A good product is a key factor that guarantees the success of the e-store. However, thanks to the use of appropriate strategies, you can generate even more profit on its sales. What does it mean? Your clients will spend more money than they initially expected. Let’s take a closer look at the cross-selling strategy, i.e. the sales technique based on the recommendation of complementary products.
The finalised transaction is not enough to ensure that the ROI of your e-business stays at a satisfactory level. With still rising costs for one click (CTR), everything should be done to ensure that the user already on the site buys as much as possible. The results of the Marketing Metrics research indicate that in the case of a customer who is already committed to buying, the probability of the next purchase is 60-70%. However, for people whom we want to acquire as new customers, the probability of a purchase is only 5-20%. Conclusion? Take care of the clients you already have, and they will repay your making next purchase! And here comes cross-selling, which will make your client add more products to the basket. And more products sold during one transaction means higher profit. No additional costs, no effort, not having to pay the next advertising campaigns. And how big is the profit?
In e-commerce, as much as 10% of turnover comes from supplementary sales!
The cross-sell technique (cross-selling or supplementary sale) is to entice the customer to buy a product related to his or her other purchase. Complementary products, supplementing the one they are already interested in, are recommended to them. For example, the customer added a camera to the basket. Recommendations of the lens or additional memory card will evoke another need and trigger an additional buying impulse. As a result, instead of one, two or three products go to the basket.
Cross-selling is one of the few trading techniques that can be used absolutely with every product. The so-called accidental (or blind) cross-selling can, however, achieve the opposite effect. To maximise the efficiency of this technique:
1. As the name implies, this strategy is based on recommending complementary products. Therefore, it is advisable to recommend products that complement the current one and do not constitute an alternative to it. At the same time, they should only slightly increase the value of the basket – then customers are more willing to buy.
2. Place the recommendation frame in the right place so that the user’s eye will automatically stop on it. It is optimal to insert it on the right or at the bottom of the currently viewed product page. The automatic reading and content viewing direction is from left to right and from top to bottom. For the recipient, the recommendation will, therefore, constitute a further part of the offer and will not be perceived as an advertisement.
3. Remember that cross-selling is effective when the customer is already committed to buying the first product – i.e. at the level of the shopping basket. The customer goes to the shopping basket to finalise the transaction and it is worth offering a complementary product at this moment. Not only will we increase the profit from one transaction, but we will also affect customer satisfaction resulting from the purchase of the full set that they need. For example: when buying a lens, it is worth recommending a cleaning brush or an additional filter.
4. The recommendation frame should contain only the most effective product links. The creation of such combinations is impossible in the case of manual recommendations. You need an advanced algorithm that will examine the behaviour of each user on the site and based on the collected behavioural data will select the appropriate products for them. What counts is not only the accuracy of the choice of a product that has already interested them but also the entire history of their searches. For example: the customer buys another camera lens. Recently, however, they have already bought a lens cleaning brush – the algorithm immediately takes care of it and the product is not recommended once again. Instead, a coloured filter and a suitable cover are proposed.
5. The last rule of good cross-selling is the call to action and the element of benefits skilfully woven into them. In practice, it looks like that in just a few words you should create another need and convince the customer to make a quick decision on the purchase. Let’s stay in the subject of cameras – the customer has already added the product to the basket, and at this moment you are displaying the message: Order also a waterproof case to be able to take pictures underwater!
We bet they will buy it!
