to a mega-extra-special combo, the perfect example of cross-selling:
as we have defined cross-selling is offering the potential customer a complementary product to their original purchase intention.
Imagine your favorite burger joint: you usually go there because you love cheeseburgers. At the time of asking they have offered you a special promotion, because you are a loyal customer, just for a little more money. And for some reason you always accept.
So somehow you always walk out eating extra large fries, a chocolate shake to go with your cheeseburger, and for dessert you have a giant sundae with extra strawberry and vanilla.
Has it happened to you? Remember: it is a cross-selling, complementary products to your main purchase intention.
You have arrived at said restaurant with the intention of eating a simple cheeseburger (Purchase Intention) and through an offer (Cross-Selling Strategy) you have ordered a complement, drink and dessert (Complementary Products).
Other examples of cross-selling
- An ecommerce of coffee machines: your main purchase intention is a capsule coffee machine, a natural cross-selling is to offer a package of capsules as complementary product to your main purchase intention.
- You go to a fashion e-commerce store and your main purchase intention is a flamingo swimsuit: an ideal cross-selling (complementary) is that you can offer a pair of flip-flops that combine with these products.
- You want to buy a domain on the Internet, to open your ecommerce. You decide to select a domain provider, and this domain provider also offers to be your hosting provider. This is a cross-selling (complementary sale).
How to do cross-selling or cross-selling in my ecommerce?
Cross-Selling or cross-selling can be done in your ecommerce in different phases of the purchase process (conversion funnel) in your ecommerce:
Product sheet
In the product sheet you will find different spaces to carry out cross-selling strategiesso much so that most of the templates already have designated spaces to achieve this cross-selling.
It is important that you think very carefully about the strategy to display the products in your product file. The idea is that they buy it as a complement!
For example, let’s say you go to the product sheet of some jeans, your idea is to show some photos of belts as a natural cross-selling of said pants. I invite you to go a little further: Imagine that you are looking for how to show the products related to belts with the model of jeans that is on the product sheet, your reaction would be Well, this belt goes well with these jeans!
Do not stop there, try to have a grouped product in the product sheet, the jeans you are seeing, plus the belt and some boots that go with everything and that it is only a product that you can buy once you visit that cowboy pants.
shopping cart
In the shopping cart it is also a space where you can cross-sell: I recommend that you do it very subtly with the following formula: “Given that you are going to buy XXX (Main purchase intention) we recommend that you add YYY & ZZZ (Complementary products) to the shopping cart” with some claim to make it attractive: it can be from a discount, to free shipping costs.
Personal data & check-out
When your client has reached the introduction of personal data, that is, the check-out page, I am of the idea that you have to leave the client to finish the order without many distractions since it can affect the conversion rates .
- Completed order: The purchase success page, as well as the order confirmation email, are perfect spaces to configure your cross-selling strategy.
- Exit page: Usually the order success or completion pages are designed in the following way: they confirm the items, address as well as the delivery address. However this page is a page, which customers often pay attention to. Take advantage of the spaces within your success page to add complementary products or services.
A clear example of how you could do it is something like “Take Advantage of Shipping” if you are selling jeans, imagine that you offer him if he completes the purchase in the next 12-18 hours, 30% discount on belts and accessories.
Cross-selling or cross-selling – out of the box!
As I had already told you, the order confirmation email is an ideal space to implement in your cross-selling strategy, but there is more to it, and I want to analyze it with you.
Cross-selling retargeting
Imagine that you sell plus size clothing, in which your customers are quite loyal. Take advantage of hyper-segmented advertising to ensure that your clients who are already loyal to your products can get to know your entire catalog through retargeting.
How would you do this: if a client or potential client has bought or wants to buy a size 40 pants, they will surely have visited a category on your website that is /pants/size-40, so take advantage of that URL and create a segmented audience in Google ads, Facebooks ads as well as a group of ads where you only advertise the complementary products of this segment.
Email marketing as a cross-selling strategy
You have a list of subscribers that everyone you send them the same type of . Stop! (With some exceptions). You have more information than you imagine: let’s do an exercise.
Let’s continue with the example of the ecommerce of plus size clothing. It turns out that you have sold more than 100 size 40 black pants (Size 40 Segment) and you have noticed that some of your clients, only a few (5%) have combined these black pants with certain white blouses, which have a phenomenal fall and Besides, you have positive evaluations of said white blouses.
Let’s not stop there, you know that if they wear size 40 pants, they will have a need for other products, not only blouses, but also shoes, accessories and others. Take advantage of that information!
Take the segment of all the girls who have bought you size 40 pants and Make a series of newsletters where you can include complementary products for this customer segment.
- Combine your black pants with these blouses!
- Shoes that are sure to look great on you
- New size 40 pants!
- The perfect combination just for you
Order confirmation email as a cross-selling strategy
Within the cross-selling strategies, the great forgotten is always the Order Confirmation Email: you have to take into account that said Email has a much higher than average open rate.
Take advantage of this email to offer various related products, and don’t be afraid to be aggressive. Your customer has already bought, and already has confidence in your online store. So try to achieve cross-selling in your order confirmation email.
Best practices for cross-selling or cross-selling in your eCommerce
- The products offered dThey must be complementary to the main purchase intention. That is to say, if you are going to buy a laptop, I offer you a case, a backpack, a mouse, or external speakers… Do not forget to make packs of specific products that are in accordance with the main purchase intention, as we saw in the case of Cowboys.
- Cross-sell offers must cost significantly less than the main product the customer is going to buy. Following the previous example, if you are going to buy a computer, I do not offer you an iPad, even though it can be considered a complementary product.
Cross-selling as an online sales technique
Cross-selling is a great strategy to increase your average ticket, if done right. Do not forget that it is about selling in a complementary way to the main purchase intention, therefore, you have to be careful not to excessively distract your visitors with the complementary products of the main purchase intention.
Usually, the large eCommerce platforms already include basic cross-selling tools without the need to add anything, but these are systems that are far from reaching the level of personalized tracking we are talking about.
What is upselling?
The upselling or additional sale in Spanish, consists of offering a client or potential client, an optimal or better additional product to their main purchase intention.
Before continuing, one thing must be made clear: Upselling consists of the strategy of add an additional optimal product to the main purchase intention. This means that at all times you are looking for the one with the best product for your purchase intention.
Flights from Madrid to Mexico City for only $999: the perfect example of upselling
As we have defined, upselling is offering a customer or potential customer an optimal or better additional product for their purchase intention. The example of the airlines will help you clarify upselling better.
You go to an airline website and your intention to…
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