Product Requirements

A cross sell encourages or incentivizes customers to add additional items or upgrades to their cart before they finalize their purchase. When a cross sell keeps the customer's experience and goals in mind, it has the potential to benefit both you and the customer tremendously. You can increase your average order value and revenue, while they receive an add-on that complements their current need.

If you are interested in exploring this topic in more detail, a class concerning increasing your average order value (AOV) via cross sell and free shipping bars is available on Privy's YouTube channel here.

Need some inspiration before you begin? Check out some customer examples.

Shopify Cross Sell

The quickest way to create a cross-sell display is via Privy's pre-built plays as outlined in this section. That said, you can still create a cross-sell display from scratch by following these steps instead. To create a cross-sell display with Plays:

Navigate to Convert > All Displays and click the New Display button.
On the Plays dashboard, select the Cross Sell option, select the product you'd like to offer from the prompt, and customize the display using the designer to match your branding and style.

Note: Selecting a product from the prompt does not automatically update the image associated with the default cross-sell play. Please make sure to update this element.

Cross Sell Start.gif

If you are okay using the default targeting rules and settings of the play, which represent the top-performing displays from across Privy's customer base, hit Publish to get the display live on your site. However, if you'd like to review or reconfigure any of the play's settings, including its targeting rules, select the Save option instead.

Reconfigure the play

To edit the play's default settings, check out the resources below:

Edit the display targeting

To change the targeting conditions of the cross-sell display:

Navigate to the Target step of the display builder.
Click the Who To Show It To card, edit the targeting conditions to your liking by following these steps, and Save any changes.

With the targeting conditions updated, you can continue customizing the display's settings or select the Publish button to activate the display.

Shopify cross-sell (manual)

If you intend to heavily modify the settings of the pre-built play, then starting from scratch might be a better option for you. To create a cross-sell display while integrated with Shopify from scratch:

Navigate to Convert > All Displays and click the New Display button.
On the Plays dashboard, select the Build your own option, provide an internal name, and then click the Create Display button.
In the Create step of the display builder, select the Form fields card, and uncheck the Enable Form? option, and then click Save.

While still in the Create step, select the Add a Display option.
Select a form-free or cross-sell display template to showcase your items - a flyout or a banner is recommended - and then click the Choose selected option in the upper right.
Customize the display with an image from your Shopify catalog or computer and an add to cart button for each product. For the button action, select the Add Shopify product to cart option and then the associated (e.g., pictured) product from the dropdown menu.

Note: If you are a Shopify user and cannot use the "Add Shopify product to cart" button action, you can create an "add to cart" link for the button by following these steps instead.

Select the Save option at the upper right.

Next, move to the Target step and switch the When To Show setting to 3 or 5 seconds. Save.
Select the Who To Show It To setting and click Add targeting condition.
Add the two rules listed below with an AND operator and Save.
- Cart value is greater than 1 - This rule ensures a product is in the customer's cart.
- Cart Product IDs contains any of () - This rule ensures the customer has products in their cart that complement the cross-sell. Alternatively, you could also use a "does not contain" version if you'd simply like to bring attention to products that aren't in the customer's cart. New products or best-sellers often have this wider and more general appeal.
Select the How Long to Show It setting if you'd like the cross-sell to expire. Save.
In the upper right, click the Publish button and confirm in the prompt.

The cross-sell display is now live and will appear to your qualifying customers.

Shopify Cart URLs & Variant IDs

To manually create a button that automatically adds a Shopify product to a shopper's cart:

Navigate to your Shopify admin and view a product.
Add .xml to the end of the URL and refresh your browser.
On the subsequent XML page, locate the Variants section and copy the id type="integer" value for the desired variant. If you have multiple variants, each will have its own variant section with unique values (e.g., IDs, Title/Name, Price, etc.).

Incorporate your store name and the desired variant ID into the permalink below.

http://my-store.com/cart/add?id=123456789&quantity=1

Use this customized link in the Redirect page to button action and Save.

Continue with the Target steps outlined above. The Cart Product IDs contains any of () targeting rules and can also use manually retrieved variant IDs if the desired product from your catalog does not appear in the dropdown menu.

BigCommerce cross-sell

To create a cross-sell display while using BigCommerce:

Navigate to Convert > All Displays and click the New display button.
On the Plays dashboard, select the Build your own option, provide an internal name, and then click the Create Display button.
In the Create step of the display builder, select the Form fields card, and uncheck the Enable Form? option, and then click Save.

While still in the Create step, select the Add a display option.
Select a form-free or cross-sell display template to showcase your items - a flyout or a banner is recommended - and then click the Choose selected option in the upper right.
Customize the display with an image and an add-to-cart button for each product. For the button action, select the Redirect page to option and paste the appropriate add to cart URL into the field.
Select the Save option at the upper right.

Next, move to the Target step and switch the When To Show setting to 3 or 5 seconds. Save.
Select the Who To Show It To setting and click Add targeting condition.
Add the two rules listed below and Save.
- Cart value is greater than 1 - This rule ensures a product is in the customer's cart.
- Cart Product IDs contains any of () - This rule requires specific product IDs from your Big Commerce account and ensures the customer has products in their cart that complement the cross-sell. Alternatively, you could also use a "does not contain" version if you'd simply like to bring attention to products that aren't in the customer's cart. New products or best-sellers often have this wider and more general appeal.
Select the How Long to Show It setting if you'd like the cross-sell to expire. Save.
In the upper right, click the Publish button and confirm in the prompt.

The cross-sell display is now live and will appear to your qualifying customers.

BigCommerce Cart URLs & Product IDs

Create an add to cart URL

To automatically add a product to a shopper's cart and take them directly to the cart page, include /cart.php?action=add&product_id=(product number here) after your store's domain. Learn more.

store-name.com/cart.php?action=add&product_id=1234567890

Locate a product ID

In your store admin, the product ID is the number near the end of the URL:

https://store-name.mybigcommerce.com/manage/products/1234567890/edit

Follow these steps to locate the ID(s) in your BigCommerce account: