Here's some tactics to help you maximise sales for your sportswear brand

In this blog, we will explore how upselling and cross selling can increase your revenue and improve your customer retention rates- two things that are crucial when running a sportswear brand or for (us) a UK based sportswear manufacturer.

‍

Cross-selling

Let's start by breaking down what cross-selling is - this is essentially where you try to sell a consumer something that compliments a product they're already interested in- for example: matching leggings with a women's sports bra, or vice versa. This can also be a form of upselling, because the average order value has increased- these techniques therefore can be used simultaneously; depending on which works best for you.

So, what are the benefits of these techniques for your brand?

- Increased average order value: you've spent a huge amount of time through procurement, sampling and production of your products to bring about your best garments yet...you've then spent countless hours planning creative and social content to push these new products out; it therefore makes absolute sense to maximise your average order value right? It's more revenue, profit and consumers get to experience the quality of more products!

“Every business is going to have their higher margin products”

- Improved conversion rates: one of the key indicators as to how well your online store is performing is conversion rates. You work so hard to deliver traffic to your site- be it paid, or organic and you want to maximise the number (or percentage) of people who go from a viewer, to a customer and this is one great technique to utilise to improve those conversion rates.

- Lastly, product promotion: this is where we get business-savvy. Every business is going to have their higher margin products... from experience, we tend to find that women's sports bras and leggings tend to carry the higher profit for brands based on average cost and RRP within the sportswear market, so cross-selling a pair of matching leggings with a sports bra would be a great way to promote a product that will improve your gross and in turn, net profit margins... it's a no-brainer, right?

Strategies

Now we've touched on what they are and the benefits it's now time to talk about the strategies of implementing these techniques into your online store..

- Suggesting "premium" products- this is where understanding your consumers and target market is key. If you're a sportswear brand targeting University students, then they're very unlikely to be in the market for premium, eco-friendly, sustainable fabric products that are 3x more expensive than what you could buy at Gymshark.. therefore, understanding what your consumer wants and promoting a slightly more premium product, at an appropriate price-point is key. If you're interested in learning about how to price your sportswear garments, then check out our previous blog here.

“This is one of the most effective ways to...upsell”

- Creating seasonal collections: this is absolutely vital in the sportswear market. Consumers will be looking to buy a range of products as the seasons progress... if it's winter, then cross-selling a sweatshirt with a long sleeve performance tee is the best way to go... and with consumers more conscious of aesthetic products to wear in the gym- this is one of the most effective ways to cross and upsell them on your store.

- Use what I like to call "buzz words"- or in other words, use products that are popular on your page. Website hosting platforms like Shopify, or Wix will tell you what your most viewed products are and the truth is, they're popular for a reason, so use that! If a customer has added a product to their basket that isn't one of these, then promote the most popular garments... this is another sure way to increase your average order rate, as a form of social proof will provide to be very effective in the way people perceive the popularity and therefore desirability of a particular product in your sportswear collection.

Maximise effectiveness

But, what channels can you employ these new techniques to maximise their effectiveness?

Well, firstly it's going to be your homepage- you should always have your "most viewed", or "most popular" products displayed on your homepage to yield even higher traffic onto those particular products and add that level of social proof. This should be closely followed by the shopping cart.. think of a food shop's technique of doing this; why do you think all the pieces of gum, or the sweets, chocolate and sub £1 items are all by the till? They're trying to upsell you at checkout- the same principle you can apply to your online store.

“Consider the importance of off-site promotion”

Did you know that 97% of first-time visitors leave online stores without making a purchase?

Running ads

Now you know that, you must consider the importance of off-site promotion and this is where Facebook retargeting ads are so important. We aren't a social media marketing agency and so won't advise you on how to run ads, but all I can tell you is that they're important and a very, very effective way to employ these techniques off your site... combining on-site and off-site techniques is the absolute best way to increase the chances of these techniques being effective in improving the performance of your online sportswear store!

As always, we love to hear your feedback on our content and hope this has given you some valuable information that you can take away and apply to your fashion brand!