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!
That's part of its strength. In supermarkets, restaurants, but also online... the practice of up-selling is everywhere.
Let's take a closer look at the definition of cross-selling so that you can master this technique to perfection and finally differentiate it from up-selling. Bonus: 3 practical 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 buy.
Cross-selling has several objectives:
- to increase your average basket;
- increase your margins by offering complementary products;
- highlight items for strategic and/or economic reasons, such as better stock management.
👉 Important: for cross-selling to be successful, 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?
Cross-selling and up-selling are often compared, but the two approaches are very different.
The practice of up-selling seeks 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 consumers a more expensive product, you make them more wary.
3 examples of cross-selling to illustrate this sales technique
📱 Cross-selling in e-commerce: the sales force must compensate for direct contact with the customer.
- Principle: offer one or more products related to the internet user's initial choice at different points in the purchasing journey (product sheet, basket, 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 customers' hands or rushing them.
- 💡 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: this is known as cross-merchandising.
- The idea is to place complementary products that are usually found in different aisles close together.
- Examples: whipped cream next to strawberries, paintbrushes next to paint, or sweets next to the till!
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 overcommittal, particularly in terms of price;
- Choose the right moment: online, multiply the offers at several stages of the browsing process, from the product sheet to the email after the visit. In shops, 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 without risking damaging the sales relationship. Online, the expressions "You'll like it too" or "Internet users have also bought" encourage sales without forcing your 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 behaviour.
This will make it easier for you to offer them complementary products and build their loyalty, through a newsletter, for example.
Cross-selling techniques in constant evolution
In a way, cross-selling is a business practice as old as time, but the explosion of online sales has given rise to new ways of doing things.
Attempting to apply on the internet the good formulas that work in physical stores has opened up a whole host of possibilities, even if the human contact is no longer direct.
Do you already use cross-selling in your business? Tell us about your experience in the comments!
Updated article, originally published in March 2020.
Article translated from French