How to Raise Your Average Order Value by Cross-Selling

Though I sometimes hate to admit it, the cold hard truth is this: If you show me a wheel of Brie, I’ll buy it.

And if, while I’m buying that cheese, you suggest that I might want to accompany it with a nice bottle of Malbec or, say, a box of shortbread cookies… well, I might just buy those too.

Look at that. The value of my purchase just went WAY up.

Welcome to the magic of cross-selling!

In its purest form, cross-selling just means saying to your customers, “Hey, you like this product, right? You’ll probably like this other product, too!”

You can cross-sell before or during a purchase, right inside your store or checkout.

And you can also cross-sell after a purchase, in transactional emails, follow-ups, and newsletters. Cross-sell here, cross-sell there, cross-sell everywhere!

Even if you’re not Amazon, you can bump up your average order value just by showing other “recommended” products to your customers before they check out. I’ll show you how.

But first…

Cross-selling vs. upselling

Let’s clarify one thing right off the bat: cross-selling and upselling are not the same thing. Cross-selling focuses on different but relevant products, while upselling focuses on better versions of the same product.

So if I buy an apple, you might cross-sell me an orange.

Or, you might upsell me a farm-fresh, organic apple.

Make sense?

We’re focusing on cross-selling instead of upselling today because cross-selling applies to virtually all ecommerce store owners. While not every store offers product versions, upgrades, or add-ons, nearly all online stores offer at least a few different products.

Why does cross-selling work?

The last time I needed to check out at the drugstore, I walked to the register through a short aisle stuffed with candy bars, lip gloss, cigarette lighters, phone chargers, magazines, you name it.

During this extremely short walk, I thought, “Mmm, candy.” And I chucked a bag of Skittles into my basket full of toilet paper, cheap makeup, and deodorizing gel insoles.

I WAS CROSS-SOLD. The decision to buy that extra product was so easy because I was already buying something. What’s another couple bucks on top of that if I’ve already got my credit card out?

Once a customer has already made the decision to buy, it becomes easier to increase the value of that purchase (or online order) because they already anticipate spending money.

Be sweet, not sleazy

Now, if you’re worried about taking advantage of your customers, or making them feel like you’re taking advantage — good. Don’t let go of that feeling. It’s very sweet of you, and it’s something every conscientious store owner should worry about, at least when beginning to cross-sell.

Instead of thinking of cross-selling as a sleazy trick or an aggressive push, think of it as helping customers get what they need from you.

For example…

• If your customer is buying shoes, he might need socks.
• If your customer is buying a lamp, she might need light bulbs.
• If your customer is buying a notebook, well, isn’t it kinda likely that he might also need some pens?

When you approach cross-selling from a helpfulness perspective, you ensure that you put your customer’s satisfaction and happiness first.

Cross-sell suggestions are akin to taking your customer’s hand and leading them forward, instead of dropping them into an ocean of unrelated alternatives. They’re necessary guideposts that can help shoppers avoid analysis paralysis or ecommerce overwhelm.

2 ways to cross-sell using CM Commerce

Here’s your most important consideration when it comes to cross-selling products: make sure your cross-sell suggestions are relevant to the product being bought or considered.

Remember the apple and orange example above? If your customer picked out a lacy bra, it’s not a great idea to try to cross-sell her a 3-pack of boxers.

Both of the following cross-sell options are easy to set up inside CM Commerce’s Recommendations widget.

Behold: Relevant Recommendations!

Whether your customer is looking at an individual product page or has already put a product in the cart, the cross-sell options your store displays should be at least tangentially related to that product.

For example, here’s ModCloth suggesting items related to the black dress I’m viewing. In this case, it’s more black dresses:

Using the Recommendations widget, you can provide intelligent, personalized cross-sell recommendations for other products.

Option 1: You can set the widget to show products that are similar to the product in question (like ModCloth does in the example above), or simply show your most popular products. Everybody wants to be popular.

On the “Similar Products” side, here’s Sephora recommending other concealers while I’m looking at a cream concealer to hide my hideous blemishes from the world:

And here’s The North Face recommending highly-rated (AKA popular) products while I’m browsing jackets on their store:

Option 2: Instead of setting your widget to show similar or popular products, you can limit cross-sell product suggestions to the same brand as the product currently being considered.

A cross-sell approach unified by brand can trigger your customers’ innate desire to collect a complete set of something.

So if your customer is mulling over a bag of Purina Extra Dry N’ Crunchy cat food (will it be dry enough??), your CM Commerce Recommendations widget would show her other Purina products.

Because if she’s buying Purina Dry N’ Crunchy cat food, she might also want a can or two of Purina’s Wet N’ Sloppy food.

Or perhaps she’ll need the Purina Wet N’ Dry Heavy Duty Cat Feeder to dispense these tasty treats to her feline friends.

Here’s a non-cat-food related example of a brand-based cross-sell, from Amazon. It’s trying to sell me on other Soylent products now that I’ve expressed interest in one:

How to invite cross-sell purchases with copy (swipe these lines)

Like candy near the cash register, sometimes proximity is all it takes to trigger a purchase. But the copy you use to frame your cross-sell product recommendations can also play a part.

For example, Amazon uses social proof (the comforting idea that you won’t be the first person to buy this item) by using the copy “Customers who shopped for [item] also shopped for… ” after you add an item to your cart:

You can use a similar social proof angle in your cross-sell recommendations with a line like:

Other customers also bought:
[RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS HERE]

Or…

People who bought this item also loved…
[RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS HERE]

However you decide to categorize your product cross-sell recommendations and whatever copy you use to introduce them, the key is to start cross-selling if you aren’t already.

Your customers need what you’ve got to offer — so give it to them! And don’t be afraid to enjoy those higher average order values. ?