How Cross-Selling Works: Effective Cross-Selling Techniques

If you want to see cross-selling in action, walk into any successful store. You’ll notice how thoughtfully they’ve merchandized products together. Maybe it’s a French press on the same shelf as a burr grinder and gooseneck kettle. Or you might spot a record player nestled among a vinyl cleaning kit and a storage crate. Perhaps it’s a cheeky display of hydration drinks, sunglasses, and ibuprofen alongside adult beverages. 

Ecommerce enables the same experience: product recommendations, cart add-ons, and checkout prompts push relevant items to shoppers—just like a retail store associate would. Read on for best practices on obtaining cross-selling success, with examples from successful ecommerce brands.

What is cross-selling? 

Cross-selling is a common sales technique where you suggest complementary products to someone who’s already buying something. In ecommerce, this happens through on-page features like “Frequently bought together” carousels, cart drawer recommendations, and checkout add-ons. 

To cross-sell customers, you surface products from your catalogue a shopper might not have found on their own. Ecommerce platforms handle much of this work for you. As one example, Shopify’s Search & Discovery app analyzes customer purchase history and product descriptions to automatically suggest complementary items. 

There’s no need for manual curation, and you won’t need to burden your sales team either—an app like this creates cross-selling opportunities without anyone lifting a finger.

Cross-selling vs. upselling 

Upselling and cross-selling both aspire to bump up average order value (AOV), so customers spend more than they may have intended. However, they don’t work in quite the same way. 

Upselling is a sales tactic that nudges a customer to buy a more expensive version of what they’re already considering—like showing a pro-level DSLR when someone adds an entry-level camera to their cart. In your ecommerce store, upselling might appear on a product page as a “Premium pick” or “Most popular” upgrade. 

Cross-selling, instead, suggests complementary items which pair well with the original product, like recommending a memory card or camera bag alongside that same camera. Suddenly, a $350 camera purchase jumps to an overall order of $400. 

Cross-selling typically shows up in the cart or at checkout as an add-on or on the product page as “You may also like” suggestions. Effective cross-selling strategies feel more subtle than upselling alternatives, and they’re a good way to generate higher customer lifetime value (CLV).

Cross-selling pros and cons

A 2025 report from Adobe found that 41% of retailers are prioritizing AI-powered product recommendations for upsell and cross-selling opportunities. This is a sensible choice: Done well, cross-selling creates value for both brands and their target audience. But done poorly, it risks annoying customers (or worse).

Pros of cross-selling

When cross-selling works, it’s less of a pushy sales tactic and more of a helpful nudge. The defining factor here is relevance. If you show customers products that actually complement what they’re already buying, your cross-sell feels insightful and friendly. If you aspire to “delight” the customer, this is one way to do it.

Here’s what you can expect when you’ve cultivated an effective cross-selling strategy:

Revenue grows without increased acquisition costs

You’ve already spent money getting an existing customer to your website and convincing them to add a product to their cart. A well-timed cross-sell grows that order’s value without paying for another Google click or Instagram ad impression.

You build increased customer lifetime value

Customers who buy complementary products are more invested in your brand. Someone who buys a yoga mat and a cleaning spray from you has a small ecosystem of your products. In the future, they’re more likely to come back when they need replacement blocks or a new mat. 

Read: How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value

Customers get everything they need

It’s frustrating to forget to buy batteries for that wind-up toy or realize that the wireless vacuum you ordered doesn’t come with filters. A thoughtful cross-sell saves customers a follow-up order.

Cons of cross-selling

Downsides from cross-selling trace back to the same root problem: recommendations that are perceived as overwhelming, mindless, or irrelevant. Improper cross-selling might also deter shoppers, sending them straight to a competitor who feels less pushy. 

When cross-selling isn’t approached with customer satisfaction in mind it creates risks: 

Irrelevant suggestions make your brand look lazy

When a customer buying a winter coat sees a recommendation for flip-flops, or when the “Frequently bought together” section shows products with no clear connection, it signals that no one is paying attention. 

Too many prompts create decision fatigue

A carousel on the product page, another in the cart drawer, a pop-up at checkout, and a follow-up email with more suggestions is a lot.

Each recommendation touchpoint might appear fine on its own, but stacked together, they overwhelm. Customers who came to buy one thing are now traversing an obstacle course of cross-sells, which can delay purchase or push them to abandon the cart entirely.

