Understanding Upsell Strategy Matching

Matching sequence

For a requested placement, Order Editing:

1. Starts with active strategies that support the placement.
2. Excludes strategies that do not support the current market or are locked to a different block.
3. Evaluates the available customer, cart, and order targeting rules.
4. Scores matching strategies by rule specificity.
5. Selects the highest-scoring strategy. If that strategy is in a running split test, the assigned control or variant is used.

What specificity means

Specificity represents how narrowly a strategy describes the current customer journey. The score considers:

• the types of filters used;
• the number of filters;
• the detail inside those filters;
• whether All filters match or Any filter matches is used.

Strategies with no targeting filters have a score of zero and provide the broadest normal coverage. Product- or collection-specific targeting is normally more specific than a broad value threshold, but the exact score is an implementation detail and can vary by supported surface.

Do not design a hierarchy around guessed point values. Design it so the intended audience is visibly narrower and test a cart that can match more than one strategy.

Example hierarchy

Assume three Active strategies use the Product List Upsell placement on the Checkout Page:

1. All checkout customers has no filters.
2. Customers buying coffee machines uses Products in Cart.
3. VIP coffee-machine customers uses Products in Cart and Shopify Segments, with all filters required.

A normal customer buying another product can receive strategy 1. A coffee-machine customer can receive strategy 2. A VIP coffee-machine customer can receive strategy 3 because it is the most specific matching configuration.

All filters versus Any filters

All filters match makes the audience the intersection of every rule. It is normally more specific because all requirements must be true.

Any filter matches makes the audience the union of the rules. It can cover a wider group because only one rule needs to be true.

Choose the logic that describes the campaign. Do not choose All only to try to force a higher score.

If nothing matches

No merchant fallback strategy is evaluated. The placement may show its configured global or system behaviour when that placement supports one, or show no offer. To cover a broad audience, create an active strategy for the placement with All customers and products that are available in every required market.

The retired Fallback Strategy cannot be created, updated, or used for matching. Remove old operating instructions that tell staff to maintain one.

Locked strategies

The optional Lock Strategy control reserves a supported strategy for a Shopify app block that requests that strategy ID. Locked strategies are excluded from normal matching and do not compete with the strategies above.

Use locking when different blocks on the same supported page must request different strategies. Copy the strategy ID into the block's Locked Strategy setting. If the block does not request the ID, that locked strategy will not appear.

Split tests

Strategy matching happens before a running split test assigns its control or variant. The test changes which tested strategy experience the eligible shopper receives. It does not make an otherwise ineligible strategy match.

Equal scores

There is no merchant-facing manual priority setting. If two strategies finish with equal specificity, the implementation's evaluation order determines which one is selected.

Avoid depending on a tie. Make the audiences non-overlapping or add a meaningful filter that makes the intended strategy clearly more specific.

Same targeting on the same surface

When two Active strategies use the same targeting rules and share a placement, customers only see one of them. The other strategy can get no views.

The strategy editor shows a warning: This upsell might not be seen by customers. Open Learn more to see the other strategy.

To show both strategies:

• Add different targeting filters so each strategy matches a different audience.
• Choose a different placement for one of the strategies.
• Turn on Lock Strategy and add that strategy ID to a specific app block.

The warning does not appear for draft strategies, locked strategies, or the two arms of the same split test.

Surface differences

Different placements do not always have the same customer, cart, and order data. The editor hides unsupported filter types, and the runtime scorer supports the rules available to that surface.

Changing a placement can therefore change both filter availability and which strategies compete. Review targeting after every placement change.

Audit a matching problem

1. Confirm the strategy is Active.
2. Confirm it includes the requested placement and market.
3. Confirm it is not locked, unless the app block requests its ID.
4. Compare the customer, cart, and order with every filter.
5. List the other Active strategies for the same placement and market.
6. Identify which of those also match and which is more specific.
7. Confirm the winning strategy has an eligible product.
8. Test again with one changed filter value.

Use the strategy preview to check offer content. Use the Shopify checkout editor to review Thank You or Order Status placement. Add a product to the cart and continue to checkout to check Checkout Page behaviour.

Frequently asked questions

Can I drag strategies into priority order?

No. The list order is not a merchant priority control. Matching uses eligibility and specificity.

Can a customer see two normal strategies in one placement?

The normal matcher selects the winning strategy for a placement request. Separate placements or explicitly locked app blocks can create different offer areas on the same page.

Why does a strategy say it might not be seen by customers?

Another Active strategy uses the same targeting rules and at least one of the same placements. Only one of those strategies is shown. Add different filters, change the placement, or lock one strategy to an app block.

Does a broad All customers strategy replace the old fallback?

It can provide broad normal coverage, but it is an ordinary Active strategy. It still needs the correct placement, markets, available products, and installed extension.