What is Cross Selling? Strategies That Actually Work
There’s a reason why multi-national corporations and global fast food restaurant chains like Mcdonald’s effortlessly add 15-40% to their revenue. These companies know the art of cross selling.
Cross-selling is a sales technique in which complementary products are offered alongside the original item. For example, if a customer orders a burger, fries and coke are offered as cross-sells.
This increases the likelihood of consumers buying the supplementary products along with their intended purchase.
We’ll learn how to enhance the original product, boost revenue per order, and provide a seamless customer experience.
What is Cross Selling?
Cross selling offers extra products complementing the initial purchase. For example, when a customer adds a cotton t-shirt to their cart, you can cross-sell denim shorts or track pants.
Cross selling does not always require you to send offers as soon as a customer checks out a product. You can send it later by including them in your transactional emails, welcome emails, or post-purchase emails.
You can also combine this technique with upselling to produce optimal results.
Let’s examine the main differences between upselling and cross selling.
Cross Selling and Upselling: How are They Different
Upselling refers to selling a higher-priced or a premium version of the same product, while cross selling is adding extra products to the original purchase.
But how different are they?
The table below demonstrates the main differences.
| Aspect | Cross Selling | Up Selling |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | It offers complementary products to the original purchase | It offers a premium version of the original product |
| Example | A phone case or screen protector with the purchase of a new phone | Offering an upgraded version of a standard laptop |
| Focus | To increase the overall value of the order | To increase the total sale amount |
| Customer’s mindset | The customer is satisfied with the product but requires additional items | Customer is open to trying an upgraded version |
| Timing | It’s usually offered during or after the checkout | It’s offered before finalizing the sale or during the point of purchase |
| Risk | Lower risk of overwhelming the customer | Higher risk of being pushy, especially if the upgrade does not offer value |
| Strategy | Identifying complementary products | Highlighting the benefits and value of the premium version |
In essence, cross selling expands a customer’s purchase and upselling deepens a customer’s experience with a certain product. Combining cross selling with upselling according to the customer journey can be beneficial, especially when the customer has been with you for a long time.
However, if you find that customers show more interest in cross selling, you can identify the best product and include relevant email content to increase overall customer satisfaction.
The Importance of Cross Selling
According to a McKinsey report, cross selling can potentially increase profits by 30%.
Cross selling is more than increasing revenue — it lets consumers know that you understand their needs and value them.
This step can help you strategically expand your customer base, retain leads, and boost sales.
The key benefits of using cross selling are:
- Increased revenue: Cross selling allows you to reduce cart abandonments and maximize sales without having to acquire new customers.
- Enhanced customer satisfaction: Showcasing products relevant to customers’ original purchase demonstrates a deeper understanding of their needs. This can instill trust and build brand credibility.
- Improved customer retention: Offering complementary products increases customer satisfaction, making them likelier to return for future purchases. Additionally, you don’t have to spend time and resources crafting retention emails.
- Higher customer lifetime value: By offering additional products, you can increase the total revenue from each customer over their association with your brand.
- Maximizes existing customer base: It’s simpler to retain existing customers than to attract new ones. Cross selling taps into customer psychology, enhancing product value and customer satisfaction.
- Increased product awareness: Cross selling allows customers to know the existence of certain products, which they might have missed otherwise.
- Manages inventory: By pairing slower moving items with popular products, you can manage inventory and reduce wastage.
Cross selling can be great until your offer provides value and customers are happy. It’s vital to segment subscribers to send them personalized recommendations.
Neglecting this step can increase the potential for sales resistance since customers feel the products are irrelevant.
Understanding the common pros and cons of cross selling will help you stick to the right marketing strategies.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Cross Selling
The table reveals the basic traits of cross selling.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Cross selling can boost sales by encouraging customers to purchase additional items | Excessive selling can annoy customers |
| It enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty | Overdoing it can come off as sales-driven |
| It provides personalized product recommendations | Sometimes, cross selling can turn into upselling leading to higher costs for consumers |
| It can maximize customer lifetime value | Poorly chosen cross sell offers can disappoint and confuse users |
| It’s cost effective | Staff may need additional training to identify cross sell opportunities |
| Cross selling exposes customers to a wider range of products | Too many cross sell offers may dilute the value of the original product |
| It builds brand image by offering comprehensive solutions | It can become challenging to track |
Examples of Cross Selling
Cross selling can enhance the overall revenue per product, however, it’s not necessary to do it every time a customer purchases. Understand each consumers’ purchase behavior, pain points, and the value of the additional product.