Recommending incompatible products backfires

When cross-sell algorithms don’t account for product compatibility, customers end up with items that don’t work together—like suggesting a case designed for last year’s phone model. The result isn’t just a return; it’s a customer who questions whether your brand understands its own products.

Examples of how ecommerce brands cross-sell customers

• Numi earns multi-item orders through wardrobe building
• Ridge cross-sells across an accessories ecosystem
• UrbanStems pairs flowers with gift add-ons on the product page
• Magic Spoon captures last-second buys at checkout
• LifeStraw turns charitable donations into a cart cross-sell

In-person cross-sell opportunities can happen at a display table at the front entrance, assisted by a sales associate hovering around the changing room, or at the register as you exit. Likewise, online cross-selling can occur across various points in the ecommerce customer journey. 

Here’s where (and how) five ecommerce brands cross-sell additional products:

Numi earns multi-item orders through wardrobe building

Numi founder Michelle Shemilt built a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand around high-performance sweat-proof undershirts. The Numi team constantly strategizes how to put complementary products in front of shoppers to increase order value and keep repeat purchases flowing.

Michelle explains on the Shopify Masters podcast that the company’s cross-sell approach focuses on wardrobe logic: If a customer buys a V-neck undershirt, they likely need the crew neck for different necklines. 

When you add a shirt to your cart from the product page, Numi’s “You May Also Like” section pops up, surfacing other cuts and colors—like the crop, lace, and semi-fitted undershirts. The objective? Encouraging customers to build out their entire wardrobe.

Ridge cross-sells across an accessories ecosystem

Modern wallet company Ridge strategically expanded into men’s rings, in part for cross-sell architecture. “We can match your wallet to your ring, and a lot of guys like that,” CEO Sean Frank explains on the Shopify Masters podcast.

On a ring product page, Ridge offers an “Add & Save” toggle for accessories like tie bars and cufflinks at discounts—bundling complementary items before the customer even reaches the cart. 

Once shoppers are in the cart drawer, the cross-sell shifts to wallets. This surfaces Ridge’s flagship products to high-intent ring buyers with discounted bundle options to persuade on price.

“It’s way easier to get a new ring customer into our business and then sell them a wallet. We have the bestselling wallet in America—most reviews, most loved product,” says Frank. “Once they already have a ring, now we can ask, ’‘Hey, do you want the most popular add-on ever with our wallet?’”

This inverted acquisition model works because, while rings solve an urgent need (getting married), wallets require convincing; once trust is cemented through the first purchase, the wallet becomes an easy add-on rather than a hard sell. Who knows? Maybe it inspires a groom to buy a few for his groomsmen as well.

UrbanStems pairs flowers with gift add-ons on the product page

UrbanStems redesigned its entire product page experience around add-ons, with VP of digital commerce Saschi Klee explaining in a Shopify case study: “There’s a lot of information on there, whether or not it be what type of stems are in the bouquet or where they come from, or how they’re gonna be delivered, or even what additional add-ons you can purchase.” 

On the product page, UrbanStems prompts gift buyers to “Make It Extra Special” with add-ons like vases, chocolates, and wine pairings, building the bundle before it hits the cart. After migrating to Shopify Plus, the premium flower delivery brand saw an 8% bump in average order value, driven partly by these better product bundling capabilities.

Magic Spoon captures last-second buys at checkout

Magic Spoon built its brand on high-protein, low-sugar cereal that evokes classic breakfast favorites. With cross-selling, the brand found an avenue for growth that comes after customers hit “Checkout.” 

The company uses Shopify’s checkout extensibility to surface cross-sells inside the checkout flow—mimicking that last-minute candy grab at the grocery store checkout. 

“It was a small test that had a huge impact. Even simple UI tweaks on Shopify can create outsized results,” says ecommerce and digital product manager Ciara Lydon in a Shopify case study. 

Once a shopper moves beyond the shopping cart and into checkout, Magic Spoon shows some “You may also like” items, including treat bars and branded bowl sets, capturing that last-minute impulse before payment. It’s a path to incremental sales, without disrupting pre-checkout conversion rates.

LifeStraw turns charitable donations into a cart cross-sell

LifeStraw makes water filtration products for travelers, outdoor enthusiasts, and even at-home users. But the company’s roots are actually in humanitarian aid. 

