Suggestive Selling Techniques: How to Increase AOV Without Being Pushy

Suggestive selling is one of the most effective and lowest-cost ways to increase your store’s revenue. When implemented correctly, it creates a scenario that benefits both parties. Your customer gets more value by discovering products that genuinely improve their main purchase, and you increase your Average Order Value (AOV).

The challenge is a fine line between a helpful recommendation and an aggressive sales pitch. No customer likes to feel pressured. This guide will show you how to master suggestive selling by focusing on one simple idea: being helpful first.

Key Takeaways: Suggestive Selling Techniques

• Suggestive Selling Adds Value: The primary goal is to enhance the customer’s purchase, not just to increase the sale. It should be a logical, helpful addition.
• Understand Key Distinctions: Suggestive selling (adding related items), upselling (a better, pricier version), and cross-selling (items from a different category) are all distinct tactics. We are focused on the first.
• Personalization is Power: A one-size-fits-all suggestion is ineffective. You must match your technique to the shopper’s mindset, whether they are a planner, an upgrader, or a spontaneous buyer.
• Leverage Your Assets: Your best suggestion tools are often already available. Authentic customer reviews provide the “why,” while a smart loyalty program provides the “why now.”
• Test Everything: The optimal placement for a suggestion (product page, cart, or post-purchase) depends on your store. You must test, measure, and optimize.
• Prioritize the Customer Experience: Your suggestions should never block the path to checkout. A smooth customer journey is the highest priority.

What is Suggestive Selling (And What It Isn’t)?

It is important to distinguish these terms, as they are often mixed up. Knowing the difference is key to building the right strategy.

Suggestive Selling vs. Upselling vs. Cross-selling

Think of it like ordering at a coffee shop.

1. Suggestive Selling: You order a plain croissant. The barista says, “Would you like a butter packet or some jam with that?”
   • The Goal: To suggest a small, related item that makes the primary product better or more complete. It’s an add-on.
   • eCommerce Example: A customer adds a camera to their cart, and the site suggests a matching memory card or a lens cleaning cloth.
2. Upselling: You order a “tall” 12-oz coffee. The barista says, “For just 50 cents more, you can get a ‘grande’ 16-oz coffee.”
   • The Goal: To persuade the customer to buy a more expensive, upgraded version of the same product.
   • eCommerce Example: A customer is viewing a 50-inch TV, and the site shows a comparison table highlighting the 55-inch model with more features.
3. Cross-selling: You order a cappuccino. The barista says, “Great choice! Our loyalty members love pairing that with our blueberry muffin. Can I get one for you?”
   • The Goal: To sell a product from a different category that is commonly bought together but not directly related.
   • eCommerce Example: A customer buys a pair of running shoes, and the cart page suggests a best-selling foam roller or a water bottle.

For this guide, we are focused on suggestive selling. It is often the easiest to implement and feels the most natural to the customer.

The Psychology: Why Suggestive Selling Works

Effective suggestive selling is not an insincere tactic. It works because it taps into core parts of human psychology.

• It Adds Value and Convenience: When a customer buys a new high-end bicycle, they will need a water bottle cage and a tire pump. By suggesting these items on the product page, you are not being pushy. You are saving them the time and effort of having to search for these items separately. You are completing their purchase.
• It Reduces “Analysis Paralysis”: Too many choices can be overwhelming. A good suggestion like “Complete the Look” cuts through the noise. It gives the customer a clear, expert-endorsed path to a complete solution, which builds their confidence.
• It Builds Trust (When Done Right): Recommending a genuinely useful add-on shows that you understand the product and your customer’s needs. You’re not just a product catalog; you’re a helpful expert.
• It Uses Social Proof: Techniques like “Frequently Bought Together” or “Trending Now” leverage crowd wisdom. They tell the customer, “Other people like you bought this and were happy.” This is a powerful, low-risk way to validate a purchase.

