Sell Product Families

Adding to a sale with more items than the shopper first intended to buy improves profitability. For instance, the customer buys one item and then the salesperson suggests others that fit together with that item like members of a family fit together. If a woman comes in with her daughter and buys a casual dress for herself, the salesperson asks the woman if she'd like to go on to shop for a casual dress for the daughter.
     It's not just with clothing. Ask the man shopping for fishing gear for himself if he'd like to look at fishing equipment for his wife and children who are there with him. And it goes beyond items to be used by different family members.
     Research done at the University of Toronto and University of Chicago says that a shopper who comes into the store to purchase a large first aid kit is more likely to buy a second kit if the two kits are described as fitting together like a family. "Keep the big kit in your auto and carry the littler one on hikes."
     This emotional appeal to the shopper is not the same as, "You bought the paint, did you remember the brushes and sandpaper pads?" It's more like, "Would you also like some smaller sandpaper pads so the kids can participate in the project?" It's for items that have family associations for the shopper and where you carry a variety of product sizes.
     Also, culture makes a difference. Shoppers raised in Latino cultures, which place special importance on the family, will be more open to add-on sales of a family of products than shoppers whose cultural backgrounds are less family-oriented.
     Are your staff seeing opportunities to sell families of products and then selling all in the family?