eBay Cross-Selling Strategies: How to Get Buyers to Purchase Multiple Items

Every eBay seller knows that increasing the number of items per order is one of the most effective ways to boost revenue without spending more on advertising or customer acquisition. But while many sellers focus on driving traffic to their listings, they often overlook a powerful strategy that can turn a single-item purchase into a multi-item sale: cross-selling.

Cross-selling is the practice of showing buyers related or complementary products while they're viewing one of your listings, encouraging them to add more items to their cart before checkout. When done right, cross-selling keeps buyers browsing your inventory instead of clicking away to competitors, thereby increasing your average order value and maximizing your profits for each transaction.

In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about cross-selling on eBay, from choosing the right products to promote together to setting up cross-promotion sections in your listings. Whether you're new to cross-selling or looking to refine your strategy, these proven tactics will help you increase your average order value (AOV), so you can get more out of every transaction on your eBay Store.

‍

Key Takeaways

• Cross-selling displays related products within your listings to keep buyers engaged with your inventory and increase average order value.
• Cross-sell complementary products that naturally pair together based on buyer needs and your sales data.
• Use automated cross-selling tools like 3Dsellers to save time and keep product recommendations current across all your listings.
• Track performance metrics regularly to refine your strategy and maximize results.

‍

What is Cross-Selling on eBay

Cross-selling on eBay refers to the practice of displaying related or complementary products from your inventory within a listing to encourage buyers to purchase additional items. Unlike upselling, which focuses on convincing buyers to purchase a more expensive version of the same product, cross-selling aims to increase the total number of items in a buyer's cart by suggesting products that enhance or complement their original purchase.

For example, if a buyer is viewing a listing for a smartphone, effective cross-selling would showcase phone cases, screen protectors, charging cables, or wireless earbuds from your store. The goal is to capture the buyer's attention while they're already engaged with your listing and present them with additional purchase options before they navigate away to search results or competitor listings.

What makes cross-selling particularly valuable on eBay is that it directly addresses one of the biggest challenges sellers face: keeping buyers browsing through your products. When a buyer scrolls down through a product listing, eBay's algorithm shows them recommended products from other sellers at the bottom of the page. This means that buyers are immediately presented with alternatives and complementary items from your competitors. With cross-selling, you have the opportunity to catch their attention with other items while they're still viewing your listing, creating an opportunity to keep them browsing your store for complimentary purchases rather than looking to your competitors.

‍

Choose Which Products to Cross-Promote

The success of your cross-selling strategy depends heavily on selecting the right products to promote together. Poorly matched recommendations will do little to increase your average order value, but thoughtfully curated suggestions can significantly boost your conversion rates and average order value. Start by identifying natural product pairings in your inventory – items that buyers typically purchase together or that complement each other in obvious ways. For example, if your eBay Store sells cameras, you can cross-promote camera bags, memory cards, and tripods. The key is thinking about what else a buyer might need to fully use or enjoy the product they're viewing, and suggest it to them before they reach checkout.

The best way to identify winning combinations is to analyze your sales data. Look at past orders to see which items customers frequently purchase together. If buyers who purchase cameras often return to buy memory cards, those products should be cross-promoted together. Rather than relying on guesswork, this data-based approach creates strategies based on actual buyer behavior. When you manage your eBay Store with 3Dsellers, you can download detailed reports of past orders to determine which items are frequently bought together, allowing you to more easily identify the best products to cross-promote within your listings.

Another important consideration when pairing products is price points. Cross-promoting lower-priced accessories with higher-priced main products works well because buyers see these add-ons as affordable enhancements, rather than suggesting a high-priced item to buyers who are looking for a small purchase. For example, someone buying a laptop is more likely to add a mouse to their order than a buyer looking for a mouse is to add a laptop to their order. The goal is to make additional purchases feel like logical, budget-friendly enhancements to their primary purchase, not unnecessary splurges.

‍

Add Cross-Selling Sections to Your eBay Listings

Once you've identified which products work well together, the next step is adding cross-selling sections to your eBay listings. The most basic approach is manually adding product recommendations to your listing descriptions with titles, images, and prices. This is a pretty rudimentary approach, and it requires significant ongoing maintenance; every time products sell out or you add new inventory, you'll need to manually update each listing that references those items, which quickly becomes impractical for sellers with large inventories.

Most sellers opt for the more efficient solution of using listing templates with dedicated cross-promotion sections, like the listing templates offered by 3Dsellers. The benefits of listing templates extend beyond just professional-looking listings – 3Dsellers' listing templates let you automate your product recommendations and make it easier to add cross-selling elements (known as blocks) across multiple listings at once. You'll be able to define which items you want to cross-promote on each listing with template-specific settings, and 3Dsellers will select items to promote based on these settings. Whenever an item is out of stock or its listing has been removed, it will no longer be used for cross-promotion on your other listings.

