How to add cross-sells to your Shopify store: comprehensive guide

Cross-selling is an essential sales strategy that recommends complementary products to customers based on their current choices. By integrating cross-sells into your Shopify store, you can elevate the shopping journey, amplify the average order value, and escalate your total sales. This guide delves into the diverse methods available for Shopify merchants to incorporate cross-sells, accompanied by detailed explanations and examples.

1. Shopify product recommendations

Shopify's product recommendations are an inherent feature, leveraging machine learning to suggest products to customers rooted in their browsing and purchasing patterns.

Auto suggested product recommendations

Shopify's in-built algorithms intuitively adjust product suggestions, focusing on items often purchased together, those with analogous descriptions, or belonging to related collections. It's important to note that these auto-curated product recommendations can't be manually modified. To activate these native recommendations, follow these steps:

1. Check theme compatibility: ensure your Shopify theme is compatible with the built-in product recommendations. Newer themes generally are, but older ones may require an update or switch.
2. Enable product recommendations:
   • Access your Shopify admin.
   • Proceed to Online Store > Themes.
   • Select Customize for your desired theme.
   • Go to the product page and locate the 'Related Products' section.
   • Configure and save changes.
3. Customize the display: depending on your theme, you might be able to modify the recommendation section's title, set a limit on displayed products, tweak the product card's display, or adjust the recommended products' design using custom CSS.

Manual product recommendations

Shopify also facilitates manual product recommendations. Here's how:

1. Install the Shopify Search & Discovery app.
2. Navigate to the Recommendations section within the app.
3. Choose a product for which you want to set recommendations.
4. Click 'Browse' and select products for the recommendation block.

Useful links:

1. How Shopify product recommendations work
2. Configuring product card in recommendations
3. Customizing product recommendations
4. Adding a recommended products section

2. Cross-sells apps for Shopify

There are also many Shopify apps that can assist in automating cross-sells. Here are some top picks:

AfterSell app enhances your average order value (AOV) by introducing post-purchase upsells that customers can accept with a single click, eliminating the need for repeated payment or checkout. It allows customization of the thank you page with reviews, FAQs, and cross-sells. For Shopify Plus users, the checkout page can be upgraded with upsells and social proof. The app supports creating both upsell and downsell offers, offers customization based on various triggers, and provides A/B testing for optimal conversion.
Price: from $7.99/mo

Mageworx Upsell & Cross-sell app offers a comprehensive solution to increase sales. It allows easy setup of upselling and cross-selling campaigns, customizable product recommendation popups, and widgets. The app also provides an analytics dashboard for informed decisions. Users can add multiple offers and products, ensuring enhanced product visibility and a potential rise in revenue and average order value.
Price: free

Also Bought, established in 2016, offers a sophisticated AI-driven product recommendation widget for Shopify, inspired by Amazon's 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought' feature. Trained on billions of products and orders, it analyzes sales history, new orders, and product updates in real-time, without any limitations. The widget is highly customizable in terms of UI, can be displayed on product and cart pages, offers various recommendation types, and integrates seamlessly with popular themes. It ensures smooth operation even during high traffic periods and supports multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese.
Price: $9.99/mo

Selleasy offers a one-click solution to enhance Average Order Value (AOV) through upsells and cross-sells. It showcases high-converting pre and post-purchase offers, encouraging customers to bundle related products. Users can manually create offers or utilize automatic product recommendations. The tool supports multi-language and multi-currency stores, with most widgets being embedded and subtle. Selleasy provides various upsell styles, free setup assistance, and compatibility with several other tools like Checkout and Geolocation. Features include Amazon-like "frequently bought together" bundles, product add-ons, cart upsell funnels, and post-purchase upsell pages.
Price: from free to $14.99

UFE Cross Sell & Upsell Bundle enhances sales by offering personalized product recommendations, upsells, cross-sells, and bundle offers. It promotes increased Average Order Value (AOV) through discounted upsells, product bundles, and tiered pricing, all while maintaining a seamless product purchase flow. The tool offers one-click upsell promotions in various styles, aftersale and post-purchase upsells, and supports customized designs with A/B testing capabilities. As of February 2023, it's fully compatible with Shopify Markets and integrates with tools like BUCKS Currency and Google Analytics.
Price: from free to $9.99

Honeycomb Upsell Funnels is a dynamic upselling and cross-selling app for Shopify designed to enhance sales throughout the customer journey. It boosts average order value by presenting tailored upsell and cross-sell offers on various pages, including product, cart, post-purchase, and thank you pages. Leveraging an AI-driven recommendation engine, Honeycomb ensures optimal product-offer matches. Features include A/B split testing, one-click post-purchase offers, easy customization within the app, and compatibility with platforms like Checkout, Recharge, and various social media pixels.
Price: from free to $149.99

ReConvert is a tool designed to significantly boost revenue by up to 15% through its upselling features. It facilitates one-click upsells, post-purchase upsells, and discounted upsells on checkout and thank you pages. With a focus on conversion, ReConvert enhances the customer value rate (CVR) using post-purchase upsell funnels and checkout blocks. It also revitalizes the thank you page by integrating features like surveys, birthday collection, and product upselling. The app offers a user-friendly drag & drop editor for easy management and employs segmentation for targeted upselling. It's compatible with platforms like Checkout, Shopify Flow, and Klaviyo Email & SMS Marketing.
Price: from $4.99 to $14.99

LimeSpot Personalizer is a data-driven platform designed to enhance onsite merchandising for marketers and e-commerce professionals. It delivers personalized shopping experiences across various channels, boosting conversion rates, average order value (AOV), and customer engagement. The platform offers real-time product recommendations, upselling, cross-selling, bundling, and content personalization. Users can segment audiences based on various criteria, present tailored content in real-time, automate merchandising, and test personalized site elements. LimeSpot is compatible with platforms like Shopify Flow, Yotpo, and Klaviyo.
Price: from $15