The bottom line? Stop thinking of it as “selling” and start thinking of it as “guiding.”

Understanding Your Customer: The Key to Effective Suggestion

You would not give the same travel advice to a backpacker on a budget and a CEO on a business trip. By that same logic, you should not give them the same product suggestion.

A generic “You Might Like” widget is ineffective. True success comes from matching the type of suggestion to the type of shopper.

“A one-size-fits-all suggestion is a one-size-fits-none experience. The secret is matching the technique to the shopper’s intent.” — Ben Salomon, eCommerce Expert

Based on deep shopper research, we can group most customers into a few key mindsets.

The Planned Shopper

This shopper is on a mission. They have a list, they’ve done their research, and they are strategic. They might be buying gifts for others or executing a well-thought-out personal purchase. They value efficiency, logic, and completeness.

• Who They Are: Highly planned, research-heavy, and goal-oriented.
• What They Value: Data, logic, “complete” solutions, and efficiency.
• Best Suggestive Techniques:
  • “Frequently Bought Together”: This data-driven suggestion appeals to their logical side. It’s not a guess; it’s a proven combination.
  • “Complete the Set” / “Full Kit”: This is perfect for them. If they’re buying a pot, suggesting the matching lid and handle is pure convenience, not a distraction.
  • Compatibility-Based Suggestions: “This case is guaranteed to fit your new phone.” This removes all doubt and risk, which a planner loves.

The Strategic Shopper

This shopper is upgrading their life. They’ve been eyeing a new sofa, a better coffee machine, or a wardrobe refresh for months. They are patient, value-focused, and wait for the right moment (like a sale) to buy.

• Who They Are: Research-driven, patient, and focused on value and quality.
• What They Value: Getting the best for their money, quality, and validating their choice.
• Best Suggestive Techniques:
  • “Customers Also Viewed”: This shopper is still in a comparison mindset. Showing them related alternatives helps them confirm their choice or find an even better one.
  • Loyalty-Based Nudges: “Add this 3-year warranty for $15 and earn 150 bonus points.” This appeals to their “value” mindset. The suggestion isn’t just a cost; it’s an investment that gives a return.
  • “Based on Your Browsing”: Personalized picks that reflect their long research process make them feel understood.

The Spontaneous Shopper

This shopper runs on impulse and vibes. They are not on a mission; they are on a treasure hunt. They are driven by discovery, social proof, and the “I deserve this” feeling.

• Who They Are: Impulsive, visual, and driven by trends and social proof.
• What They Value: Discovery, excitement, and instant gratification.
• Best Suggestive Techniques:
  • “Trending Now” / “Hot Pick”: This is highly effective. It triggers FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and validates their impulse. If it’s popular, it must be good.
  • “Shop the Look” (Visual Galleries): A static list won’t work. They need to see a real person on social media wearing the whole outfit. This sells a feeling, not just a product.
  • Low-Cost In-Cart Add-Ons: “Add a sample for $2” or “Try our new lip balm for $5.” This is a perfect, low-risk impulse buy that feels like a bonus discovery.

Top 10 Suggestive Selling Techniques for eCommerce

Here is a deep dive into the most effective techniques, how to implement them, and the challenges to watch out for.

1. The “Frequently Bought Together” Bundle

This is the most classic and powerful form of suggestive selling. It bundles the main product with 1-2 essential add-ons.

