Web Shopping Cart Cross-selling Guidance
Posted on October 29th, 2009 | by charlestang |Ecommerce Success Checklist
Trust worthy web shopping cart - Check
Keyword research - Check
SEO - Check
Eye-Catching ecommerce template - Check
Products uploaded and in stock - Check
All well and good - but what’s next?
You’ve done everything perfect so far - you’ve signed up with a top web site ecommerce hosting shopping cart and you’ve made sure it’s a secure web hosting shopping cart at that. You done all your keyword and SEO homework, so now it’s time to make small adjustments to the page marketing aspects of your store.
If you take all your cross-selling cues from Amazon, you might not get the same results as them. Amazon bases their cross-selling decisions on a LOT of constantly updated data which is processed by experts - constantly learning and constantly tuning their recommendations. A relatively large number of web shopping cart merchants do not have the resources to try to imitate this. For the rest of us, it’s better to play by a few simple guidelines when it comes to cross-selling.
Below are 4 basic guidelines to help you make the most out of your cross-selling efforts:
Keep To A Limit
The idea of cross-selling is to indicate products that a customer may be interested in or may not have realized that they need. Advising too many products may bother some customers as well as confuse others. The ideal number of recommended products should be between 3 and 5. Always remember, make it easy for the customer to make a decision. Do away with all other unnecessary factors that might hinder this.
Keep Them Related
Blindly acclaiming products might relay a sense of desperation or seem unprofessional. As mentioned earlier, many of these merchants are not privy to the latest information on buying trends that the big players have so it would be a risk to indicate products that are unrelated. The closer the products are linked the easier it is to sell the “need to have” angle.
Product Credibility
Exhibiting product ratings by customers and experts can go a long way towards building product credibility. People like to be rest assured that they are spending money on something that is worthwhile. Assurances by other people who have already purchased the product can aid here.
Provide Enough Useful Information
People research before they buy nowadays - not just to see if they can get a perfect bargain but also to find out if the item is perfectly for them. A lot of merchants supply product information in abundance but most of the information is useless. Always bear in mind that any information that you put up must be geared to assist you close a sale. The information that you present should be answers to questions you predict your customers would ask.
For instance, a customer choosing for a pair of sports trainers would probably want to know the type of shoe (tennis, running, basketball), what type of gait it suits (neutral, overpronator, supinator), the weight of the shoe, and the expected mileage it gives before it is retired. Be sure to tailor your product information to cater to what you expect your potential clients will want to know.











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