Just as important as what you cross-promote is where you choose to present your cross-promoted items within a given listing. In our experience, the most successful positioning for cross-selling sections is below the product description, right before buyers would otherwise scroll down to see eBay's recommended products from competitors. This strategic placement captures the buyer's attention at the exact moment they're finishing up with your listing and just before they see eBay's suggested products from your competitors. That said, 3Dsellers' listing templates are fully customizable, giving you the freedom to decide where you want the cross-promotion block to appear in your listings.

‍

Cross-Selling Tools That Make It Easy

While manual cross-selling is technically possible, 3Dsellers offers powerful cross-promotion features within its eBay listing templates that can save you countless hours and deliver better results than manual cross-promotion. When you create listings with 3Dsellers, you can automatically showcase similar items from the same category as your listing, placing your products front and center before buyers see eBay's recommended listings from competitors. The system updates cross-promoted items automatically when your inventory changes, and the templates allow you to easily customize everything from how many products to display to where they'll appear, all without needing to know any HTML or coding.

‍

Design Product Displays That Convert

Having the right products and tools is only part of the equation – how you display your cross-promoted items makes all the difference in whether buyers actually click through and add them to their cart. Some key tips to keep in mind when creating cross-selling displays include:

1. Keep it professional and polished. Your cross-selling sections should match the overall aesthetic of your listings with consistent formatting, high-quality product images, and clear fonts. The goal is to make your cross-promoted items look like natural extensions of your listing. 3Dsellers' professional listing templates ensure your cross-promoted products appear as an integrated part of your listing, so buyers feel like you're offering genuinely helpful suggestions rather than spam.
2. Limit the number of products you cross-promote to 3-6 products maximum. While it might be tempting to display as many products as possible, in most cases displaying too many options runs the risk of overwhelming buyers. Showcasing between 3-6 related products is sufficient in most cases, and provides variety without causing decision paralysis.
3. Optimize cross-promotions for mobile viewing. With a growing percentage of eBay shoppers browsing on smartphones and tablets, your cross-selling sections must look good and function properly on smaller screens. When you use 3Dsellers' listing templates, mobile responsiveness is built in, so your cross-promotions automatically look great and work flawlessly on any device.

‍

Track Your Cross-Selling Results

Tracking performance is a crucial part of any selling strategy, since it allows you to optimize and refine your approach based on actual data. Start by establishing baseline metrics like your current average order value, items per transaction, and conversion rates, which will serve as your benchmark for measuring the effectiveness of your eBay cross-promotion strategy. Then, track which cross-promoted items actually convert to sales to determine which product pairings actually result in multi-item sales.

Tracking performance is easy when you use 3Dsellers to manage your eBay business with automatable CSV order reports that help you track the performance of specific items over time. With these insights, you can identify what's working and make informed decisions about which items to promote together.

Give your cross-promoted products time, but don't be afraid to experiment. Try different product combinations, test various placements for your cross-selling sections, and experiment with different visual designs. What works well for one seller's audience might not work as well for another, so it's important to find what works specifically for your store.

‍

FAQs: eBay Cross-Selling

Still have questions about eBay cross-selling? Not sure how to select the best products to cross-promote on your listings? Check out these frequently asked questions about eBay cross-promotion, and start cross-selling on your eBay listings today!

Q: What is cross-selling on eBay?

Cross-selling on eBay (sometimes referred to as cross-promotion) is the practice of displaying related or complementary products from your inventory within a listing to encourage buyers to purchase multiple items. It involves showcasing additional products that enhance or complement the item a buyer is currently viewing, with the goal of increasing the total number of items in their cart. For example, if you sell cameras, cross-selling would mean showing camera bags, memory cards, or tripods within your camera listings to increase the buyer's order amount.

Q: How do I add cross-promoted items to my listings?

There are several ways to add cross-promoted items to your eBay listings. The most basic approach is manually adding product recommendations with images and links to your listing descriptions, though this can be tedious and requires ongoing maintenance.

A more efficient approach is using listing templates with dedicated cross-promotion sections, like those offered by eBay selling managers like 3Dsellers. Tools like 3Dsellers can automatically cross-promote products from your eBay Store based on your specific preferences. You can decide how many products to cross-promote, which categories or subcategories to select from, and even select specific items for cross-promotion within specific listings.

Q: What are the best eBay cross-selling tools?

The best cross-selling solution for eBay is one that offers automatic updates, mobile-responsive displays, easy customization, and seamless integration with your existing eBay workflow.

3Dsellers includes built-in cross-promotion functionality as an integral part of its professional eBay listing templates, allowing you to automatically showcase related products from the same category as your listing. The tool updates cross-promoted items automatically whenever your inventory changes, doesn't require any HTML knowledge or coding skills, and maintains mobile responsiveness for seamless cross-promotion across devices.

Q: Which products should I cross-sell together?

The best products to cross-sell together are those that have a natural complementary relationship or are frequently purchased together by your customers. Start by analyzing your sales data and inventory to identify obvious pairings like accessories that enhance a main product, such as items from the same product category or complementary goods that buyers need to fully use their purchase.

Consider price points when pairing products – lower-priced add-ons tend to convert better when cross-promoted on higher-priced listings. The key is to offer recommendations that genuinely add value to the buyer's purchase rather than randomly promoting unrelated products.