Cross-sells are one of the most effective ways to increase AOV, which in turn can increase both revenue and net profit per order.

What makes a great cross-sell? Relevance.

Let’s say a customer is purchasing a pair of sneakers - we’ll call this the primary purchase.

What else could you offer them?

• 👕 T-shirt: OK (low relevance)

• 🧦 Socks: Good (medium relevance)

• 👟 Shoe cleaner: Excellent (enhances the primary purchase)

The key is to offer products that are super useful and just make sense to your customers.

What about price?

A cross-sell should be an easy decision.

A general rule of thumb is to consider complementary products that are priced between 10-20% of the value of the primary product.

Think about why supermarkets place chocolate bars and chewing gum at the checkout – it’s all about impulse buying. The same principle applies here.

You could also offer a discount for purchasing multiple units of the primary product, which works particularly well for consumables.

Another important aspect of cross-selling is selecting items that are small and can be included in the same packaging as the primary purchase. Ideally, you want to avoid cross-sells that are big and bulky, to prevent additional shipping costs for either you or your customer.

Strategic Placement: Where to Cross-Sell

Offering a great product is just the beginning.

The location where you place your offer is also crucial.

The most effective placement I have found is a one-click post-purchase cross-sell, which is presented between the Checkout and Confirmation Page.

This strategy works so well because the customer has already filled out all details, such as payment and shipping, at checkout. They have also paid for shipping with the primary purchase, so you can promote free shipping as a benefit of purchasing an additional item.

The result is that adding an extra product with free shipping now requires just one click—it's incredibly simple and easy.
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Another particularly powerful cross-sell placement is a Cart Pop-Up.

When a customer is in their cart and clicks 'checkout', they're shown a pop-up that suggests additional, complementary items.

You do need to be careful with this, as the pop-up interrupts the journey to the checkout; however, if you have chosen a great product that makes sense, this should be a welcome interruption.

Example: I have a client that sells watersports gear and offers a waterproof mobile phone case for $30. Every one of their customers needs this, and the price point is perfect. It’s one of the highest-performing cross-sells we have run.

A few other places you can place cross-sells are as follows:

Product Page: Enrich your product pages with a dedicated widget recommending related or complementary items.

Slide-Out Cart Drawer: Revamp your cart drawer to include cross-sell product suggestions.

Checkout Page Cross-Sell: Implement cross-sell opportunities on your checkout page for those last-minute decisions. If you are on Shopify this feature is exclusive to Shopify Plus users.

How to get started

Have an offer in mind?

☐ Ensure Relevance: Complement primary purchase.
​☐ Price Smartly: 10-20% of primary product value.
​☐ Shipping Efficiency: Avoid bulky items.
​☐ Optimal Placement: Post-purchase or Add-to-Cart Pop-Ups.

Shopify users can set up and initiate their first cross-sell experiment in under an hour, thanks to the wide range of available cross-sell apps such as Aftersell and Honeycomb.

These apps come with an abundance of testing features. For instance, you can map certain cross-sells to specific primary products. If you are a sports shop, you can pair shoe cleaner with shoes or tennis balls with tennis rackets.

Not sure what to offer?

First, look at existing carts where customers purchased at least two items. If this is a common behaviour, cross-selling can enhance it.

If you need new product ideas, a great place to start is brainstorming with ChatGPT.

An even better approach is to prove real demand by testing a small quantity of new product. You can source items from wholesale platforms like Faire or acquire non-branded products from suppliers on Alibaba.

In this model, the goal isn’t immediate profit but rather proving demand. Once you're confident you have a winning product, you can negotiate bulk discounts or manufacture your own products.

Summary: Done well effective cross-sells boost AOV by offering relevant, affordable complementary items, strategically placed. Find the perfect balance for your store, and watch as your average order value climbs.