Every successful Shopify store owner knows the secret to sustainable growth lies not just in acquiring new customers, but in maximizing revenue from existing ones.
Cross-selling has emerged as one of the most powerful strategies to achieve this goal, with leading ecommerce brands reporting average order value increases of up to 40% through strategic product recommendations.
Acquiring a new customer costs five times more than retaining an existing one, yet most Shopify merchants focus heavily on customer acquisition while leaving money on the table with their current shoppers.
These Shopify cross-selling examples showcase real stores that implemented strategic techniques and achieved remarkable results.
What is Cross-Selling on Shopify?
Cross-selling on Shopify is a strategic sales technique where merchants recommend complementary or related products to customers based on their current selections or purchase history.
Unlike traditional retail environments where sales associates make these suggestions, Shopify cross-selling leverages automated systems, apps, and strategic placement to present relevant product recommendations throughout the customer journey.
Custom Discount Bundle on Cove Website
Cross-selling works particularly well on Shopify because of the platform's robust ecosystem of apps and customization options.
Modern cross-selling strategies utilize customer behavior data, purchase history, and artificial intelligence to present personalized recommendations at optimal moments.
This approach has proven highly effective, with studies showing that 35% of Amazon's revenue comes from cross-selling and upselling techniques.
Strategy
Purpose
Example
Impact on AOV
Cross-selling
Add complementary products
Camera + memory card + case
Moderate increase
Upselling
Upgrade to premium version
Basic plan → Premium plan
Higher increase
Bundle selling
Package related items together
Skincare routine bundle
Significant increase
10 Cross-Selling Examples on Shopify
Discover proven cross-selling strategies from real Shopify stores across industries - from CBD brands generating 81 orders weekly through accessory bundles to personal care companies boosting sales by $17,000+ monthly using strategic product recommendations and checkout optimization techniques.
CBD Brand - Complementary Product Cross-Sell
A CBD vape brand successfully implemented cross-selling by offering discounted batteries when customers purchased vape cartridges. Using CheckoutWiz, they displayed the battery offer directly at checkout, addressing an immediate customer need while creating clear value through discount pricing.
Product: CBD vape cartridge
Cross-sell: Compatible battery
Placement: Checkout page
App: CheckoutWiz
Results: 81 orders generated in just one week, demonstrating how essential accessories can drive immediate cross-selling success.
Key Takeaway: Offer necessary accessories at checkout with clear discounts to solve customer problems while boosting average order value.
Health Supplement Brand - Limited Time Bundle Offers
Jasper Caven, a German health and supplement brand, implemented time-sensitive cross-selling by offering their premium formula at special discounts during checkout. The strategy created urgency while introducing customers to higher-value products they might not have initially considered.
Product: Health supplements
Cross-sell: Premium formula bundle
Strategy: Limited-time discount
Placement: Checkout page
Results: €14,000 generated in 35 days through 154 orders, proving that urgency-driven cross-selling can significantly boost revenue.
Key Takeaway: Create time-sensitive offers on premium products to encourage customers to upgrade their purchase during checkout.
Lathr Personal Care - Product Bundling Success
Lathr leveraged product bundling to help customers create complete personal care routines. Using Easy Bundles, they allowed customers to mix and match complementary products while offering attractive bundle pricing that encouraged larger purchases.
Product: Personal care items
Cross-sell: Complete routine bundles
Strategy: Mix-and-match bundling
App: Easy Bundles
Results: $17,221.79 sales boost in just 30 days, demonstrating the power of letting customers create their own product combinations.
Key Takeaway: Enable customers to build their own bundles with complementary products to increase average order value naturally.
Fashion Store - Complete the Look Cross-Sells
A fashion retailer implemented "complete the look" cross-selling by suggesting accessories like belts, shoes, and jewelry when customers added clothing items to their cart. The visual approach helped customers envision complete outfits while increasing purchase value.
Product: Clothing items
Cross-sell: Accessories (belts, shoes)
Strategy: Style completion
Focus: Visual coordination
Results: 27% increase in average order value through strategic accessory recommendations.
Key Takeaway: Help customers visualize complete outfits by cross-selling accessories that complement their main clothing purchases.
Electronics Store - Protection and Accessories Bundle
An electronics retailer successfully cross-sold protection products and accessories by bundling smartphone cases, screen protectors, and charging cables with phone purchases. The strategy focused on device protection and enhanced functionality.
