Cross-selling
Cross-selling is when you offer a product that complements what the customer is already purchasing. If a customer buys a coffee grinder, coffee filters and beans are cross-sell items. If a customer buys a pair of running shoes, socks and a water bottle are cross-sell items.
Cross-selling or upselling?
The two are often confused, but they aren’t the same thing:
- Cross-selling adds something alongside the main item. The customer ends up with more items.
- Up-selling involves switching to a more expensive option. The customer ends up with the same single item, just a better version of it.
Both increase the order value, but cross-selling is generally perceived as less pushy because you’re helping the customer remember something they’ll actually need.
Where do you do this in an online store?
- On the product page —“Customers Also Bought” below the item
- In the cart —the classic spot where the customer has already made up their mind
- On the add-on page right after the item is added to the cart
- In the order confirmation and in newsletters after the purchase
Cross-selling in Shoporama
In Shoporama, you can add a recommendation module to the cart or the upsell page and select the “Customers Also Bought” option. This will suggest items that have actually been purchased alongside the items in the cart, based on your own order history. You can also manually add related items to each product if you’d rather choose them yourself.
What is cross-selling?
Cross-selling is about offering products that complement what the customer is already interested in or has added to their basket. Classic examples are "Want shoes? Check out our socks" or "Bought a phone? Here's a cover." This is different from upselling, which is about selling a more expensive version of the same product.
Cross-sell vs. upsell
- Cross-sell: Sell a complementary product. The customer buys a laptop - suggest a bag and a mouse.
- Upsell: Sell a more expensive variant. The customer is looking at 8 GB RAM - suggest 16 GB RAM.
Both strategies increase order value, but cross-selling increases the number of products while upselling increases the value per product.
Where on the shop does cross-selling work?
- The product page: "Customers who bought this also bought..." or "Great for..." under the product description.
- Cart: Suggest accessories before the customer goes to checkout. One of the most effective placement points.
- Checkout: Last chance to add small items (gift wrap, extra warranty, accessories).
- Order confirmation email: Suggest additional products after the purchase is complete.
- Thank you page: Show relevant products after the purchase has been completed.
Best practices
- Relevance is key: Suggestions should make sense. Irrelevant suggestions do more harm than good.
- Limit the number: Show 2-4 suggestions - not 20. Too many options creates decision fatigue.
- Lower price: Cross-selling products should typically cost less than the main product. A customer who buys a $800 bag is more likely to add a $200 wallet than a $1500 jacket.
- Social proof: "Other customers also bought..." is more convincing than "We recommend..."
- Bundles: Offer the cross-selling products as a bundle with a small discount.
Cross-selling in Shoporama
Shoporama supports cross-selling via the "Related products" feature, where you can manually select which products to display with each product. The products are displayed on the product page under the related products section. You can control the number of related products shown in the settings. For more advanced automatic cross-selling, you can integrate with recommendation services like Clerk.io, which uses AI to find the most relevant product suggestions based on customer behavior.
We know online marketing in Shoporama
We've been working with online marketing ourselves for decades. As the only shop system in the country, we have spoken multiple times at conferences such as Marketingcamp, SEOday, Shopcamp, Digital Marketing, E-commerce Manager, Ecommerce Day, Web Analytics Wednesday and many more.