Founded 30 years ago to help eradicate Guinea worm disease in Africa, the certified B Corporation now uses customer sales to fund global water projects. Interestingly, its best-performing “product” at checkout isn’t a filter at all.

“We always joke that our top-performing product is what we call ’‘Give Safe Water,’” chief brand officer Tara Lundy says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. The checkout add-on lets customers contribute to safe water initiatives, with donations even counting toward the free shipping threshold. In 2023, this tactic generated over 50,000 contributions. 

“People see the work that we do, they see that we’re an authentic brand, and they’re willing to contribute just a little bit of extra funding for us to do that impact work,” Tara explains. This strategy works because LifeStraw’s mission is baked into every purchase—adding a few dollars to round out a purchase feels like participation, not cross-selling.

5 effective cross-selling strategies

1. Choose the right ecommerce platform
2. Utilize machine learning
3. Tie add-on suggestions to your free shipping threshold
4. Limit cart drawer recommendations to three items (or fewer)
5. Trigger cross-sell emails after product delivery

Whether you’re recommending nitrogen-rich soil to accompany a plant purchase or a lighter to pair with a candle, the right cross-selling techniques consider relevance, timing, and restraint. Use these tips when setting up cross-selling for your online store: 

1. Choose the right ecommerce platform

Your cross-selling strategy can work only with a flexible ecommerce platform that helps you put offers in front of your audience at scale. 

Shopify offers tools for product bundling, cart cross-sells, and checkout extensibility—features that let brands like LifeStraw add charitable donations as line items, or Magic Spoon surface treat bars on the payment page. Plus, the Shopify App Store offers dozens of cross-sell and bundling apps that integrate directly with your store.

“With Shopify, we’ve been able to do a lot of customization where we have more opportunity for storytelling, which is really important to our brand in particular,” says Tara Lundy of using the platform for LifeStraw. 

That same flexibility powers subscription cross-sells, threshold-based recommendations, and post-purchase offers without the need for a dedicated developer to customize your store.

2. Utilize machine learning 

Static recommendations treat every shopper the same, which is exactly the problem. AI-powered cross-selling, alternatively, analyzes real-time signals—browsing history, cart contents, past purchases, and even time on page—to surface the most relevant add-ons for shoppers. 

Instead of showing the same three products to everyone, AI machine learning logic helps predict which items a specific shopper is most likely to buy together, then rank recommendations accordingly. 

Shopify’s product recommendation features use these AI-driven insights natively, and brands can look for these tools to improve personalization across their storefronts. 

3. Tie add-on suggestions to your free shipping threshold

One of the simplest cross-sell triggers is the gap between cart value and your free shipping threshold. When customers see they’re close to a threshold, relevant add-ons feel like smart savings. Make sure you have add-ons priced to get them over the line without feeling like a stretch.

If your flagship product is $85 and free shipping kicks in at $100, stock $15 to $20 add-ons that customers can justify as “basically free” after shipping savings. Make sure your cart or checkout page clearly shows how much more they need to qualify. Customers shouldn’t have to do the math themselves.

4. Limit cart drawer recommendations to three items (or fewer)

More options don’t mean more conversions. It can actually mean abandoned carts. When customers see a wall of “You May Also Like” products, the choice becomes work instead of helpful. Suddenly, the friction outweighs the potential cross-sell. 

Max out at three recommendations: enough variety to catch interest, but focused enough to guide a purchase decision. Too many options creates a psychological phenomenon called the paradox of choice. It’'s created when humans experience stress and dissatisfaction from more choices, instead of freedom or happiness.

Magic Spoon learned this when expanding beyond cereal. As the product lineup grew, the team noticed that customers faced analysis paralysis, making it harder to complete purchases. The fix was curated suggestions with clear filters and badges, not longer lists.

5. Trigger cross-sell emails after product delivery

Cross-selling efforts don’t need to stop at checkout. Post-purchase emails—sent after delivery confirmation—catch customers when they’re most satisfied with their order and primed to buy again. 

This timing avoids pushing add-ons before the original item even arrives, and it lets you make recommendations based on what they actually bought.

A customer who purchased a 1,000-piece puzzle could receive an email three days after delivery suggesting puzzle glue and a display frame. From a cookware brand, a cast iron skillet buyer could get a follow-up featuring chainmail scrubbers and seasoning oil, positioned as “keep it for life.” Now, the product is in their hands, and so is the context of what they’ll need next.