Product: Smartphones
Cross-sell: Cases, protectors, chargers
Strategy: Protection bundling
Value: Peace of mind
Results: 40%+ conversion rate on accessory offers, showing high customer acceptance of protection products.
Key Takeaway: Sell peace of mind by bundling protection and essential accessories with high-value electronics purchases.
Meat Brand - Cashback Cross-Selling Program
A premium meat brand implemented a cashback system where customers earned store credit for future purchases when buying premium cuts. This strategy encouraged exploration of different product categories while building customer loyalty.
Product: Premium meat cuts
Cross-sell: Store credit rewards
Strategy: Cashback incentives
App: GiftKart
Results: Increased in-store revenue and improved customer retention through cross-category purchasing incentives.
Key Takeaway: Use cashback rewards to encourage customers to explore different product categories while building long-term loyalty.
Candle Brand - Gift Enhancement Upsells
Arbor Made enhanced their candle sales by offering gift wrapping, premium packaging, and personalized messages at checkout. This strategy transformed simple product purchases into premium gift experiences.
Product: Sustainable candles
Cross-sell: Gift wrapping, packaging
Strategy: Gift enhancement
Placement: Checkout extensions
Results: $66,000 additional revenue with 16% conversion rate increase, proving the value of gift enhancement options.
Key Takeaway: Transform regular purchases into premium gift experiences by offering wrapping and personalization services.
Fitness Brand - Subscription Cross-Sells
A fitness supplement brand converted one-time buyers into subscribers by offering subscription discounts at checkout. The strategy focused on convenience and cost savings for regularly consumed products.
Product: Fitness supplements
Cross-sell: Subscription plans
Strategy: Recurring convenience
Benefit: Cost savings
Results: 2X increase in repeat purchases through successful subscription conversions at checkout.
Key Takeaway: Convert one-time supplement buyers into subscribers by emphasizing convenience and savings benefits.
Home Goods Store - Volume Discount Cross-Sells
A home goods retailer implemented site-wide volume discounts encouraging customers to explore multiple product categories. The "buy any 3 items, get 15% off" strategy increased cross-category shopping significantly.
Product: Home goods
Cross-sell: Cross-category items
Strategy: Volume discounts
Scope: Site-wide promotion
Results: 2X increase in items per order, demonstrating effective cross-category exploration incentives.
Key Takeaway: Encourage exploration across product categories with volume discounts that reward diverse shopping behavior.
Bookstore - Knowledge Enhancement Cross-Sells
A specialty bookstore enhanced single book purchases by recommending related titles, bookmarks, and reading accessories. The strategy focused on enriching the reading experience through complementary products.
Product: Books
Cross-sell: Related books, accessories
Strategy: Experience enhancement
Focus: Reading ecosystem
Results: 3X increase in items per order through strategic recommendation of reading-related products.
Key Takeaway: Enhance the core product experience by suggesting items that complement and enrich the main purchase.
Key Strategies Behind These Successful Examples
Timing is Everything
The most successful Shopify cross-selling examples demonstrate that timing plays a crucial role in conversion rates.
Checkout placement consistently outperforms product page recommendations, with brands reporting 2-3X higher acceptance rates when offers appear during the final purchase stages.
Post-purchase cross-selling also shows strong performance, particularly for complementary items that enhance the original purchase experience.
Placement
Conversion Rate
Best Use Cases
Checkout page
Highest (15-25%)
Essential accessories, upgrades
Product page
Medium (8-15%)
Related products, bundles
Post-purchase
Medium (10-18%)
Add-on services, subscriptions
Cart page
Lower (5-12%)
Volume discounts, free shipping
The Twenty-Five Percent Rule Application
The most effective cross-selling examples follow the 25% pricing rule, keeping cross-sell items under 25% of the main product's cost.
This psychological pricing threshold ensures customers perceive cross-sells as affordable add-ons rather than significant additional investments.
Real examples demonstrate this rule in action: when the CBD brand offered batteries with vape cartridges, the battery price remained well below 25% of the cartridge cost.
Similarly, fashion accessories like belts and jewelry typically price at 15-20% of the main clothing item's value.
Technology Stack for Success
Modern Shopify cross-selling relies heavily on specialized apps that integrate seamlessly with the platform's checkout extensions.
The most successful implementations combine multiple tools to create comprehensive cross-selling ecosystems rather than relying on single-purpose solutions.
Essential app categories include bundle builders for product combinations, checkout optimizers for strategic offer placement, and analytics tools for performance tracking.
The top-performing stores typically use 2-3 specialized cross-selling apps working together rather than attempting to handle everything through basic Shopify features.
