What would be an example of a cross-sell for my product?
Well, first of all, you’re making me hungry – they sound delicious.
Secondly, let’s first understand the definition of cross-selling (and other variations of boosting customer order value), then we’ll move-on to answering your question, what would be an example of a cross-sell for my product?
Cross-selling is the act of presenting complimentary items (either during the shopping experience or at the point of checkout), that can be purchased along with the primary item(s) that the customer is intending to purchase.
Variations of cross-selling can also be seen as ‘upselling’ and ‘downselling’. These techniques don’t act in quite the same way as cross-selling, since they work on the basis of encouraging the customer to change the primary item they are purchasing, but the underlying goal remains the same (at least for upselling), and that is to boost customer order value (and if possible, net margin on the transaction also).
Here’s a generic example, based on a pod-based coffee machine, of each of these techniques in-turn:
Cross-Selling
Purchasing a pod-coffee machine, and being offered the opportunity to purchase a bundle or ‘starter kit’ of pods along with the machine purchase. Or perhaps some cups/mugs designed to fit under the machine water outlet (there’s nothing more frustrating than having to angle a cup that’s too big for the machine, to try to catch the contents of your coffee!)
Upselling
Being offered the opportunity to upgrade to a larger/faster/more superior model of pod-coffee machine during the checkout process. Perhaps a discount is offered on the superior machine to encourage this, or the main selling points of what makes the machine superior are made clear, to show the customer they could get something even better by spending just a little bit more.
Downselling
This serves quite a different purpose to the above, in that the premise is to ‘save’ the sale – rather than boost order value. So, it serves to generate revenue in situations where you would have otherwise lost it.
For example, a website selling the aforementioned pod-coffee machine may have an ‘exit intent’ popup to grab visitors’ attention before they leave the site. Perhaps they placed a pod-coffee machine in their basket, then decided it was too expensive for them, and went to leave the site.
As soon as the mouse cursor leaves the web window (to reach the X on the browser tab or window), a pop-up shows saying they can get 10% off their first purchase, or perhaps displays a cheaper model of pod-coffee machine to the one that was placed in the customer’s basket.
Back to the sweet rolls . . .
So, taking this back to your question – what would be an example of a cross-sell for my product? Here’s how each technique could work (and I’m giving two examples for each method, since I’m not exactly sure of the environment or premise under which you actually sell your sweet rolls – so there’s an example for online sales, and also an example for store/face-to-face selling):
Cross-selling from sweet rolls
Online
Perhaps you also offer (or can begin to offer) variations of the original product – for instance, ones with currants in, or perhaps iced variations – then you can either bundle a selection of these variation items to be offered as a ‘taster’ experience, or offer multiples of each, to be purchased alongside the original item.
Seasonal variations would work really well in this situation (people love to try new things, especially on special occasions) – halloween-style, Christmas-style, Valentines style sweet buns and so on.
In-store
The most obvious cross-sell, if the rolls are being sold for immediate consumption (such as a cafe/takeaway bakery), would be a drink, and a complimentary food option (kind of like a ‘meal deal’).
Upselling from sweet rolls
This one is easy when it comes to food purchases (or at least, if I was your customer, it would be an easy upsell – since I’m a greedy bugger) – but the most obvious way to upsell on these items would be to offer a ‘large’ or ‘supersize’ variation, for just a few pence (or cents) more.
Make sure that the increase in price is more, relative to the increase in your cost for making a larger item, and you’ll also be boosting your net income, as a %age, from the sale, not just revenue.
You can apply this both to online and in-store sales situations.
Downselling from sweet rolls
Again, fairly easy.
I don’t think sweet rolls are the sort of item that would be genuinely ‘prohibitively expensive’ to most people in the developed World. In other words, it’s an item that’s affordable to almost everyone.
So if someone decides not to purchase one, it’s a question of choice, not of financial restrictions.
It’s not like when a tyre-kicker with £10 to their name, leaves the Ferrari dealership after a test drive. This isn’t a choice for them. It’s a financial restriction.
So, with this in-mind, you should be able to recover sales that would otherwise be lost.
You have to understand WHY the customer is deciding not to purchase your sweet rolls. Perhaps they’ve realised they aren’t hungry right now (in the case of an in-store sale), or maybe they just think they aren’t worth the money.
Online
If your customer is about to leave your site, you could have an exit-intent popup setup that allows them to purchase a miniature ‘tester’ pack of all your sweet roll variations. This way the customer can see how good they are, and decide which one they like the best, before buying multiples of one particular type.
In-store
Maybe have a tasting tray on the counter, or (better still) have someone outside the store giving samples to passers-by – make people hungry, even when they aren’t, by letting them try a little piece of your sweet rolls.
I hope this answers your question – what would be an example of a cross-sell for my product, and you’re able to implement some of the techniques I’ve mentioned here.
Happy baking!