When we have an online store our main objective will be to increase the sales of the store. This is going to be the main objective whether you are starting out in the world of ecommerce or when you want to get an online store off the ground in any sector that hasn't quite started.

In this sense, to continue on our path to achieving these sales objectives we are going to look at “cross selling” or cross selling that will provide both the seller and the client with a series of advantages that are very important to take into account.

The final success will depend on the planning you follow to implement the different cross selling techniques. So let's look in more detail at how to design one that is effective.

What is Cross selling?

Although it is a well-known term, let's start by explaining the meaning of cross selling. Cross selling is a technique in which products that are related to their purchase and that may interest them are recommended to the buyer. In this way we can ensure that the user ends up making a joint purchase of the product they were looking for, which would be the main one, and one or more complementary products.

Examples of cross selling

Let's look at some examples of cross selling:

• If a user is in the process of purchasing a dress, they will be recommended matching shoes or a bag.
• If they are interested in a screwdriver set, then they will be advised to choose other tools.
• Or if they are choosing a smartphone, show them accessories that could be useful (headphones, cases, screen protectors, etc.).

As you can see, this procedure works in almost all areas and is long before electronic commerce, since lifelong salespeople have always used it.

But, in the digital sphere, there are a few things to keep in mind before shaping a strategy that really works. For a start:

• Cross selling and up selling: Never confuse ecommerce cross selling with up selling or additional sales . That is, if you have a store, implementing this system involves offering your customer the same type of product they are thinking of buying, but with different characteristics and, of course, at a higher price and with a higher profit margin for you.
• The second point we want to highlight here is that you design well the products that you are going to offer through your strategy. It is not in any case about offering for the sake of offering, you have to guarantee that, depending on the consumer profile and their purchase, you will offer items that are 100% related and adapted to their preferences. Achieving this is not easy, but through a data-driven approach it can be made much easier. This technique is based on the analysis and interpretation of data that reflects the behavior of consumers in your store. This way we can obtain solutions based on data evidence that become a better sales strategy.

Amazon, the ecommerce giant, knows the cross-selling strategy very well. In its product sheets you can clearly see the cross-selling and up-selling techniques it uses.

First strategy: do not saturate the options

It is essential that you know how to stay in the middle when it comes to cross-selling. There are many stores that think that a greater number of products offered increases the possibilities of obtaining profits through this system.

This is a mistake, a pretty big one. If the cross-selling options offered are excessive, the consumer will end up getting distracted and losing attention to what is being offered. What's more, it can be even worse because you are giving the impression of wanting to sell them something that was not part of their plans at all costs, which will make your client always have a bad opinion of the store and not ultimately buy or do so again.

In short, impacting the user with huge amounts of cross-selling products is one of the worst strategies that can be followed. It is better that you be organized in this sense and give a series of possibilities that the buyer assumes as logical complements to the purchase he is going to make.

Second strategy: choose the right place

Recent studies in the field of big data have shown that cross selling is very effective on product pages. In these, we can ensure that the potential buyer has an overview of other items that complement the one they are considering purchasing.

Therefore, pay close attention to the product pages because this is where cross selling demonstrates its full sales potential. What's more, it is in them where the key to this sales strategy lies, especially in online stores like the one you are developing or want to improve. This is where cross-selling has been shown to increase sales in most of the tests carried out. Therefore, this is the site you should choose to implement this strategy.

Third strategy: be consistent with the products

It is very important that your users realize that the recommendations you make have to do with what they have purchased . What's more, if you give the opposite feeling, if you recommend articles without rhyme or reason, forget about ensuring that cross selling has any chance of making you profit. The product recommendation for this procedure can be easily adapted, although it requires important work in data analysis. Here you can also use a data-driven system to help you and discover through data analysis what type of product is of interest to those consumers who buy the type of clothing that a given user is looking at.

Fourth strategy: the price

Lastly, you have to take care of the price of the items you are going to offer. The best thing in this sense is that you create a range of possibilities with cheaper and more expensive options so that the person notices that they have a choice and not that you are presenting them with the most expensive items to obtain a greater profit margin.

This technique also applies to up selling, since you should not offer products that vary too much in the final cost of the purchase that the buyer is considering, something that would only lead to the buyer's disinterest and loss of confidence in your ecommerce. .

As you have seen with the cross selling strategies that we have shown you for your online store, increasing sales is an opportunity that can be taken advantage of by applying these techniques.

In addition, we must not forget that the customer can also enjoy advantages with cross-selling, since it serves as a reminder of products that may be useful to them and that they have not considered purchasing.

Cross selling and Shopify

Shopify is an ecommerce platform that is gaining a lot of ground in the ecommerce sector. This is thanks to the facilities it offers to its users, both sellers and customers.

And more and more companies, both large, medium and small, are deciding to start with Shopify or even migrate the platform on which their online store was located, to Shopify. The use it offers is very intuitive and easy to connect with different analytics platforms, email...

Regarding the application of cross-selling techniques, there are many Shopify templates that come with this option, although they tend to be quite basic recommenders. However, there are a wide variety of applications specialized in Cross selling that we can find in the Shopify App store and that can be configured to the needs of each store.

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