Design and User Experience Best Practices
Successful cross-selling examples prioritize clean, non-intrusive presentation that enhances rather than disrupts the shopping experience.
The most effective designs use minimal text, clear product images, and obvious pricing to enable quick decision-making without cognitive overload.
Trust elements such as customer reviews, security badges, and clear return policies significantly impact cross-sell acceptance rates.
Brands that include social proof alongside cross-sell offers report 20-30% higher conversion rates compared to basic product recommendations without supporting evidence.
Common Cross-Selling Mistakes to Avoid
Overwhelming Customers with Too Many Options
The biggest mistake in Shopify cross-selling is presenting too many choices simultaneously.
Research shows that offering more than three cross-sell options decreases conversion rates by up to 40% due to decision paralysis. Successful stores limit checkout offers to 1-2 highly relevant products that directly complement the main purchase.
Number of Options
Conversion Rate
Customer Response
1 option
18-22%
Clear decision
2-3 options
15-18%
Manageable choice
4-6 options
8-12%
Analysis paralysis
7+ options
3-7%
Overwhelmed abandonment
Poor Timing of Cross-Sell Offers
Many merchants make the mistake of interrupting the checkout flow with poorly timed cross-sell popups or redirects. Successful cross-selling integrates seamlessly into the existing purchase process without forcing customers to navigate away from their intended transaction.
Irrelevant Product Suggestions
Generic product recommendations based solely on popularity rather than actual relevance represent another common failure. The CBD brand's success with battery cross-sells worked because batteries are essential for using vape cartridges, creating obvious value for customers.
Breaking the Checkout Flow
Technical implementation mistakes that disrupt Shopify's native checkout process cause significant conversion losses. Outdated apps or custom code that redirects customers away from secure checkout pages creates friction and abandonment opportunities.
Best Cross-Selling Shopify Apps for Implementation
Easy Bundles is one of the best Shopify apps for cross-selling. The app enables your online store to build different types of product bundles that can be promoted to online shoppers in lieu of custom savings, discounts and offers. The bundles encourage the shopper to explore other items that can be bought with the product of their interest, enabling the business to sell more during the session - a cross-sell strategy that is proven to work across industries!
This Shopify product bundles app seamlessly integrates with your store UI, giving you the ability to promote the product bundles more naturally to your store visitors.
Features
Bundle Builder: Customizable layouts for unique bundle and box builder
Gifting bundles: Add personal touch with greeting cards, gift boxes, and videos.
Upsell & Cross-sell : Boosts sales via bundle and gift box creation.
Build your own bundles allows customers to discover new products and collections
Customizable UI for bundles: Integrated with your store for consistent branding.
Fly is the ultimate solution for creating customizable product bundles that drive sales and enhance your store’s shopping experience. From showcasing curated combinations with Fixed Bundles to increasing order values with Frequently Bought Together recommendations and Volume Bundles, Fly empowers you to offer flexible, mix-and-match options without limits. Built with Shopify’s latest technology, it features real-time inventory sync, easy-to-use templates, and reliable 24/7 support. Created by the makers of Easy Bundle Builder, Fly seamlessly transforms your product pages into high-performing, conversion-focused assets.
Checkout Wiz helps you enhance your checkout experience with engaging Thank You and Order Status pages featuring surveys, upsells, and post-purchase offers. Collect customer insights, display social links, and customize shipping/payment rules by renaming or hiding them.
Features
Increase AOV with upsells at every stage of checkout and post-purchase.
Display high-converting content on Checkout, Thank You, and Order Status pages.
Gather survey responses, incentivize upsells, and engage customers after purchase.
Run A/B tests on extensions to optimize store performance and boost conversions.
Use a dynamic rules engine to conditionally show or hide extensions as needed.
Using KiteFree Gift you can provide customers with free gifts based on customisable rules. You may encourage higher-value purchases and improve the shopping experience by automatically adding gift items to the customer's cart. You can even offer a free gift when a customer’s cart hits a certain value
Features
Customizable UI in store.
Offer Buy X Get Y (BOGO), free gift with purchase & tiered gift progress bar
Next on the list of Shopify apps to increase sales and Shopify average order value is GiftKart. While Gift Cards are the easiest to offer as gifts, they can serve as a powerful marketing tool if used correctly. GiftKart allows you to send bulk discounted Gift Cards or run automated cashback campaigns to encourage more spend and increase AOV. The app also allows Gift Cards to be offered as store credit or run rule based campaigns where credit can be used at a future date ensuring a returning customer with larger AOV.
