Dunelm Cross-Sell
Identifying opportunities across Dunelm to cross-sell products in a way that is meaningful to our customers
Overview
Challenge
Dunelm had identified a strong relationship between product discovery and conversion: customers who explored more of the range were more likely to purchase. The opportunity was to encourage that discovery without adding friction or making the experience feel overly promotional.
Approach
I led discovery across Product, Trading, Merchandising and other areas of the business to understand where cross-sell could genuinely help customers. Rather than designing a single recommendation component, we developed a broader strategy around three different shopping behaviours: completing a purchase, shopping an inspiration, and buying related products together.
Outcome
This resulted in three propositions, Perfect Match, Shop the Look and Bundles, which could be tested independently and progressively build our understanding of how cross-sell influenced customer and commercial behaviour.
Impact
+23%
Matched product revenue vs original, from Perfect Match
Process
The strategy
Cross-sell traditionally meant placing a carousel of recommended products somewhere on the page.
Our research pointed towards a more contextual approach. What a useful recommendation looks like depends on what the customer is trying to do.
This gave us a simple framework:
- Complete itFind the product specifically designed to complement your purchase.Perfect Match
- Recreate itDiscover the products that make up an inspirational look.Shop the Look
- Discover itUse room imagery as a starting point for exploring visually similar products.Visual Discovery
- Buy it togetherMake products commonly needed together easier to purchase as a group.Bundles
This became the foundation for a series of experiments across the shopping journey.
Perfect Match
Complete itA no brainer — make compatibility obvious.
Some products have a natural counterpart i.e. a lamp + a bulb. Perfect Match surfaced the specific complementary product directly in the purchase journey, removing the need to search for it.
- attachment rate
- +8%
- matched product revenue vs original
- +23%
Shop the Look
Recreate itDunelm’s lifestyle photography inspired customers, but finding the individual products within a room required additional searching.
We made those images shoppable, connecting customers directly to products from the look through interactive imagery and product carousels.
- Add to bag rate
- +12%
This demonstrated that cross-sell could work earlier in the decision-making process, not just when customers already knew what they wanted to buy.
Visual Discovery
Discover itWe then explored whether the same idea could work at scale.
Using image recognition, objects within Dunelm’s room photography could be matched with visually similar products from the wider catalogue. Customers could explore those matches through hotspots and shoppable carousels.
The technology occasionally surfaced unexpected matches, showing where automated discovery still benefited from merchandising oversight.
Bundles
Buy it togetherFinally, we explored moving from individual recommendations towards complete solutions, grouping products customers would naturally need together.
While the design progressed, after understanding the organisational limitations, the bundles work was paused.
Outcome
One strategy, multiple shopping behaviours
| Proposition | Behaviour | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect Match | Complete it | +8% attachment rate +23% matched product revenue |
| Shop the Look | Recreate it | +12% add-to-basket rate |
| Visual Discovery | Discover it | Image-recognition experience launched as POC |
| Bundles | Buy it together | Paused |
Learnings
Alignment doesn’t end at launch
Shop the Look proved that getting a concept live isn’t enough. While we had strong support across the digital teams, we hadn’t built the same sense of ownership across every part of the business that would ultimately influence its future.
The proof of concept launched successfully, but without that broader sponsorship it didn’t survive long term.
I learned that for cross-functional products, stakeholder alignment isn’t a milestone. It needs to be maintained throughout the life of the product.
Proof that the concept worked, the organisational model around it didn’t.