Definition
Cross-selling is the practice of encouraging your customers to purchase similar products like the one the plan on buying in the first place because the products work complementary.
ExampleWhen you order a menu in McDonalds they always ask you if you want sauce with your fries or sauce with your chicken nuggets. As this sauce is not included in the price of the menu or chicken nuggets it means you have to order them extra.
A classic example on how they make you do cross-selling in McDonalds.
In e-commerce cross-selling is mostly executed on the product pages or somewhere in the checkout process. It's a highly-effective method on generating new revenue. Thanks to cross-selling your client might see a product he did not know you offered in your assortiment.
Both cross- and upselling is an amazing technique to
increase your AOV, increase your customer satisfaction and decrease your abandoned shopping carts. It gives a sense of personal treatment. Companies that really want to excel in upselling help their customers visualize the benefits they get from ordering the higher-priced item.
As cross-selling and upselling are both intended on giving the customer additional value. The goal of these sales-techniques is to increase order value. This is done by offering your customers information about products they might didn't know you we're selling. The key to success lies with listening to what your clients want, understanding their wishes and responding to them in a way that truly meet their needs.