Cross merchandising is the practice of marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

, or displaying products from different categories (or store departments) together, in order to generate additional revenue

Revenue

In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....

, known sometimes as add-on sales, or incremental purchase. This can often be done in conjunction with customer-centric strategies, aimed at improving the overall customer experience

Customer experience

Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. From awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy...

.

Product selection in most retail environments is based on consumer usage patterns. Retail stores will also sometimes categorize certain demographics

Demographics

Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...

 of customers, such as hockey mom, students, techies, etc. in order to target product offerings more narrowly. Examples would include:

• Displays, which may feature a complete clothing
  Clothing
  Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
  
   ensemble on a mannequin, or a complete set of furniture
  Furniture
  Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
  
   in a showcase window.

• Merchandising
  Merchandising
  Merchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity. In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer...
  
  , which involves the actual positioning or stocking of merchandise on shelves, pegs or other fixtures; batteries featured next to electronic items, gardening gloves featured next to lawn care products, or lighthouse calendars featured next to books about New England.