Cross-Selling Strategy: 3 Cross-Selling Examples

Cross-selling is a sales strategy companies use to market additional products or services to customers to increase revenue. Brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce businesses use cross-selling tactics to encourage sales. For example, a salesperson at a furniture retail shop may find pillows for a customer, then show them other relevant products, like sheets and linens. E-commerce platforms analyze purchases to suggest product recommendations via pop-ups, side bars, and other functionalities with the goal of increasing sales.

Cross-selling and upselling are sales tactics small businesses and large corporations use to boost revenue, but these strategies differ. Cross-selling tactics aim for customers to purchase complementary items. For example, when you order a hamburger at a diner, a server may ask if you want a side of onion rings with your order.

Upselling strategies, meanwhile, prioritize having customers buy a larger, higher-end, or more expensive product. If you order a small soda at a diner, the server might use an upselling technique and ask if you’d like to order a large soda for more money.

Cross-selling can help businesses in the following ways:

1. 1. Improve the bottom line: Selling complementary products helps keep inventory fresh and makes the company more profitable.
2. 2. Increase customer retention: By showing new customers products they may need, cross-selling can promote customer loyalty.
3. 3. Gather consumer data: Cross-selling can help companies better understand customer needs. Companies can track repeat purchases of related products to define key personas for particular products.

Consider the following examples of cross-selling techniques that entice consumers to buy additional products during the customer journey:

1. 1. Complementary items: You go to the movies and order popcorn, but before you pay with your credit card, the cashier asks if you’d also like soda or candy with your purchase.
2. 2. Advertising: You are shopping online for shoes, and before the checkout process, you see advertisements for additional products like socks and nail polish on the product page.
3. 3. Product bundling: You go to a furniture store to buy a couch, and the salesperson notes that if you buy the couch, the shop will throw in two pillows for half off with the purchase.

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