Cross-selling: Effortlessly Increase Your Average Basket Value

Introduction

A well-executed cross-selling campaign allows an e-commerce business toboost its revenue by raising itsaverage basket value.

This cross-selling marketing strategy involves suggestingcomplementary products to those viewed, added to a basket, or purchased.

An effective cross-selling strategy for hundreds of years

From its origin…

Historically, cross-selling wasborn in brick-and-mortar shops. Salespeople would naturally recommend shoe polish to care for newly tried-on leather shoes, or a matching tie for a shirt just bought.

Over time, marketers realised that cross-selling had the benefit ofincreasing average basket size without reducing purchase frequency.

All while encouragingcustomer loyalty through personalised recommendations that make customers feel understood.

Cross-selling has therefore become anessential part of marketing campaigns for most retailers, except those who of course offer only a single product or service.

…to its automation

Today, marketing automation tools such as ShopiMind allow online retailers toautomate the personalisation of product selections shown to their customers.

These tools automatically analyse theprofile of each customer by looking at their preferences and their browsing and purchase history. They then intelligently identify the best products for each of your contacts.

This makes it apowerful lever to boost your average basket value which only requiresa simple initial setup.

Check out our use case & see how to increase your average basket and sales with AI-driven product recommendations: “Cross-selling/Up-selling e-commerce”

From your very first customers, youincrease your ROI. You then simply need to monitor yourstatistics to optimise your campaigns.

A tool to use in your Marketing Automation strategy and your Campaigns

Cross-selling can complement most of your marketing campaigns,whatever the channel (Email, Smart Content on site, Facebook Messenger).

One of its advantages is that it can be discreetly incorporated into your campaignswithout increasing marketing pressure.

Cross-selling & Marketing Automation: The Winning Combination

It is also an important part of aSmart Content on site strategy. As your prospective customer is already in the process of discovery or purchase, this is the perfect moment to introduce them to complementary products.

Be sure to maintaincontinuity in the customer journey so as not to overwhelm your contacts with choices, but instead guide them to the right decisions.

For example, you can feature product bundles that work well together on your social channels.

Then refine this association through smart lists in anewsletter, where the Call to Action links to a personalised product page with further recommendations.

Discover an example of a cross-selling mix-marketing scenario in our article “10 essential automated scenarios for your e-commerce”.

Cross-selling: The Right Product at the Right Time

To increase the ROI of across-selling campaign, it’s important to carry outpragmatic segmentation of your contacts. Indeed, they don’t have the same expectations depending on theirstage in the customer journey.

Acquisition

Acquisition is one of the only stages of the customer journey where cross-selling should be used sparingly.

At this point, you still don’t know theexpectations of each prospect.

Even if your campaigns are well configured to target only your audience, they are generally defined by socio-demographic criteria which don’t take into account theunique characteristics of each individual.

Don’t spread yourself too thin, or you risk losing prospects among too many choices and diluting your brand image.

Stick tosimple cross-selling with your top sellers for the most effective solution.

ShopiMind smart lists suitable for Acquisition:

• Smart cross-selling
• Top sellers from my catalogue
• Top sellers from specific categories
• Top sellers from the most featured category
• Top sellers from the category of the most popular product
• Top sellers from specific brands
• New arrivals from specific categories
• New arrivals from my catalogue
• New arrivals from specific brands
• Manual selection from your catalogue

For more acquisition strategies, see our article “How to Boost Your Customer Acquisition?”

Conversion with personalised product recommendations

Forconverting a prospect who hasn’t yet made a purchase, theirbrowsing history will be your best basis forcross-selling.

You can recommend products based on those already viewed, choosing for example thetop sellers in the last category they visited.

If you want to suggest more products, include those that are regularly purchased bycustomers with similar behaviour.

ShopiMind smart lists suitable for Conversion:

• Smart cross-selling
• Top sellers in the visited category
• Top sellers in the last viewed category
• Top sellers in the category of the current or last viewed product
• Top sellers from the visited brand
• New arrivals from specific brands

Reactivation

Like any brand, your database likely containsinactive customers who’ve not engaged for several months.

At first glance, it may seem tricky to reconnect with these customers.

Yet, a customer who has ordered one or multiple times from your e-commercehas already trusted you and may do so again.

They are therefore likely to be interested in youradditional offers presented viacross-selling.

Their purchase history is your best starting point for a product list. You reactivate emotional memories, which can then reactivate the buying intent.

Re-engaging inactive customers relies both on this reassuring history and onexciting newness.

You can indeed introduce your flagship new products or thoseregularly ordered by customers with similar buying behaviour.

ShopiMind smart lists suitable for Customer Reactivation:

• Smart cross-selling
• Order product reminder
• New arrivals from my catalogue
• New arrivals from specific categories
• New arrivals from specific brands
• Top sellers from the visited brand
• Top sellers in the last viewed category
• Top sellers in the category of the current or last viewed product

Loyalty after the first purchase

In a post-purchase email, such as an order confirmation or thank you message, the products showcased bycross-selling are directlyrelated to the order placed.

This is the perfect time to recommendcomplementary products to the purchase.

The likelihood of an existing customer buying again ranges from60% to 70%, versus 5% to 20% for new customers (source: Marketing Metrics).

ShopiMind smart lists suitable for Initial Loyalty:

• Smart cross-selling
• Order product reminder
• Top sellers in the visited category
• Top sellers in the last viewed category
• Top sellers in the category of the current or last viewed product
• Top sellers from the visited brand
• Manual selection from your catalogue

Loyalty after multiple purchases

One of the most effective ways to build customer loyalty is to foster asense of community.

In this respect, the purchases of other customers have a significant influence on buying decisions. Help your customer discovercurrent trends within the product category that interests them.

These recommendations can besupported by testimonials from other customers to inspire and reinforce identification.

ShopiMind smart lists suitable for Loyalty:

• Top sellers from my catalogue
• Top sellers from specific categories
• Top sellers in the visited category
• Top sellers in the last viewed category
• Top sellers in the category of the current or last viewed product
• Top sellers from the most featured category
• Top sellers from the category of the most popular product
• Top sellers from specific brands
• Top sellers from the visited brand

Focus on B2B services

In a B2B campaign, it’s a good idea to offer anadditional service to the one the client has subscribed to. For example, providesupport for implementation or an extra course fortraining.

ShopiMind smart lists suitable for B2B services:

• Top sellers from my catalogue
• New arrivals from my catalogue
• Top sellers from specific categories
• Top sellers in the visited category
• Top sellers in the last viewed category
• Top sellers in the category of the current or last viewed product
• Top sellers from specific brands
• New arrivals from specific categories
• Manual selection from your catalogue

Conclusion

Cross-selling is therefore astrategic asset that blends seamlessly into your campaigns to increase ROI by raising your average basket value.

It is anindispensable, quick, and continuously effective tool, especially during key periods such as theyear-end holidays.

It’s your move!