Methods to Successfully Cross-Sell on Shopify

Cross-selling is what makes shopping online or in-store exciting for your customers. 

They enter with the intention of buying a single product and leave with a whole shopping cart of goodies.

However, Shopify merchants need to be careful not to bombard their customers with too many cross-selling and upselling options, or else they may push customers away before completing their checkout.

Did you know you can cross-sell items after your customer has already placed their purchase? 

These kinds of post-purchase offers eliminate the risk of interfering with the customer journey and give you a last-chance opportunity to make another quick sale.

In this article, we’ll cover how you cross-sell more items on your Shopify store during the post-purchase checkout process.

What is cross-selling on Shopify?

Have you ever been shopping at the grocery store and noticed how there’s always candy, magazines, and gum placed right before the checkout lane? Grocery stores are masters of cross-selling techniques. 

Cross-selling products is the main reason why customers add more items to their carts than they usually intend to. 

It’s also what makes online shopping so satisfying and exciting for customers—they came to your Shopify store looking for a specific product but left with several more items. Post-purchase upsells benefit both the customer and your business. 

What is the difference between cross-selling and upselling?

Though several ecommerce brands have different definitions for cross-selling and upselling, and can use the terms interchangeably, they actually have specific meanings.

Cross-selling refers to selling related or complimentary products related to the shopper’s order, while upselling refers to swapping out products for the more expensive, premium upgraded versions.

However, in both cases, the goal is exactly the same — finding ways to get your customer to add more items to their cart and spend more money during their shopping trip. And that’s what we’ll be covering in this article.

How does cross-selling on Shopify improve average order value (AOV)?

Many up-and-coming Shopify stores have a limited range of products, which causes low average order values. 

And because it costs more than ever to create online ads targeting new customers, merchants are often losing out on money on every transaction with their new customers. 

Simply put, they spend too much money finding new customers than what they get back from their initial purchases. 

But, if you can make an immediate “cross-sell after the sale” using a one-click Shopify upsell app such as CartHook, then you can minimize your advertising budget by showing promotions to your existing customers while they’re still shopping on your site.

One-click post-purchase offers: How to make another cross-sell immediately after your initial sale

Imagine a common online shopping scenario—you’ve spent twenty minutes browsing through products and adding items to your cart.

You’re ready to place your order and go to the checkout page where you press “Complete Order.”

But as soon as you do so, another page pops up on the screen that says “Would you like to add this related item to your cart?”

This recommended product or upsell bundles will likely complement your existing order, such as an accessory, or even a discounted item—and all you have to do is click “accept” or “decline” to quickly add the item to your order.

Then after accepting or declining the offer, you’re finally sent to the “thank you” order confirmation page.

Odds are, you’ve probably done this several times without even realizing it, but you didn’t think much about it, because the product recommendation was a perfect match to what you were already buying.

This is an example of a post-purchase Shopify cross-sell, and it’s a simple tactic that can improve your average order value by 10% easily!

What are the benefits of using Shopify upsell apps to cross-sell immediately after checkout?

Ever notice how many Shopify stores will have upselling and cross-selling product recommendations on the checkout page? This may be counterintuitive to selling more products.

Having a complicated or cluttered checkout page is the third leading cause of cart abandonment. 

While this might seem like a good idea to promote related products on the checkout page, it actually overwhelms your customer and leads them to abandon their cart. 

This is caused by “decision fatigue” and it can quickly cause your customer to lose patience and decide to give up on placing their order. Not good! 

However, the best upsell apps place your cross-sell after checkout, and there is zero risk of cart abandonment—your customer has already placed their order. Now they just have one more simple question: to add the recommended product or not.

If they do, great! You’ve just made another cross-sell and increased your average order value. 

If your customer declines the offer, you can look to your built-in monitoring tools to analyze why they didn’t accept the offer. Was the offer too expensive? Was the incentive not good enough? 

Over time, you’ll begin to spot trends to see which one-click offers work, and which don’t, so you can refine your approach to improve your one-click conversion rates.

What are good cross-selling examples for Shopify stores?

“Want fries with that?”

This cliched example is a powerful example of how cross-selling can remind customers to buy more items they have easily overlooked.

Part of the fun of online shopping is buying accessories and auxiliary items that pair well with your order. 

Your customers may have come to your store looking to buy a dog bed, and end up leaving with additional dog treats, leashes, and fragrance sprays. And most customers are happy to do this.

Naturally, cross-sells and one-click offers are usually accessories that pair well with the items your customer has just bought. 

Here are some common examples of how to create cross-sell offers:

• Cosmetics after purchasing a clutch bag, and vice versa
• Pairs of socks after purchasing shoes
• Offering half-off discounts on accessories after spending $100 on their order
• Coffee cups after purchasing coffee grounds, and vice versa
• Recommending best-selling items if it’s not already in the customer’s cart
• Offer discounted upsells on excess inventory items
• Trial sizes of styling products after purchasing conditioner and shampoo

What are 6 of the best practices for cross-selling more items post-purchase?

When using CartHook, most Shopify merchants see a 15% acceptance rate for their one-click offers and a 10% boost in total revenue. When merchants present great offers their shoppers accept, their AOVs increase by over 30% on average!

However, there are tips and tricks you can use to improve your conversion rates so you’ll see more “Add to cart” conversions during your one-click offers.

1. Show discounted prices on the items to show the customer is getting a better deal.
2. Add a countdown timer to add a sense of urgency.
3. Recommend only one or two product recommendations.
4. Not sure where to start? Recommend your top-selling products if your customer doesn’t have the item in their cart. Or cross-sell related products, such as upsell bundles.
5. Experiment with your one-click funnel designs, trying out different colors, checkout boxes, and calls to action.
6. Set up multiple one-click funnels to automatically recommend the perfect products no matter what your customer has purchased. 

With CartHook, there’s no limit to the amount of one-click, cross-sell offers you can create!

Try CartHook today — a one-click cross-selling Shopify app 

CartHook is a Shopify upsell app that lets Shopify merchants build post-purchase upsell pages. 

Your customers can easily accept these post-purchase offers with just one click to instantly boost your AOV—no coding required!

Download your free 14-day trial of CartHook today and watch your order values increase by 10%.