How to use cross-selling to increase revenue on Amazon, Etsy, and Shopify

Do you want to increase the average check by 30%? We explain how to use cross-selling and why it should not be confused with upselling. Let’s start, as usual, from theory to practice.

An unobtrusive way to sell more

The main success factor for cross-selling products is that they are almost 100% likely to be needed by your customer. When buying a new cell phone, we are interested in cases, protective glass, and other additional accessories. When buying shoes, we usually don’t mind adding some care products to our cart: cream or moisture protection.

Actually, this is the answer to what cross-selling is – cross-attributes that complement the main purchase. Of course, the probability that a customer will agree to spend more money in 100% of cases is almost zero. But the chances are very high.

The Cross-Sell technique is actively used on many trading platforms. For example, when shopping on Amazon, we see the recommendation “Buy this with…” right on the page of the selected product.

And then in the cart, “Recommended products you might like”

Therefore, our task is to properly implement the recommendations for the marketing funnel, in particular: not to look intrusive, but to create the effect of a profitable transaction.

But don’t confuse cross-sell with upsell, as in the latter case, we offer a more expensive product rather than a related one. For example, you can get a more spacious apartment for a small surcharge (often used on Booking) or choose a computer with better gaming performance if you increase your purchase budget a bit.

On Amazon, upsale is most often implemented in a very delicate, native way – through an offer to compare the selected product with other, more expensive models/products.

In addition to upselling, there is also downselling, which is offering a similar product from a lower price segment. This allows you not to lose a customer who is interested in buying but does not have enough money.

Cross-selling to increase profits on Amazon, Etsy and Shopify and other platforms

Now let’s move on to practice. The first thing you need to do to implement cross-sell for any online store is to analyze the data.

In particular, we are interested in what products are most often bought together. Of course, this can be done from the standpoint of logic (watch + strap, set of glasses + cup holders). But what, for example, can an Etsy seller offer to go with a handmade sweater?

Without analysis, many people would not have guessed that women most often order a sweater-colored bow pin and/or epoxy earrings.

The second step is to draw up a summary table: we select for each product not only the accessories, components and add-ons that we have, but also those that we could produce/purchase. That is, there is a possibility that we will have to expand our existing assortment in parallel.

It is important that customers can easily find related products. Optimize your website navigation, create a “People often buy with this product” block, or add a “Buyers also see” section to your listing.

Use attractive offers to stimulate cross-selling. These can be discounts on sets, free shipping for purchasing a certain set, or temporary promotions for certain combinations.

The highest skill of cross-selling is the creation of personalized recommendations based on purchase history. For example, you can offer relevant products to customers through automated email campaigns. Moreover, such offers can be significantly “stretched” in time. For example, on the eve of Halloween, a customer orders a tablecloth with pumpkins, and on the eve of Christmas, we offer them to supplement their collection with textiles with thematic images.

After implementing a cross-selling strategy, it’s important to constantly monitor its effectiveness. Run A/B tests, study analytics data, and optimize your offers to achieve the best results.

Conclusion. Implementing cross-sell to increase sales on Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, and other platforms requires: careful data analysis, understanding of customer needs, and the right offer strategy. Creating convenient navigation and personalized offers will help you effectively use cross-selling to increase your store’s revenue.

You can also entrust the development of a marketing strategy and implementation of changes to experienced marketers from the Nexus digital department.