The examples below work well because they utilize data, addressing consumer concerns:
- Electronics store: Offering a laptop cover with the purchase of a laptop.
- Clothing store: Suggesting matching shoes, jewelry, or handbag with the purchase of clothes.
- Grocery store: If a customer purchases a barbeque grill, you can cross sell grilling utensils, marinades, or cooler.
- E-commerce store: Suggesting related reading material by the same author when a user adds a book to the cart.
- Travel agency: Recommending hotels and cabs with the booking of flights.
- Bank: Offering a complimentary savings account when a customer opens a checking account.
Similarly, you can create cross sell offers for every industry depending on the type of customers and their need for purchasing.
The next section will cover powerful cross sell strategies to avoid frustrating users.
Effective Cross-Sell Strategies
Cross selling is more effective when the additional products are priced less than the original. This creates a feeling that the product combination is a great deal.
Here are more proven cross selling strategies.
| Strategy | What to do |
|---|---|
| Understand your customers | ‣ Gather data ‣ Segment your audience ‣ Identify needs and preferences |
| Bundle products | ‣ Create attractive packages ‣ Highlight the benefits ‣ Create different combinations |
| Personalized recommendations | ‣ Use customer data ‣ Implement technology to understand consumer needs ‣ Tailor each product recommendation ‣ Show frequently purchased products |
| Use upselling techniques | ‣ Offer premium alternatives ‣ Highlight the value of the upgraded item ‣ Send it at the right time |
| Limited time offers and promotions | ‣ Offer exclusive deals ‣ Create a sense of urgency ‣ Track the performance |
| Cross channel marketing | ‣ Integrate different marketing channels ‣ Personalize the offers ‣ Ensure consistency |
We’ll discuss them in detail below.
Understand Your Customers
Cross selling should be more of solving customers’ needs, instead of selling for the sake of it.
You must possess an in-depth understanding of your customers to suggest relevant products. Additionally, ensure you’re aware of your product portfolio, helping you pick the right offers.
You can divide users based on:
Delving deeply into customer analytics can increase marketing conversions and widen customers’ purchase patterns. Providing products from different categories can make them feel less pressured to search for the perfect item.
Bundle Products to Maximize Revenue
Bundling refers to combining complementary products and offering them at discounted prices. This strategy usually works well because it gives additional value to the pricing.
For example, bundle offers can look like:
- Buy a jacket and get a matching scarf and gloves at discounted prices.
- Buy a smartphone and get a wireless charger, screen protector, and phone case at an offer.
- Buy an accounting software and get a discounted add-on for payroll management.
It’s also important to highlight the value of the bundle — can the customer save more or is it more convenient? You can also A/B test bundle combinations to check what resonates with the audience.
Offer Personalized Recommendations
If a customer purchases a bed frame, you can use this data to recommend cozy blankets and fluffy pillows as cross sell options. Ensure you utilize customer data and purchase history.
Other ways to customize recommendations are:
- Use recommendation engines: These are software that suggest items based on user behavior and purchase history. This technology can analyze millions of data points to recommend the right products.
- Implement personalized product pages: Dynamically update emails or product pages based on customers’ browsing history.
- Identify similar customers: Use data to find customers with similar characteristics. You can then suggest products that were popular among these look-alike consumers.
- Combine multiple techniques: Leverage a combination such as analyzing customer preferences, content-based filtering, and demographic-based recommendations.
Implement Upselling Techniques
Upselling is a great way to convince interested buyers to opt for premium products. If a user rejects a cross sell, it implies they might be willing to try an upgraded version of the product.
You can emphasize the benefits of the premium options, such as enhanced output or loaded features. Additionally, find the best time to send upsell emails. It could be when a customer checks out a product or is about to make a purchase.
Use Limited Time Offers and Promotions
Present users with limited-time offers to create urgency and encourage action. You can include a countdown timer in your emails using Campaign Refinery. Or include relevant gamified elements to stir interest and promote curiosity.
To add more value, you can also send relevant email coupons, deals, and special discounts to customers who purchase a complementary product.
The key to knowing what works is to regularly monitor data points from the email marketing funnel. Understand how and when customers enter or leave the funnel. This will give you a broad overview of what works for users.
Leverage Cross-channel Marketing
Instead of focusing singularly on email marketing, experiment with different mediums, such as social media, advertisements, or traditional media to promote cross selling opportunities.
