As acquiring customers becomes more challenging & expensive, an e-commerce brand needs to be able to maximize a customer's lifetime value to succeed. That's where the cross-sell flow comes in.‍

A Cross-Sell Flow helps you generate more revenue from each customer. It promotes other products to existing customers or upsells them to higher-priced items, driving revenue and boosting customer lifetime value (LTV)

But don’t confuse it with a Replenishment Flow. While both helps you get more customers to make repeat purchases, they do so in different ways. A cross-sell introduces customers to new products or product categories to shop, while replenishment urges them to repurchase what they've already loved.

Here’s what a great Cross-Sell Flow in Klaviyo can do for your e-commerce brand:

  1. Increase Repeat Purchases: By introducing customers to other products you sell, and recommending products they may like, they're more likely to return.
  2. Shorten Time Between Purchases: Making that second sale faster is critical and strategic cross-sell product recommendations helps get customers returning for their next purchase faster
  3. Boost Recurring Subscriptions: With more products that a customer is purchasing from you, they're more likely to start a recurring subscription for all their products
  4. Expand Customer Spending: By introducing new products, you'll increase Average Order Value (AOV) and the number of purchases per customer, raising their lifetime value with your brand.
  5. Broaden Product Adoption: Your cross-sell emails are the perfect place to drive more awareness to your newer products or less popular product categories.

‍Setting up a cross-sell flow in Klaviyo is easy with our "Zero-To-Launch" approach to launching a high-performing cross-sell flow with emails spotlighting specific products, dynamic content to make custom recommendations, or product roundups to introduce entire categories of products.

‍Check out our DTC Flow Foundations Guide to learn how to build a Cross-Sell Flow to increase revenue by promoting complementary products to your customers by

  1. The 6 ways a Cross-Sell flow can convert customers to try new products
  2. When & how to introduce customers to new products
  3. Tactics & strategies for promoting complementary products to customers to increase repeat purchase rate
  4. How to set up delays, triggers, and filters for an effective Cross-Sell flow.

Key Elements of an Effective Cross-Sell Flow

‍There are a few critical elements that make the difference between whether your cross-sell flow is effective at converting a repeat customer, or misses the mark:

1. Timing

When it comes to cross selling, it's all about recommending the right product at the right time. When building your cross-sell flow, think about what products a customer may want based on their previous purchase & where they're at in their customer lifecycle.‍

Advanced Tip:

Engage your customers throughout their post-purchase journey, using a balance of soft sells & hard sells to entice without overwhelming.

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2. Strategic Product Recommendations

‍Customers are more likely to buy if the products you recommend are more relevant to them. Use personalized recommendations based on each customer's behavior, such as their purchase history or products they've shown interest in.

A few different ways to think about a cross-sell strategies are:

  • "Extra Value" Cross-Selling: What are additional products they can buy from you that'll help them get more value out of they products they've already purchased? Complement their purchases with related items like selling a training plan to a customer who bought weights.
  • "Complete Your Set" Cross-Selling: Think holistically, like pairing shorts & a coat for a customer who bought a shirt from you, to have a full outfit. Turn a single purchase into a collection.
  • "Additional Pain Points" Cross-Selling: What are other pain points, needs or challenges this customer may have that you can help with? A customer who bought moisturizer may also need sunscreen & a cleanser for their skin.

3. Analyze Purchase Patterns

Take a data-driven approach to your cross sell strategy by looking at the purchase history and patterns of your entire customer base. Let your customers tell you what to recommend! Start by identifying your most popular bundles or commonly bought items together in Shopify.

4. Personalize with Dynamic Content

Another element to include in your cross-sell flows is Klaviyo's dynamic product feed which will generate unique product recommendations for each of your customers. You can customize the product feed to generate recommendations based on your top sellers, a customer's previous purchase or even their browsing behavior.

5. Offers

It's common for e-commerce brands to jump straight to offering a discount in their cross sell flow but start by educating customers, giving value, and creating interest in the product. Your cross-sell emails should convert customers & increase customer retention by showcasing the benefits of buying more products, not by pushing discounts.

Setting Up A Cross-Sell Flow in Klaviyo

If you're just getting started by building your first Cross-Sell Flow in Klaviyo, start with a sequence of 3 emails over 5-10 days, starting around 15 days after purchase. This creates a balanced connection with customers without overwhelming them.

Your approach to product highlighting will depend on the number of products your Shopify store sells. If you've got a large product catalog, you may want to have cross-sell emails featuring general collections or use Klaviyo's dynamic product feed to tailor recommendations for each customer. If you only sell a few products, you may want to have individual product highlight emails that you set up flow filters or a trigger filter to customize your customer experience.

‍Each cross-sell email should follow a few best practices: Start with a bold header image of the product or collection you're introducing to the customer. In the body of the email, share features, benefits & social proof, and explain why this particular product is being recommended, connecting it to previous purchases.

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Cross-Sell Flow Klaviyo Email Examples

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‍‍Summary: Powering Your E-commerce Success with Cross Sell Flows

Keep things simple & focus on getting at least one cross-sell email live in Klaviyo for your e-commerce store to drive repeat purchases. You can always optimize and A/B test later. A great Cross-Sell Flow drives more repeat purchases, introduces customers to other products, and increases customer loyalty.