Learn why Cross-Selling is so important and how to do it
Even if an e-commerce store runner knows about cross-selling, it tends to wind up on the back- burner. Especially in the startup and growth phases of a new e-commerce website, cross-selling tends to get lost in the shuffle.
This white paper will explain:
Cross-selling is the act of convincing a customer to buy an additional item once they have already made the decision to purchase one item.
The classic cross-sell is “Would you like fries with that?” A customer at McDonalds steps up to the counter with the intention to buy a hamburger, but that one simple question — which every McDonalds employee is trained to ask
— might tempt them to buy another product, french fries.
Cross-selling procrastinators should take comfort in the knowledge that this classic question was not always a part of the McDonald’s business model. However, by adding this cross-sell, McDonalds experienced a quantum
leap in profitability. It helped that fries were a much higher-margin product than hamburgers.
Cross-selling is now an integral part of the e-commerce game. Think about the last time
you shopped online. On the product page, on the checkout page, there’s always a little sidebar advertisement that says “Customers who bought this item also bought this item ...” Maybe you were tempted. Maybe you even bought the secondary item. Cross-selling in action!
Upselling is a strategy whereby the merchant attempts to get the customer to buy a more expensive version of the product they just bought.
Think of a car salesperson speaking to a couple who wants the basic model. He might try to convince them to buy a car with the premium package and trim.
Or a customer at an electronics store shopping for a basic laptop computer. The salesperson
asks the customer about her computing needs, and then proposes that a more powerful computer might be appropriate.