cross-selling

Definition

Suggesting complementary products to customers based on what they're already purchasing. It's the retail equivalent of being a helpful friend, if that friend worked on commission.

Example Usage

Amazon's cross-selling recommendations are so effective that I bought a tent, sleeping bag, and bear spray despite living in a studio apartment.

Origin

Traditional retail sales technique, formalized in the 20th century

Fun Fact

Studies show cross-selling to existing customers is 6-7 times cheaper than acquiring new ones, which is why your inbox is full of 'You might also like' emails.

Source: Retail sales and e-commerce best practices

Related Terms

Intermediate

sentiment analysis

Using natural language processing to determine whether customer feedback, social mentions, or reviews express positive, negative, or neutral opinions about your brand. It's teaching computers to detect sarcasm, which goes about as well as you'd expect.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

drop-off

A sudden decrease in quantity, participation, or performance, or the place where you abandon your kids/packages/passengers for someone else to deal with. In business metrics, it's that terrifying moment when your chart takes a nosedive and you need to explain to your boss why engagement fell off a cliff. Also conveniently describes what happens to New Year's gym memberships by February.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

loss leader

A product deliberately sold at a loss to attract customers who'll hopefully buy other profitable items, the retail equivalent of free samples at Costco. It's why printers are cheap but ink costs more than human blood.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

product feed

Structured data file containing your product catalog information that feeds into shopping platforms and dynamic ads. The spreadsheet that launches a thousand SKUs into the digital marketplace, assuming you formatted everything correctly.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Advanced

cohort analysis

A method of grouping customers by shared characteristics or behaviors within a specific timeframe to track patterns over time. It's essentially marketing's way of figuring out which batch of customers is actually worth keeping around.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

opt-in

When someone explicitly gives permission to receive marketing communications, theoretically because they actually want them. A legal requirement dressed up as customer courtesy.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

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