• What It Is: A small widget, usually on the product page, that shows the main item plus related products with checkboxes and a total price.
• Why It Works: It is the definition of helpful. It answers the customer’s unspoken question: “What else do I need to make this product work?” It’s all about convenience.
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Find Logical Pairings: Use your sales data. What do people actually buy together? Avoid guesswork. Look for the obvious:
     • Camera -> Memory Card
     • Laptop -> Laptop Case
     • Shampoo -> Conditioner
     • Shoes -> Waterproofing Spray
  2. Place It Prominently: Put this widget directly below the “Add to Cart” button on the product page. Don’t make people hunt for it.
  3. Pre-select with Care: You can A/B test pre-selecting the add-on items. For essential pairings (like a bike and a required assembly tool), pre-selecting can be helpful. For optional items, it can feel pushy.
  4. Show the Value: Display the price for each item and the total. A “Bundle and Save” (e.g., “Save 5% when you buy all three”) can be a powerful incentive, but it’s not always necessary. Convenience alone is a strong driver.
• The Challenge: Your suggestions must be logical. Suggesting a t-shirt with a camera makes no sense and breaks trust. Keep the pairings tight and obvious.

2. The “Complete the Look” or “Shop the Set”

This technique is essential for visual industries like fashion, home decor, and furniture. It sells an entire aesthetic, not just a single product.

• What It Is: A high-quality lifestyle photo (a model, a styled room) where the customer can see and purchase every item in the picture.
• Why It Works: It inspires. It shows the customer how the product will look in a real-world context and takes the guesswork out of styling. It moves the customer from buying a “table” to buying a “dining room.”
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Invest in Photography: The success of this technique depends entirely on its visuals. You need professional, inspiring photos.
  2. Tag Your Products: Use a “shoppable gallery” tool. When a customer hovers over the photo, they should see “hotspots” or tags for each product.
  3. Create a “Shop This Look” Widget: Below the main photo, display a simple carousel of all the items featured (e.g., the jacket, the jeans, the shoes, the handbag).
  4. Use It Everywhere: This isn’t just for product pages. Put these on your homepage, category pages, and especially in your social media feeds.
• The Challenge: It requires a serious investment in high-quality visual content. If the photos are bad, the technique will fail.

3. The “Customers Also Viewed” Recommendation

This is a softer, browsing-focused suggestion. It’s less about a direct add-on and more about aiding discovery.

• What It Is: A carousel of products titled “Customers also viewed” or “Customers with similar tastes also viewed.”
• Why It Works: It’s perfect for the strategic or planned shopper who is still in comparison mode. It non-aggressively shows them related options, helping them validate their choice or find a better fit.
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Use Behavioral Data: This requires an app or algorithm that tracks user clickstreams. It looks at all users who viewed Product A and then shows the other products they most frequently viewed in that same session.
  2. Place It Lower: This isn’t a primary call to action. Place this carousel lower on the product page, below the description and reviews.
  3. Differentiate from “Bought Together”: Do not confuse this with “Frequently Bought Together.” This is about viewing (browsing, comparison), not buying (add-on, accessory).
• The Challenge: Requires a good recommendation engine to produce relevant results. Bad data will lead to bizarre and unhelpful suggestions.

4. The In-Cart Recommendation

This is your final opportunity to add value before the checkout. It must be done with extreme care.

• What It Is: A small, non-intrusive suggestion that appears on the cart page or in the cart slide-out.
• Why It Works: You are talking to a customer with high purchase intent. They are committed. A small, relevant, low-cost suggestion is an easy “yes.”
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Focus on Low-Cost, Low-Risk Items: This is the wrong place to suggest a $100 accessory. This is the right place for:
     • Gift wrapping ($5)
     • A warranty or product protection ($10)
     • A sample-size item ($3)
     • A small, related item (e.g., “Add shoe-cleaning wipes for $4”)
  2. Use a “Forgot Something?” Hook: Frame it as a helpful reminder, not a last-ditch sale.
  3. Never Be Disruptive: Do NOT use a full-page pop-up here. This can increase cart abandonment. It should be a simple line item or small widget on the cart page itself.
• The Challenge: The risk of cart abandonment is high. Your suggestion must be frictionless and feel like a helpful addition, not a barrier to payment.

5. The “You Might Also Like” (Personalized Picks)

This is an advanced suggestion method, but it is the hardest to get right. It uses a deep understanding of the individual customer.