Features
Creating brand-themed gift cards and greeting cards.
Personalized experience with video message, greeting card, scheduled delivery and an interactive redemption experience.
Run automated bulk gift card campaigns for corporate gifting, cashback campaigns or running marketing campaigns.
Successful Shopify cross-selling requires tracking specific metrics that directly correlate with revenue impact and customer behavior. The most important indicators focus on purchase behavior changes rather than vanity metrics that don't reflect actual business value.
Metric
Calculation
Target Range
Impact Indicator
Average Order Value
Total Revenue ÷ Number of Orders
15-30% increase
Revenue growth
Cross-Sell Conversion Rate
Cross-sell Purchases ÷ Total Orders
12-25%
Offer effectiveness
Items Per Order
Total Items ÷ Number of Orders
1.5-2.5 items
Engagement level
Customer Lifetime Value
Average Purchase × Purchase Frequency
20-40% increase
Long-term success
Setting Up Proper Tracking
Effective cross-selling analytics require integration between Shopify's native analytics and specialized app reporting. Most successful merchants combine Shopify's built-in reports with app-specific dashboards to get comprehensive performance insights.
Google Analytics 4 integration provides deeper customer journey insights, showing how cross-selling affects overall site engagement and conversion paths. Enhanced ecommerce tracking reveals which product combinations perform best and identifies optimization opportunities.
The most successful cross-selling strategies track customer segments separately, recognizing that new customers respond differently to cross-sell offers compared to returning buyers. This segmentation enables targeted optimization that improves overall performance.
Optimization Strategies for Underperforming Cross-Sells
When cross-selling campaigns underperform, systematic testing identifies improvement opportunities. A/B testing different product combinations, pricing strategies, and placement options reveals what resonates with specific customer segments.
Common optimization focuses include adjusting offer timing, refining product relevance, and improving visual presentation. The CBD brand's success with battery cross-sells demonstrates how obvious product relationships drive higher conversion rates than loosely related suggestions.
Price sensitivity testing helps identify optimal discount levels that maximize both conversion rates and profit margins. Many successful merchants find that moderate discounts (10-20%) often outperform deep discounts (30%+) in terms of overall profitability.
ROI Calculation Examples
Cross-selling ROI calculations must account for both immediate revenue impact and long-term customer value changes. Simple revenue attribution often understates cross-selling benefits by ignoring increased customer loyalty and repeat purchase behavior.
Example Calculation: If monthly cross-sell revenue increases by $5,000 and app costs total $200 monthly, the ROI equals 2,400% annually.
However, comprehensive ROI analysis includes customer lifetime value improvements, inventory movement benefits, and reduced customer acquisition costs through increased satisfaction rates. These factors often double or triple the apparent ROI from cross-selling initiatives.
Conclusion & Next Steps
The Shopify cross-selling examples demonstrated throughout this guide prove that strategic product recommendations can deliver substantial revenue increases when implemented correctly.
From the CBD brand's 81 weekly orders through simple accessory bundling to Lathr's $17,221.79 monthly boost via product combinations, these real-world results show the tangible impact of well-executed cross-selling strategies.
The key to replicating these successes lies in starting with one focused strategy rather than attempting to implement multiple complex systems simultaneously.
Choose the cross-selling approach that best matches your product relationships and customer behavior patterns, then optimize based on performance data before expanding to additional techniques.
Whether you begin with checkout offers, product bundles, or loyalty-based cross-selling, consistent implementation and measurement will drive meaningful results for your Shopify store.
Hurrify customers to buy within a given timeframe with a sales countdown timer & improve conversions
Another popular Shopify checkout app is Checkout Promotions. The app comes with the ability to leverage a collection of highly robust visibility rules that help show customers one-click post purchase upsell promotions after an order payment has been made. Some of its key features include:
Features
AI recommended and manual recommendations for upselling.
Complete branding control.
Checkout Upsell for increasing AOV.
AI recommended and manual recommendations for upselling.
Pricing
Development
Free
Monthly Plan
$99/ month
Plus Plan
$99/ month
Plus Plan
$99/ month
FAQs on Cross Selling on Shopify
What is the best cross-selling app for Shopify?
How much should cross-sell products cost compared to the main product?
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Sid B
Sid is the founder of Skai Lama and The Indian Dream Podcast. He is passionate about building SaaS and talks about eCommerce Growth, 0-1 Startups, Building Businesses and Brands, and Shopify.
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