Musician’s Hut tunes up average order values with cross-selling tool

Musician’s Hut Inc., an online retailer specializing in guitars and drum sets, has nearly doubled average order values with a “We’ll Beat It” cross-selling feature, CEO Eric Archuleta tells InternetRetailer.com.

The cross-selling tool, a customized feature on Musician’s Hut’s hosted e-commerce platform from Demandware Inc., is designed to address a challenge the e-retailer faces in meeting industry rules on marketing to customers, he adds.

The application has helped to boost conversion rates and average order values while enabling Musician’s Hut to run promotions according to the strict rules of the National Association of Music Merchants. The rules, designed to protect the market for small retailers, prohibit merchants from advertising their products below the association’s minimum pricing schedule; breaking the guidelines can mean a loss of supply contracts.

Instead, the association allows merchants to compete with package deals, but only after a customer has requested information. So when advertising a drum set for $599, for example, Musician’s Hut lets shoppers click the We’ll Beat It button to find out how it will sweeten the deal with additional merchandise like drumsticks or cymbals.

Participating customers convert at a 20% rate, far higher than his site’s average rate, and the feature has caused the retailer’s overall average order value to nearly double from $170 to $320, Archuleta says.