• What It Is: A highly personalized carousel, often on the homepage or in an email, based on the customer’s past browsing history, purchase history, and items they’ve left in their cart.
• Why It Works: It creates a personal connection. It says, “We know your style, and we found this for you.” It’s the digital equivalent of a high-end personal shopper.
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Get a Good Engine: You cannot do this manually. This requires a personalization or recommendation engine that builds a profile for each user.
  2. Use It on the Homepage: This is the perfect way to welcome a returning customer back to your site. “Welcome back, Ben! Here’s what’s new in your size.”
  3. Integrate with Email: Use these personalized picks in your “abandoned cart” or “browse abandonment” email flows.
• The Challenge: It requires sophisticated technology and a lot of data. For new stores or new customers, it’s impossible. It can also be a “cold start” problem—you can’t recommend anything until the user has browsed.

6. The Post-Purchase Suggestion

You’ve made the sale. The pressure is off. This is one of the best times to make a suggestion.

• What It Is: A recommendation on the “Thank You” page or in the order confirmation email.
• Why It Works: Customer trust is at its absolute peak right after they’ve trusted you with their money. They are feeling positive about the purchase and are receptive. They are no longer guarding their wallet.
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. On the “Thank You” Page:
     • “Get ready for your new
       $$product$$
       with these accessories.”
     • “Customers who bought this also loved…”
     • “Get 10% off your next order. Here are some ideas.”
  2. In the Confirmation Email:
     • Add a “You Might Also Like” carousel at the bottom.
     • Suggest signing up for your loyalty program to earn points on the purchase they just made.
• The Challenge: You must ensure the suggestion doesn’t confuse them. It needs to be clear this is for a future purchase, not something they forgot to add to the order they just placed.

7. The Social Proof Suggestion (“Trending Now”)

This technique is perfect for the spontaneous shopper but works on almost everyone. It uses the power of the crowd.

• What It Is: A widget or badge that highlights products as “Trending,” “Top Rated,” “Hot Pick,” or “Selling Fast.”
• Why It Works: It creates a sense of urgency and FOMO. It also reduces risk. “If 50 other people bought this today, it must be good.”
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Use Real Data: Don’t just slap a “Trending” badge on a product you want to sell. Use an app that tracks real-time sales or “add to cart” data.
  2. Create “Top” Lists: Dedicate a category page to “Top Rated Products” (e.g., all products with 4.5+ stars).
  3. Add Badges: Place a simple “Top Seller” badge on product thumbnails in category pages. This draws the eye and encourages clicks.
• The Challenge: You need a decent amount of traffic and sales for this to be credible. If your site is new, you may not have “trending” items yet.

8. The “Help Me Choose” (Guided Selling)

This is an advanced technique where the entire sales process is the suggestion.

• What It Is: A quiz or diagnostic tool that asks the customer a series of questions and then recommends the perfect product for them.
• Why It Works: It’s the ultimate “helpful” approach. It’s high-touch, personal, and builds massive trust. The customer feels like you’ve built a product just for them. It’s perfect for complex, personal, or high-cost items.
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Identify a Need: This is great for:
     • Skincare (“What’s your skin type?”)
     • Supplements (“What are your health goals?”)
     • Tech (“What will you use this laptop for?”)
  2. Build the Quiz: Use a quiz-builder tool. Keep it short (5-7 questions).
  3. Recommend a Small Set: Don’t just recommend one product. Recommend a “kit” or a “routine” of 2-3 products (e.g., a cleanser, a serum, a moisturizer). This is a significant AOV boost.
• The Challenge: It takes time and effort to create a quiz that is genuinely helpful and provides accurate recommendations.

9. The Loyalty-Based Suggestion

This technique reframes the “cost” of an add-on as a “gain” in rewards.

