It’s not a secret that every merchant tries its best to make his online customers repeat their purchases and increase the average order value. A most effective way to achieve these goals is to offer related products (RPs).
According to Barilliance Research, 12% of all sales get attributed to RPs. Moreover, most shoppers agree to buy some relevant extras. Unfortunately, not all merchants are successful inf selling and offering related products.
In the article, we’ll sort out the importance of related products in your Shopify store and highlight how to offer them successfully to improve customers’ satisfaction and get extra profit.
Table of Contents
Meaning of Related Products
Related products are indirectly connected to the main range of goods. They improve the original product by adding new functionalities. With the help of RPs, you allow your customers to acquaint themselves with products of your brand or create add-on sales by increasing revenue.
RPs have great meaning for merchants as they help sell more, increase the average order value and profit. And. what’s more important, they help build the loyalty of buyers to the brand and retain them in such a way.
Related products can be also advantageous for customers as they can save shoppers’ time buying supplementary products in one place.
Related products are goods that customers really need. They enhance the opportunities of the original product and supplement it. You’ll achieve nothing if you foist off unnecessary products to your buyers. It’s very important to know what is worth to offer. For example, ASOS offers its customers to purchase some useful supplements to the dress in order to make the whole look complete.
Rules for Offering Related Products
Before offering related products in your Shopify store, make sure to consider the following helpful recommendations:
- Pay attention to your customers’ needs. Offer only relevant products that bring high values to the original goods, and consider what your consumers may really want to buy as useful add-ons. By suggesting relevant goods, you show a personal approach and care about your customers. Additionally, the needs of buyers may differ in accordance with their location or gender, for example. This fact should be taken into account.
- Suggest related products in case there are products in the shopping cart. It’s much easier to convince the customer who is already buying to add something else to the cart.
- Sell only relevant products and in a limited number. You can’t offer RPs in a thoughtless way. If customers aren’t interested in products, or these goods don’t complement the original product, but you keep suggesting them, it may scare your buyers away. Equally, make sure to avoid offering an overwhelming number of goods as shoppers might get confused and ditch your site. Thus, offering just two or three relevant products can be enough.
- Choose the right moment to offer RPs. Some products can be suggested at the time of decision-making, others–right after the buying process is complete.
- Offer related products from different price ranges. Start from the cheapest supplements, then go to more expensive ones. The price of supplemental items should be directly correlated to the initial product price. There’s no sense to offer items with cost more than 10-20% of the initial product price.
- Combine related products with other marketing tactics to stimulate their purchase. For this purpose, you can use discounts, free gifts, coupons, or free shipping.
- Related products must have evident customer value. They should help solve problems or tasks, prevent problems from arising, add beauty or personalization, increase functionality, comfort, and service.
Ways to Offer Related Products
If you want to get as many benefits of offering RPs as possible, you should not only follow the rules mentioned above but also choose the right way to suggest them in your Shopify store.
Use of Appealing Recommendations
Customers don’t like challenges while shopping. They will be grateful if you make the purchasing process more flawless and provide them with valuable pieces of advice or recommendations. You should unobtrusively offer RPs, with references to other customers’ choices, or previous deals of the buyer. What’s more important, it should sound natural and grab their attention. Here there are some examples of the most effective leads:
Other Products You May Be Interested in / You Might Also Like These
Here, you can personalize product recommendations depending on what shoppers are looking for, their preferences, wish list, or browsing history. With such leads, you grab customers’ attention and make them remember what else is necessary to purchase.
Other Users Bought / Usually Bought Together
Popular products with a large number of reviews are in great demand. By offering these goods, you give your customers confidence in decision-making. And when buyers see that products are bought together, there is a reason for it. So, customers are more likely to repeat the same pattern.
Only Two Items Left / Today Only
By offering related products in such a way, you create scarcity and make customers’ decision-making easier & faster.
In fact, 35% of Amazon sales are directly the result of offering related products with the help of these expressions.
Follow-up with Email Marketing
Customers appreciate personalized offers. To satisfy them, you can involve email marketing and send your buyers newsletters with Shopify manually selected related products. These offers can depend on previous purchases, browsing history, or searches in the store. With time, such emails can be sent automatically every certain period that you choose.
According to Salesforce data, personalized product recommendations sent via emails account for only 7% of clicks, but an incredible 24% of orders and 26% of revenue.
Where to Place Related Products
You should pay special attention to the location of your Shopify recommended products on your online store. Their efficiency entirely depends on which site destinations you choose for placement. The most effective position for RPs is the product and shopping cart pages, where they do not interrupt natural purchasing and checkout processes. Most of the time, merchants opt for offering related products closer to the footer of a page.
The shopping cart is more often used for this purpose. You can improve your customers’ experience when they are about to complete the purchase by offering some extras that they are unlikely to buy on their own as extra search and navigation would be required.
Placing RPs on the product page, you give shoppers an idea or a reminder to improve features or quality of the product with some add-ons.
Final Thoughts
Related products are your chance to increase your brand’s revenue and the average order value at the moment when a customer has already decided what to buy.
In the process of forming a shopping cart, you can offer buyers goods that create extra profit. The main rule is to offer relevant products. Try to analyze the range of goods and monitor how this can be fulfilled. Related products don’t necessarily have to be cheap, but they should supplement the original offering with value and do for customer’s way of living.
Follow the rules, choose an appropriate way to offer RPs and be profitable and successful!
Have any idea about offering related products? Please, share your thoughts in the comments field.
