Incorporating Strategies from B2C Online Commerce Cross-selling and upselling can offer great value for you and your customers According to a 2014 study on B2B companies, 72% of the 155 B2B professionals surveyed said that adding related product information to their site’s product pages would be a high priority in their 2014 budgets. By enhancing their site in this way, these professionals are engaging in cross-selling and increasing their sales potential. What Do Cross-Selling and Upselling Mean? Cross-selling, or the practice of giving customers information on related items to boost sales, has historically been more prevalent in B2C eCommerce. For example, you’ve probably seen the “Frequently Bought Together” or “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” sections on Amazon. Some companies may even offer bundles, where similar products are grouped together at a slightly discounted price. In a similar vein, upselling means using marketing techniques to encourage customers to buy a more expensive version of the item in which they have indicated interest. For example, a customer looking at a particular brand of television may click to buy, and then see a pop-up window or sidebar that shows the difference in price between the product they selected and a more upscale version of that same product. In short, cross-selling attempts to encourage sales of related products. Up-selling entices customers to buy a similar but higher-priced version of the same product. Powerful Strategies for B2B eCommerce As the Forrester study shows, more and more B2B eCommerce companies are interested in using these techniques to bolster sales, and it’s clear why this is an attractive marketing technique to bring over from B2C models. The opportunity for B2B companies is large, considering that B2B customers often tend to make large repeat purchases and may be more motivated to focus on quality and value rather than price. By showing related products or upselling—whether on a website or B2B sales portal—you can show your customers that you’re interested in giving them the best deal for their money. You can also show them that you understand their needs, perhaps letting them know that they might need a related product before they even think of it themselves! There are many ways to offer customers special deals, from email marketing campaigns to adding related info on product pages to offering special promotions when customers reach their shopping cart. If your cross-selling strategies are primarily going to be based on your website, you can create an algorithm that automatically shows customers products that are related to or are different versions of the desired product. Whatever method you choose, keep these strategies in mind when implementing cross-selling or upselling. Know Your B2B Customer Haphazardly bundling products or adding irrelevant related product information will do you no good. Start by using analytics data and purchase history to determine what products your customers are viewing and what they have purchased in the past. By getting a handle on product affinity and product relationships, you can gain a better understanding of what your customers are buying together. From there, you can also create an algorithm to automate these processes within your product catalog. It’s All in the Design If you’re pointing out relationships between products to your customer, you’ll need to do so in a way that makes sense. Think about where on the page you want your customers to see product relationships, and make sure to avoid forcing customers to click through pop-ups. Clear images and readable copy will help customers understand what you are offering. Show Top-Selling Items Highly rated, top-selling items are going to be a bigger draw for most B2B customers. If your algorithm takes this into account, you’ll likely have much more success making sales with cross- and upselling. Clarity Can Help Thinking about using cross-selling or upselling to boost sales? Our Clarity eCommerce™ platform comes with built-in analytics and tracking and is designed to help you create an easy-to-use product catalog. With the help of our experienced developers, you’ll be hitting record numbers in no time. Call or click today for a free quote.