• What It Is: Using your loyalty program to encourage add-ons or higher spending.
• Why It Works: It gamifies the purchase. It taps into the strategic shopper who wants to maximize value. “Spend more” is a bad message. “Earn more” is a great one.
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Show “Points Potential”: On the product page, show “Buy this and earn X points.” On the add-on, show “Add this and earn Y more points.”
  2. Use Tier Nudges: “You are only $20 away from our VIP tier! Add this item to get free shipping for a year.”
  3. “Points as Cash” Nudge: “You have 500 points! Add this $10 item and get it for just $5.”
• The Challenge: You need a flexible, best-in-class loyalty program that can display this information dynamically on your site.

10. The Review-Driven Suggestion

This may be the most authentic technique of all. You let your other customers make the suggestions for you.

• What It Is: Using the content from your customer reviews and Q&A to create suggestions.
• Why It Works: It’s not you, the brand, saying it. It’s a real person. This is social proof at its purest.
• How to Implement (Step-by-Step):
  1. Mine Your Reviews: Read your 5-star reviews. What other products do your customers mention? If a review says, “I love this dress! I paired it with the brand’s ‘City’ belt and it looked amazing,” you have your suggestion!
  2. Quote Them: Create a “Customers Say” widget. On the dress page, add a widget that says, “Customers love pairing this with…” and show the ‘City’ belt with the review quote.
  3. Visual UGC: Use photo and video reviews to create “Shop the Look” galleries featuring real people. This is often more powerful than professional model shots.
• The Challenge: You need to have a system for collecting high-quality, detailed reviews that contain this type of valuable insight.

Powering Your Strategy: How Reviews and Loyalty Drive Better Suggestions

You might have noticed a theme. The best, most authentic, and most powerful suggestions are not just guesses. They are driven by data. And the two best sources of data are your customer reviews and your loyalty program members.

Using Yotpo Reviews to Fuel Authentic Suggestions

Yotpo Reviews

A best-in-class review solution like Yotpo Reviews does more than just collect star ratings. It’s a strategic tool for understanding your customer and your products. This is how it directly powers your suggestive selling.

• 1. Collect Data to Find Your Pairings: Yotpo Reviews helps brands collect detailed, high-quality feedback. By analyzing the text of your reviews, you can discover natural product pairings. When customers repeatedly say “this shirt looks great with those pants” in their reviews, your “Complete the Look” suggestion is already built for you.
• 2. Create Authentic “Shop the Look” Galleries: The primary value is in visual user-generated content (UGC). Yotpo Reviews excels at helping brands collect photos and videos from real customers. You can then tag these photos and create stunning “Shop the Look” galleries on your product pages. This is the review-driven suggestion (Technique #10) and the “Shop the Set” (Technique #2) combined. It’s infinitely more authentic—and often more effective—than a professional model shoot.
• 3. Build Trust in the Suggestion: Let’s say you suggest a memory card with a camera. If that memory card has 4,000 5-star reviews, it makes the suggestion a no-brainer. Yotpo Reviews helps you display these reviews and social proof clearly on the suggested item, lowering any purchase anxiety and making the “yes” that much easier for the customer.

In short, Yotpo Reviews helps you stop guessing what to suggest and start using your customers’ own words and photos to make the sale for you.

Using Yotpo Loyalty to Incentivize Add-Ons

Yotpo Loyalty

A powerful loyalty program like Yotpo Loyalty changes the entire conversation around suggestive selling. It’s not about “spending more money”; it’s about “earning more value.”

• 1. Gamify Your AOV Goals: Yotpo Loyalty is a flexible solution that lets you build strategic campaigns. You can stop just suggesting a product and start incentivizing it.
  • “Add this item and earn 200 bonus points!”
  • “Spend $10 more to reach $75 and unlock free shipping + 50 points.”
  • “As a VIP, get this exclusive matching item, available only to you.”
• 2. Make the Value Obvious and On-Site: This is not just an email. Yotpo Loyalty can integrate with your site to show these nudges directly on the product page or in the cart. This dynamic, on-page messaging (Technique #9) connects the add-on to the reward right at the moment of decision.
• 3. Turn a Sale into a Relationship: When you use a loyalty program to frame your suggestions, you are not just pushing for a higher AOV. You are pulling that customer deeper into your brand’s ecosystem. You are giving them a reason to come back, a reason to engage, and a reason to feel smart about their purchase.

