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See FeaturesConverting browsers into buyers is one thing, but what if there were a way to increase average order value and influence sales of the products with the highest profit margins? With a Shopify upsell, you can do just that.
Shopify upsells are product recommendations that upgrade your customer’s initial discovery/selection, such as with a premium version, add-on, or larger volume/quantity item.
Your upsells could be embedded on product and cart pages, appear in popups based on engagement patterns, or be part of your post-purchase emails.
Join us below to learn how to upsell on Shopify, including apps, strategies, and high-quality examples to inspire your efforts.
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What is upselling on Shopify?
Shopify upselling is a sales strategy that offers customers premium product versions, upgrades, or add-ons to encourage them to spend more — either during or after their initial purchase.
Far from being intrusive and clear money-grabs, upsells help shoppers discover improved options they might otherwise miss. The result is a win-win scenario — more revenue and a better customer product experience.
Upsells work best when they appear at key decision points in your buyer journey. For instance, product pages, carts, checkout, and post-purchase communications (emails, SMS) are perfect for targeting your most engaged shoppers.
How you present and offer upsells will depend on what you sell and the design/layout of your store. Additionally, Shopify upsell apps can pull relevant products automatically with settings for layouts, styling, and placement.
Pro tip
Another tactic for increasing revenue is cross-selling, where you suggest entirely different but complementary items for a product.
Learn more: Cross-selling vs upselling: key differences and strategies
Benefits of upselling on Shopify
Here’s why you should upsell on your Shopify store:
More revenue
The most significant benefit of upselling on Shopify is the potential to earn more customer revenue. For example, shoppers who usually spend $20 on protein bars might pay $30 for a bigger box, increasing revenue on that order by 50%.
Increase average order value
A Shopify upsell can significantly increase your average order value (AOV) without requiring additional marketing spend. Since you already paid money to promote your Shopify store and acquire customers, you’ll also see a healthier return on acquisition costs.
Sell more profitably
Your most profitable products aren’t necessarily the ones your shoppers discover first. You can bridge that gap with upsells, recommending more profitable items on product pages, checkout, and other touchpoints crucial to conversion.
Improve customer experience
One of our Shopify best practices is creating an intuitive user experience. Upselling helps with that by assisting people in finding products. Also, customers who select premium options often avoid situations that create brand friction, such as exchanges, returns, and buyer’s remorse.
Collect product preferences
Every customer who purchases a premium product version, upgrade, or add-on reveals preferences you can use in future targeted marketing. For instance, if they buy products over $300, your emails can target offers meeting that threshold.
Where to upsell on Shopify: Key customer touchpoints
Your upsells should be in the places with the highest customer engagement, including your product pages, cart, checkout, and post-purchase sequences.
Product page upsells
Product pages are discovery and research points, so upsells here provide additional, helpful solutions for whatever your customers are trying to solve. You can go in-depth with features and advice to sell your upgrades or keep things simple with a grid.
Hair growth solutions company Adegen upsells bundles and subscriptions on its product pages to shift more stock and increase AOV:
Dollar Shave Club takes a different approach, using a grid to highlight “more ways to look good” on its Electric Trimmer Body Head Replacement page:
Cart page upsells
Carts on Shopify can be slide-out modules or pages, letting customers view their bag and review the items they added during browsing. The most effective upsells show savings and offer one-click upgrades to reduce additional shopping steps.
Baby monitor retailer Nanit follows these best practices with cart upsells under a “You May Also Like” heading. Its offerings include bundles with up to 30% off:
Another solid example of cart upsells comes from women’s health essentials retailer Cheeky Bonsai. Its cart page offers subscribe and save on popular products:
Checkout page upsells
The checkout’s primary role is to convert and process the sale, so upsells must be short, simple, and relevant. They shouldn’t require additional product discovery and exploration. A good design approach is to name the products descriptively and use quick add buttons.
Electric Picks Jewelry has the right idea with a “limited time offer” checkout upsell offering an add-on jewelry box for a gold bracelet:
Post-purchase upsells
Upsells in post-purchase emails and text messages help generate revenue from existing customers. You can recommend premium and upgraded versions of purchased products, which works particularly well for consumables and subscriptions.
Athletic Greens provides a good example of a post-purchase upsell email, offering subscriptions to one-time purchasers:
Email is the most effective channel for post-purchase upsells. To increase engagement, create compelling subject lines, and personalize emails to connect with customers.
How effective are post-purchase emails?
Kate Backdrop sent post-purchase emails with assembly videos for products needing setup instructions. Its messages reached an 87% open rate while helping customers use photography backdrops without confusion after delivery.
Read the full case study here.
Shopify upselling strategies you can apply right now
The most basic strategy for Shopify upselling is recommending a more expensive alternative product, such as a gold version of a silver charm. However, depending on your products, you can go further with tiers, bundles, and subscriptions.
Use tiered upsells
Present good, better, and best options or two side-by-side products so customers can choose based on their needs without feeling pressured.
Furniture stores effectively use this approach by offering standard sofas alongside premium versions with higher-quality fabrics. Customers select their preferred balance between price and performance without sales intervention.
A good example comes from the grass dog potty retailer Fresh Patch. Its product selection quiz offers two accessory upsells at different price points:
Bundle upsells
Group related products into bundles to increase AOV while simplifying buying decisions. For example, combining cameras with memory cards, cases, and extra batteries creates complete solutions that customers need anyway.
Bundles remove the effort of finding compatible accessories while providing savings compared to separate purchases. Top Shopify stores also have configurable “build your own bundles” for a more immersive user experience.
