Convert Visitors 
4 min read 
Product Detail Page 
Fashion and garment are largely impulse and exploration-driven verticals, which means that once a shopper has landed on a site and their attention has been captured, they are commonly in exploration mode. Unlike with home appliances or hardware in which a shopper is more driven by need or desire (such as the latest 80-inch 4K TV by Sony or the most powerful drill by Makita), inspiration and easy jump points between products become extremely important. This is done to provide one simple method for the shopper to navigate around the site and explore the products.
Cross-selling is commonly understood as a method to improve conversion rate or average cart value, but there is also a longer term value which effective cross-selling will deliver.
These Retailers Leveraging Cross- and Up-Selling Through Product Recommendations
The first two examples are from fashion market leaders Asos and Zalando. Both deploy two types of product recommendations on their regular Product Details Pages: A block suggesting similar items and another block for suggesting complementary products.
1. Cross-selling: Buy the Look
Asos (below) masters this with their Shop The Look block while Zalando (bottom) is equally as compelling with its Perfect Pairings:
Example: Asos Product Page
2. Cross-selling: Similar items
Example: Zalando Product Page
The key component here is the dual-approach. The main purpose and target for recommending items from other product ranges is not always to drive a higher basket size or value. Recommendation blocks reserved for complementary products give subtle visual cues, page load after page load, about what else is available on the site and what other product ranges are in stock.
Besides the standard metrics for tracking cross-selling such as Click-through-rate on the recommendation and improved average order value and basket size, the number of categories the average customer has purchased during the lifetime is a great method for long-term tracking.
In most – if not all – cases, the customer lifetime value increases based on that figure. Conversely, recommending alternatives can and should be deployed, tracked and optimized on a more tactical level. This is because the recommendation enables easy jumping points to other and similar items the shoppers might be equally interested in.
There are dozens of extremely wonderful examples deployed by Nosto’s customers so picking just a few is difficult but here goes:
3. Cross-selling: Best ratings
Helly Hansen does amazingly well with their product pages where they also combine Yotpo reviews with Nosto recommendations and Swatches to showcase small thumbnails of available colour varitions. When viewing a professional level sailing jacket, alternatives reveal similar items from the same range, while supplementary recommendations ensure that a shopper remembers that a sailing jacket only does the job in the freezing Nordics Sea when combined with a proper dry suit or sailing trousers. (Also note the reviews by Yotpo further down on the product page)
Example: Helly Hansen Product Page
4. Cross-selling: Combine Products
Jeans Fritz is a textbook example of the approach with a horizontal design for alternatives and supplementaries, which saves screen-estate. There’s also a video introduction available.
Example: Jeans Fritz Product Page
5. Cross-selling: Product Photography
Ginatricot does very well with big compelling product images supported by secondary detailed shots. Alternative recommendations feature other options from the same range such as: pants, followed by Style With (“Styla med” in the picture) supplementary products, which just happen to be worn by the same model. Is this just a happy coincidence or a testiment to the power of AI and real-time user behavior in action?
Also notice the additional Instagram ribbon #ginamyway at the bottom for enhanced social validation. Find out more about user generated content and product recommendations.
Example: Gina Tricot Product Page
Enabling and deploying the basic strategy for fashion is fortunately a very quick procedure with Nosto. Simply creating two recommendation blocks; one for recommending alternatives from the same category and another for recommending supplementary products from other ranges, does the job for any fashion store. Learn more about product recommendation inclusion and exclusion rules (also known as filters).
Naturally, different scenarios and use cases require more advanced tactics, which are also covered in the Playbook. Regardless, we encourage you to ask more about how Nosto can suit your needs by sending us a message here by clicking on the messenger icon, whether you’re new to Nosto or have already used us for years!