Yotpo Loyalty transforms the suggestion from a simple transaction into a rewarding, gamified part of the customer relationship.

A Quick Note on Synergy

While Yotpo Reviews and Yotpo Loyalty are powerful, best-in-class standalone products, they can work together in smart ways. For instance, a brand can use Yotpo Loyalty to strategically award bonus points to customers who leave detailed feedback with Yotpo Reviews, especially if they include helpful photos or videos.

This creates a fantastic, healthy cycle. Your loyalty program incentivizes the creation of high-quality review content. That review content, in turn, provides the authentic social proof you need to power your new “Shop the Look” galleries and review-driven suggestions.

A Look at Alternative Solutions

Yotpo’s products are built to turn reviews and loyalty into engines for growth. Of course, there are other tools in the market that brands use to manage these functions. When you are looking, you will likely come across several different platforms, each with a different focus.

Loyalty Program Competitors

When exploring loyalty solutions, you may see names like:

• Loyalty Lion: This is a platform that offers tools for building loyalty programs, focusing on points, rewards, and customer engagement features.
• Smile.io: Smile provides a loyalty solution that allows businesses to create points, referral, and VIP programs. It integrates with several eCommerce platforms.
• Okendo: Okendo offers a suite of tools, including loyalty program features. Brands can use it to build points and rewards systems for customers.
• Stamped: Stamped also provides loyalty and rewards capabilities, allowing brands to create programs to incentivize repeat purchases.
• Rivo: Rivo offers tools for creating tiered loyalty programs, points systems, and referral incentives, particularly within the Shopify ecosystem.

Review Platform Competitors

For managing customer reviews, some of the common platforms include:

• Okendo: As mentioned, Okendo’s platform also includes features for collecting and displaying product reviews and other user-generated content.
• Bazaarvoice: Bazaarvoice is a large-scale platform that provides review and UGC solutions. It is often used by enterprise-level clients and includes syndication to broad retailer networks.
• Klaviyo Reviews: As part of its broader marketing suite, Klaviyo offers a product for collecting and managing customer reviews.
• Reviews.io: Reviews.io is a review collection service that allows businesses to gather and display various types of reviews, including photo and video.
• Stamped.io: Stamped also offers a product for collecting and showcasing customer reviews and ratings, similar to its loyalty offerings.

Several tools exist to manage loyalty and reviews. The key is to find a solution that not only collects content or points but also provides the deep analytics and strategic support to turn that data into actionable sales strategies.

Best Practices: The Do’s and Don’ts of Suggestive Selling

Here is a simple cheat sheet for keeping your strategy helpful, not hurtful.

The Do’s

• Be genuinely helpful. Frame every suggestion as a solution that makes the customer’s life easier or their main purchase better.
• Use high-quality data. Base your “bought together” suggestions on real sales data, not your own guesses.
• Make suggestions relevant. Keep the suggestions in the same “world” as the main product. Pair a camera with a lens, not a t-shirt.
• Be specific and visual. “Complete the Set” with a great photo is a thousand times better than a vague, text-based “You might also like…” list.
• Test and optimize. A/B test everything. Is it better on the product page or in the cart? Is “Frequently Bought Together” better than “Complete the Kit”? Let your data decide.