Natural deodorant retailer Naturally Wyld promotes bundles on its cart page, offering three deodorant sticks as an alternative to a single-product purchase:
Time-limited post-purchase upsell offers
Send exclusive upgrade opportunities immediately after checkout when purchase excitement remains high. Limited-time discounts on premium versions or extended warranties create urgency that drives quick decisions.
Email is the best marketing channel for post-purchase upsells. Omnisend has pre-built post-purchase flows to automate these messages, and you can auto-populate your emails with products using the Product recommender item.
Here’s an example of a simple post-purchase email built-in Omnisend:
Use personalized upsells based on customer behavior
A top Shopify tip is presenting upgrades based on previous purchases and browsing patterns to increase relevance. Shoppers who viewed premium products before buying entry models respond well to targeted upgrade offers.
Using your customer’s name, purchase date, preferences, and other personalization methods in offers shows you understand them while focusing on the products they want.
Sports tape retailer Spidertech offers two upsells in its cart page, one with a bundle builder and another for the i-Strip with a quick view button:
One-click upsells
Enabling immediate additions without re-entering payment details removes friction from post-purchase offers. You should integrate these into your product pages, cart, checkout, thank-you pages, and order confirmation emails.
Your customers will accept upgrade offers more frequently when the process takes seconds rather than requiring multiple steps.
Beauty retailer Best Bronze uses one-click upsells with time-sensitive discounts. The example below, promoting a bundle, triggers when you click “checkout” in the slide-out cart as an upgrade to its Bombshell Body & Leg Makeup:
Subscription upsells
Upselling a subscription turns one-time buyers into repeat ones, increasing your AOV and customer lifetime value (CLV).
The beauty of a subscription is that you can tie customers into purchases and offer discounts on larger quantities to shift more stock. For example, you could offer customers interested in a 10kg bag of dog food a three-month subscription on a 15kg bag.
Huckle Bee Farms uses subscriptions to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers, offering a subscribtion and saving on monthly, three-monthly, and six-monthly honey deliveries:
Best upsell apps for Shopify
The simplest way to upsell on Shopify is with an app. Most apps have ongoing costs (subscriptions) but offer huge return potential if you configure them correctly and refine your sales funnel to target customers at opportune moments.
Start with these best Shopify upsell apps for your cart, checkout, and post-purchase flows:
1. Omnisend — for upselling through email and SMS automation
Omnisend lets you build targeted and personalized upsell email campaigns and automations. These could be to past customers or people who entered their email address during checkout but failed to complete their purchase.
Shopify SMS marketing is an additional channel for upselling, helping reach customers with shorter, more direct messages, such as VIP offers and exclusives.
The upsells you promote via email and SMS can generate significant revenue, increase AOV, and re-engage customers to add value to your lists.
The best part is that Omnisend is one of Shopify’s top-rated omnichannel marketing apps, with a 4.7/5 star rating based on over 2,800 reviews. It doesn’t have a steep learning curve, integrates effortlessly, and is suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Pricing
- Free: 500 emails/month with no standard feature restrictions
- Standard: $16/month for 500 contacts and a 12x email send limit
- Pro: $59/month for 2,500 contacts, an unlimited email send limit, and bonus SMS credits equal to the price of your monthly plan
2. One Click Upsell — for checkout and post-purchase upsells
One Click Upsell lets you create pre- and post-purchase upsell funnels throughout your customer journey from the product page to the thank you page.
Build upsells without setup complexity — select products, set discounts, and publish. AI can personalize product recommendations in real-time for each customer, increasing conversion rates and order values without reliance on discounts.
Its split testing feature removes the guesswork from your upsell strategy, and you can track sales performance with dedicated analytics.
Pricing
- Free: For development stores only
- Starter: $8/month for $0-$200 in upsell revenue
- Unlimited: $35/month for up to $1,000 in upsell revenue/month
3. UpCart — for cart page upsells and shipping-based offers
UpCart is the best upsell app for Shopify to create a custom, on-brand slide-out cart offering upgrades and add-ons to increase AOV.
You can configure it to show product recommendations and free shipping progress bars to encourage shoppers to add more items to qualify. The add-ons module lets you offer shipping insurance or other products of your choice for additional revenue.
Cart announcements inform customers about promotions, while the sticky cart button remains visible during browsing to reduce abandonment.
Pricing
- Free: Development stores only
- 0-200 orders: $29.99/month
- 201-500 orders: $34.99/month
- 501-1,000 orders: $54.99/month
- 2,000 orders: $89.99/month
Make upselling on Shopify effortless
Upselling maximizes AOV and revenue and helps build better customer experiences with more relevant and helpful products. It can be done after checkout with a post-purchase flow or during shopping with recommendations, bundles, and subscriptions.
Start by using the Shopify upsell apps in our list. Omnisend helps you create automated post-purchase upsell emails with pre-built templates and track performance to see what works.
Early conversions provide valuable feedback on popular items and preferences. It’s good practice to take a long-term approach and use that data to create even better upsells that your customers love to buy.
Shopify upselling FAQs
Yes, with an app. One Click Upsell and UpCart handle automation at checkout, while Omnisend handles automated post-purchase upsell emails and SMS flows triggered by customer actions.
Personalized recommendations based on browsing history and purchase patterns yield the highest conversion. Bundle offers with clear savings and one-click additions during checkout minimize friction.
Omnisend excels for email/SMS upsells, One Click Upsell provides AI-driven recommendations throughout the customer journey, and UpCart specializes in cart drawer optimization with shipping threshold incentives.
Omnisend powers post-purchase email/SMS campaigns with personalized product recommendations. Its automation flows target existing customers with premium product versions while tracking performance metrics.
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