What is cross selling, the technique for selling more to your customers?
The sales technique known as cross selling takes place before our very eyes every day, sometimes without our even paying attention!
And that's part of its strength. In supermarkets, restaurants, but also online... the practice of up-selling is everywhere.
Here's a closer look at the definition of cross-selling, to help you master this technique and differentiate it from up-selling. Bonus: 3 concrete examples and 5 tips to apply.
What is cross selling? Definition
Cross-selling is a sales and marketing technique based on additional sales. It involves offering a customer or prospect a product or service that complements the one they initially wish to purchase.
Cross-selling has several objectives:
- increase your average basket;
- increase your margins with complementary products;
- highlight items for strategic and/or economic reasons, such as better inventory management.
👉 Important: for a successful complementary sale, the items or services presented must fit in with the prospect's or customer's approach.
Cross-selling and up-selling: what's the difference?
Although cross-selling and up-selling are often compared, the two approaches are very different.
In fact, up-selling aims to move customers upmarket, by replacing their initial choice with a higher-priced product. To do this, the retailer or e-tailer highlights certain qualities, such as technical superiority.
☝️ Beware, this technique is more complicated to implement. By offering the consumer a more expensive product, you further increase their distrust.
3 examples of cross-selling to illustrate this sales technique.
📱 Cross-selling in e-commerce: sales forces must compensate for direct contact with the customer.
- Principle: offer one or more products related to the surfer's initial choice at different points in the purchasing journey (product sheet, shopping cart, etc.).
- 💡 Example 1: you consult the product sheet for the first volume of Harry Potter, Amazon pushes the other volumes in the saga.
- 💡 Example 2: you consult the product sheet for an office chair on La Redoute, the site offers you complementary furniture.
🛎️ Hotel and restaurant cross-selling:
- Principle: extend the bill without forcing or rushing customers.
- 💡 Examples: a coffee at the end of the meal, services with hotel room rental (spa treatment, excursion, etc.), breakfast as an extra, etc.
🛒 Cross-selling and mass retailing: we speak of cross-merchandising.
- Principle: place complementary products in close proximity to each other, which are usually located in different departments.
- Examples: whipped cream next to strawberries, paintbrushes next to paint, candy next to the cash register!
5 techniques and best practices for implementing cross-selling
- Select your products wisely: suggest items or services that correspond well to potential needs, without being over-committal, especially in terms of price;
- Choose the right moment: online, multiply offers at several navigation stages, from the product sheet to the post-visit email. In-store, the role of the sales assistant is decisive in guiding customers towards an additional sale.
- Choose the right place: it's a good idea to offer additional items near hot spots, such as checkouts.
- Work on your sales pitch: use active listening and empathy to be persuasive, but don't risk damaging the commercial relationship. Online, the expressions "You'll like it too" or "Internet users have also bought" encourage sales without forcing the hand.
- Use the right tools: essential if you have an e-commerce site!
💡 [Our recommendation] Opt for :
- a plug-in to integrate into your e-commerce solution (Prestashop, Shopify or even New Oxatis) to automate cross-selling,
- dedicated software, such as a marketing automation tool to segment your website visitors and track their buying behavior.
This makes it easier for you to offer them complementary products and build their loyalty, through a newsletter, for example.
Constantly evolving cross-selling techniques
In a way, cross-selling is a business practice as old as time, but the explosion of online sales has led to the emergence of new ways of doing things.
Attempting to apply to the Internet the good formulas that work in the physical world has opened up a host of possibilities, even if human contact is no longer direct.
Do you already practice cross-selling in your business? Tell us about your experience in the comments!
Updated article, originally published March 2020.
Article translated from French