The Don’ts

• Be overly aggressive. Never block the checkout path. Avoid multiple, disruptive pop-ups that create friction and anxiety.
• Suggest unrelated items. This is the fastest way to appear opportunistic or irrelevant. It breaks trust and demonstrates a lack of understanding.
• Suggest items with a much higher price. That’s aggressive upselling, not helpful suggestive selling. The add-on should be an easy, lower-cost “yes.”
• Create analysis paralysis. Do not offer 20 suggestions. You will overwhelm the customer. Limit your suggestions to a clean 3-5 items.
• Forget mobile. Your suggestions must be clean, touch-friendly, and easy to navigate on a phone. If it clutters a mobile screen, remove it.

Conclusion

Suggestive selling, when done thoughtfully, is not a negative term. It is a core part of a healthy, customer-centric eCommerce strategy.

When you stop trying to sell and start trying to help, everything changes. By understanding your customer’s mindset and using your own authentic review and loyalty data, you can build a suggestion engine that adds real value. You will help your customers feel smarter, more confident, and more successful in their purchases.

And as a very happy side effect, your Average Order Value will reflect this success.

FAQs: Suggestive Selling Techniques

1. What’s the easiest suggestive selling technique to implement?

The “Frequently Bought Together” (Technique #1) is often the easiest and most effective place to start. It doesn’t require a complex algorithm, just a look at your past sales data to find obvious, logical pairings.

2. How do I measure the success of suggestive selling?

There are two key metrics:

• Take Rate: What percentage of customers who see a suggestion actually add it to their cart?
• Attributed AOV Lift: Track your overall Average Order Value. Run an A/B test with the suggestion on for 50% of your traffic and off for the other 50%. The difference in AOV is your lift.

3. Can suggestive selling feel spammy to customers?

Yes, if you do it wrong. It feels spammy when it’s:

• Irrelevant: Suggesting a fishing rod to someone buying a dress.
• Aggressive: Using a pop-up that blocks the “Pay Now” button.
• Desperate: Showing 15 different suggestions on one page. Keep it relevant, simple, and helpful, and it will feel like good service.

4. What is the specific difference between suggestive selling and cross-selling?

It’s about relevance.

• Suggestive: A direct add-on that completes the main product (e.g., batteries for a toy).
• Cross-selling: A separate product from a different category (e.g., a t-shirt for the person buying the toy). Suggestive selling is almost always an easier “yes” for the customer.

5. Do suggestions work on the cart page?

Yes, but they must be small, low-cost, and non-disruptive (Technique #4). This is the perfect place for “Add gift wrap for $5” or “Add a sample for $2.” It’s a bad place to suggest a $75 accessory, as that might make the customer rethink their entire cart total.

6. Should I offer a discount on bundled suggestions?

You can, but you don’t always have to. For a “Frequently Bought Together” bundle, the convenience is often the main selling point. However, offering a small (5-10%) “Bundle and Save” discount can be a great motivator and is definitely worth A/B testing.

7. How can I use suggestive selling if I only have a few products?

This is an excellent opportunity for it!

• If you have a shampoo, conditioner, and hair mask, your entire strategy should be “Complete the Set.”
• You can also suggest buying multiples: “Buy 2, Get 1 10% Off.”
• Focus on post-purchase suggestions (Technique #6) to encourage a second purchase.

8. What role do customer reviews play in suggestive selling?

They play a critical role. First, they provide social proof for the suggested item, making it a safer purchase. Second, you can mine the text of your reviews to find out what products your customers are “suggesting” to each other (Technique #10).

9. How does a loyalty program help with suggestive selling?

It changes the psychology. Instead of “Spend $10 more,” it becomes “Earn 100 more points” (Technique #9). It reframes the “cost” of the add-on as a “gain” in rewards, which is a much more positive and powerful message.

10. Where is the best place on my site to put suggestions?

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The best strategies use multiple-touch points:

• Product Page: For direct, relevant add-ons (“Bought Together,” “Complete the Look”).
• Cart Page: For small, low-cost “forgot something?” items (gift wrap, samples).
• “Thank You” Page: For post-purchase suggestions for a future order.