Maintain a consistent message across all channels to avoid confusing subscribers. You can use the same template, font styles, or brand colors for added coherence.
When using emails, ensure you’re following the proper email format and have included relevant sign-offs. This way, even if someone forwards your cross sell email, the end recipient can easily identify the brand.
Regardless of the medium, implementing cross selling best practices can help you improve user satisfaction.
Pay close attention as we review the aspects that make a cross sell email successful.
Cross Selling Best Practices
Cross selling requires a strategic approach to including appropriate email content, understanding user behavior, and customer needs.
Here’s our collection of 8 cross selling best practices to never miss out on:
- Use the right products: Recommend the correct complementary product instead of randomly picking one.
- Understand the customer: Respect customers’ choices and provide supplementary products related to the main product.
- Bundle relevant products: Offer attractive product bundles, so the customer does not have to search a particular item endlessly.
- Highlight product value: Be transparent about the product value and what it can do.
- Limit cross selling options: Avoid overwhelming customers and limit your cross selling recommendations to a few options.
- Use lifecycle cross selling: Target customers at different stages of the customer journey and offer items in post-purchase emails.
- Incentivize cross-selling: Inform customers about exclusive perks, such as discounts or deals, when they opt for a cross-sell.
- Use automation tools: Utilize AI-powered recommendations and integrate with your CRM to personalize cross sell offers.
As you implement these best practices, consider the legal consequences of aggressive cross selling. When users see too much of what they don’t like, they might unsubscribe from your emails or resort to complaints about your brand. This can damage your IP reputation and brand value, leading to poor email deliverability rates.
That’s why it’s critical to understand the process of creating an ethical cross sell model.
How to Create an Ethical Cross Sell Model?
Cross-selling does not cause legal complexities in itself. However, hyping the product value using deceptive selling practices can decrease trust in your business.
Let’s review the steps to creating an ethical cross sell model:
- Communicate the intentions: Be upfront about your cross selling efforts and explain the benefits.
- Avoid deceptive practices: Never mislead customers or pressure them into buying things.
- Be transparent: Communicate the cross sell product’s value but refrain from using dishonest tactics to get customers to purchase.
- Respect consumer privacy: Clearly obtain consent and ensure customers are willing to receive cross sell emails. You can use opt-in and double opt in methods to increase security measures.
- Handle customer data with care: Abide by the data privacy regulations and handle customer data with care. Additionally, follow email security protocols such as the CAN-SPAM and GDPR acts.
- Avoid unnecessary upselling: Avoid selling products that the customer does not need or want. This could lead to needless frustration and reduced trust in your brand.
- Respect customer autonomy: Respect the customer’s decision and avoid aggressive selling tactics.
- Continuously improve: Monitor customer feedback and focus on the content gaps. You can experiment with gamification or interactive emails to increase curiosity and interest.
- Use a reliable ESP: Your email service provider sets the base for your cross selling, upselling, and downselling efforts. Pick one according to your budget and needs.
For example, Campaign Refinery offers the highest inbox placement rate on the market along with premium features. This means you never have to worry about your cross sell emails reaching subscriber inboxes again.
Keep reading to know more about how we can help you achieve the best results from your email marketing.
Never Worry About Your Cross Sell Emails Reaching Subscribers Again
Cross sell emails are potent ways to increase your average order value and customer satisfaction. But neglecting email marketing best practices can lead to email fatigue, spam traps, and poor targeting.
The solution?
Campaign Refinery!
It’s a powerful email marketing tool designed to overcome these challenges and ensure your cross sell emails reach intended recipients.
Key Features of Campaign Refinery
- Advanced email verification: Our sophisticated email list cleaning feature removes unwanted and harmful email addresses so that only valid email addresses remain in your list.
- Real-time deliverability monitoring: Want to know about your email performance? Use our advanced analytics and reporting dashboard for a bird’ s-eye view.
- Intelligent segmentation: Never worry about missing out on a lead or customer again. Our smart segmentation system allows you to hyper-focus on varied audience groups. Even better, use the audience group segmentation feature to combine two or more customer segments to send the same cross-sell email campaign.
- Powerful integration: Campaign Refinery seamlessly integrates with 800+ marketing tools to make your messages crisp and super-relevant.
Above all, our clients have noticed 6x higher email deliverability rates after joining us.
Become a top sender with Campaign Refinery!
