Articles on: Upsells and revenue

Create an upsell offer

Building an offer takes five steps: where it appears, what it shows, who sees it, what makes it tempting, and a final check. Start under Upsell → Create offer. A live preview sits beside you the whole way, so you can see what customers get before you publish.

Before you start

The Upsell app block is on the page you plan to use
For After checkout, Account Editor is your post-purchase app in Shopify's Settings → Checkout
You know which product you want to offer

Step 1 — Placement and goal

Choose where the offer appears:

Checkout page — Best for: Highest purchase intent — Needs: Upsell block · Shopify Plus
After checkout — Best for: Best conversion — one-click accept — Needs: Set in Shopify's checkout settings
Thank you page — Best for: High visibility, any plan — Needs: Upsell block
Order status page — Best for: Repeat traffic over several days — Needs: Upsell block
Free-shipping upsell — Best for: Nudging carts over your threshold — Needs: Free shipping block
Email — Best for: Campaigns — Needs: Nothing

You can also set a start and end date here, with a timezone, plus a priority that decides which offer wins when several match.

Step 2 — Offer setup

Name the offer. Only you see the name, so make it one you will recognise later.

Then write what customers read: a headline, a description, and a button label.

Now pick the products. You can choose them yourself, or let the app pick automatically from what the customer bought — related products, complementary ones, frequently bought together, or the most expensive item in the cart.

Automatic selection scales better. A hand-picked product works for one order and looks odd on the next.

Step 3 — Targeting

Who sees this offer? For your first one, everyone.

When you want to narrow it, six presets are ready to use:

New customers only — First-time purchasers
Returning customers — At least one prior order
High-value carts — Cart total of 100 or more
VIP customers — Customers tagged VIP in Shopify
Weekend customers — Saturdays and Sundays only
No active discount — Hides the offer if they already have one

Or build your own rules from four groups: what they bought, cart and discount values, who the customer is, and order timing.

Full detail: Choose who sees an offer.

Step 4 — Incentive and display

Add a discount if you want one — a percentage, or free shipping. An offer works without one, so try it both ways.

Add a countdown timer to show how long the offer lasts:

Time — 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes, or custom
Style — Digital clock, or progress bar

Keep the timer honest. The offer should really end when the countdown does. A timer that resets teaches customers to ignore it.

Set exposure limits here too — how many offers one order or one customer sees. Without them, a repeat customer meets the same offer every time.

Step 5 — Review and launch

Check the summary. Use the full preview to see the offer as a customer would, on the real page.

Then Save as draft or Publish offer.

After publishing

Check the app block is on the matching page. This is the step people miss. An offer set to the Thank you page needs the Upsell block on the Thank you page. Publishing alone shows nothing.

Then watch the Analytics tab for a few days before changing anything.

Good to know

Placement and block must match. The single most common reason an offer never appears.

Editing an email offer breaks links already sent. Saving a change cancels every link in emails you have already sent — customers see an expired page. Copy the new snippet afterwards and replace it everywhere.

One-click accept only exists after checkout. Elsewhere, customers confirm the purchase. That difference is worth more than any discount.

Priority decides which offer wins. When several offers match one order, the highest priority runs.

Troubleshooting

The offer never appears — Why: The block is not on the offer's page — Fix: Add the Upsell block there
It shows for some orders only — Why: Targeting rules are narrowing it — Fix: Check step 3, or set it to everyone
After-checkout offers do nothing — Why: Account Editor is not the post-purchase app — Fix: Shopify Settings → Checkout → Post-purchase
The countdown restarts — Why: Expected — it runs per customer session — Fix: Use a real end date instead if you need a hard stop
Two offers compete — Why: Both match the same order — Fix: Set priorities in step 1
Email links show "expired" — Why: The offer was edited after sending — Fix: Copy the new snippet and replace the old one
Products look wrong for the order — Why: A fixed product list is being used — Fix: Switch to automatic selection

FAQ

How many offers should I run?

Start with one. Add a second only when the first has enough data to judge. Several offers competing makes it impossible to tell what worked.

Should I add a discount?

Try without one first. Customers who have just bought are already willing. If conversion is poor, add a small discount and compare with an A/B test.

What is one-click accept?

On the After checkout placement, payment is already approved, so the customer adds the product with one tap and no card details. It is the reason that placement converts best.

Can I schedule an offer?

Yes. Set a start and end date with a timezone in step 1. Useful for seasonal offers that should switch themselves off.

Why do some customers see nothing?

Targeting, exposure limits, or a missing block. Check them in that order.

Updated on: 21/08/2026

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