How to Upsell on Shopify? (2025)

In this post, you’ll discover how to create upsells like a pro, using proven techniques that have made millions for other brands. Before we dive into these strategies, take a minute to learn how Shopify upselling works, why it matters, and the best places to use it in your store.

What Is Upselling (and How Is It Different from Cross-Selling)?

Upselling is a sales technique businesses use to persuade customers to upgrade to a more expensive version of a product or an optional add-on, thereby increasing the total sale value. For example, imagine a customer wants to purchase an iPhone 14 from your store. Upselling is successfully convincing them to buy the upgraded, more costly iPhone 16.

Please note that upselling is not the same as cross-selling, although both tactics can increase AOV. With cross-selling, the seller pitches a complementary item that can enhance the original product. Using the same scenario as the previous example, cross-selling would be offering the customer AirPods to go with the iPhone 14.

Why Shopify Stores Should Upsell

Upselling is a must for any Shopify store looking to gain the following benefits:

• Increased AOV and profit: Upselling increases revenue per order and can raise customer lifetime value by 20–40%, delivering 5–25 times higher profits. With customer acquisition costs on the rise in 2025, every e-commerce store would benefit from an increase in AOV. As a side note, if you need more ideas on how to upsell - check our latest post.
• Better customer satisfaction: Upsells showcase how well you understand customers’ pain points, especially when you mix them with personalized recommendations and effective customer support. The result is a better buyer experience and more customer loyalty.
• Improved conversions: Upselling in the later stages of a buyer’s journey can be effective at increasing conversions. Why? The customer already trusts you at that point.
• Reduced Cost per Sale (CPS): By upselling existing leads on product add-ons, you will sell more goods without having to increase your ad spend.

When & Where to Offer Upsells?

This section covers the best stages and places to upsell in a Shopify store.

In Product Pages

Try to upsell customers on a product page, which contains all essential information about the item your customer is interested in. For example, you can boost sales by offering bundle volume discounts with Kaching Bundle Quantity Breaks. This is the most common approach that works for most brands, since if you look at the conversion funnel, majority of customers will visit the product page first, making upsell in product pages the most effective method.

During Checkout or Cart

Your cart or checkout page can turn into an upselling tool. Many Shopify store owners use Cart drawer upsell apps to offer helpful checkout recommendations or discounts based on the cart total. Make sure to use these to upsell smaller price amount products to push customers just above the free shipping threshold. Alternatively, you may communicate your BOGO or BXGY offers to encourage customers to buy more of the same product at a discounted price.

Post-Purchase (One-Click Upsell)

Some Shopify store owners don't know that you can still upsell customers immediately after a purchase. A great example of a Shopify post-sale upsell is using a post purchase upsell Shopify app to add a one-click purchase button after checkout. You can use these to upsell immediately in the post-purchase page or in thank you, checkout pages.

Popup Upsells

Customizable upsell and cross-sell popups on your product pages are also highly effective as they target customers at the start of their purchase journey which allows you to market your best offers, discounts and sales. Make sure not to overuse this feature as many customers are notoriously unhappy with popups - stick to 1 popup display and ideally not at the very start of the buyer journey so that the user can have a look around your site and your products.

What are the Most Effective Upsell Techniques?

From the previous section, choose when and where you would like to upsell. That is the first step to creating an effective strategy. Next, use the information below to select the upsell techniques that work best for your business. To summarise, our 3 recommended upsell methods are Bundles, Product Offers and Checkout Add-ons, implemented in the checkout or post-purchase page. With numerous case studies to back up our claims, you can be sure to get a great result too! If you are looking to compare different upsell apps on Shopify - check our latest review.

Bundle & Upgrade Offers

A bundle is an offer that combines two or more related products into one package, often sold at a discount. Quantity breaks, volume discounts, and BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) are common examples of upsell bundles. They are super-effective when done the right way. Here’s a real-life example:

Underwear brand HELLO boosted AOV by 450% and added $609,000 in revenue through bundle and upgrade offers. Their vision was simple. People often bought underwear in higher quantities, so it made sense to offer discounts with the help of quantity breaks. However, they also allowed the customer to select size and color variants for each item.

Bundles and order upgrades work best when it makes sense to offer a product in packs - which is often the case in fashion, cosmetics and consumer goods, especially for customers that are loyal to the brand and would like to buy more to stock up if given a good offer. They can be even more effective if you include variants in your bundle options, made possible with the powerful Kaching Bundle app for Shopify.

Relevant, Product-Specific Offers

Similar to bundles, product-specific offers can serve as a form of upsell and cross-sell. You’re giving people a chance to buy something closely related to what they’re interested in. Throw in a discount or free gift and it gets even more persuasive.

Vistevas used product-specific offers to not only increase AOV but also boost conversion rate by 20% and add-to-cart rate by 33%. Their strategy was simple: create added value by offering relevant free gifts and limited-time BOGO deals. This approach made their products irresistible.

You’ll see better results when your upsell offer is closely related to the main product on the page.

Checkout Add-Ons

Upselling is also possible where customers enter their payment and shipping details. Shopify checkout add-ons are upsell offers that are integrated into the checkout process. They can come in the form of the following:

• Custom fields
• Product recommendations
• Preferred delivery dates
• Special perks

Use them to upsell customers on gift wrapping, extended warranties, premium versions, complementary products, and more.

Home fixtures brand Signature Hardware uses checkout add-ons to frequently double total order value. They present extras such as foam insulation or air massage on their bathtub checkout page. Seeing this, customers realize they can save significantly on shipping, so many gladly accept the upsell.

Use checkout upsells on your larger products and position them as ways to help customers save on shipping costs.

Conclusion

You may struggle to maximize your AOV and profits if you don’t know how to add upsells in Shopify. To get started, use the tips in this post to develop a strategy that matches your business model and buyer persona. You can implement your strategies in minutes with powerful apps!