Creating an Upsell Strategy

Choose how to start

Open Apps > Order Editing > Upsell Strategies.

• Select the primary Create Strategy action to start from scratch.
• Open More actions > From template to use a prebuilt starting point.
• Open More actions > From another strategy to copy an existing strategy.
• Open More actions > Create split test when the new strategy should be a test variant rather than an independent offer.

The Create Strategy menu shown inside strategy-list empty states provides the same starting options.

Choose a placement

For a strategy created from scratch, choose the point in the customer journey where the offer should appear. For a template, review the placement and preselected product module before continuing.

Placement affects the later targeting, module, design, and installation options. If you change placement, review the entire strategy again because a setting supported on one surface can be unavailable on another.

Configure the strategy

1. Choose the Shopify Markets that can see the offer.
2. Enter an internal name that identifies the placement, audience, and offer.
3. Set the strategy to Draft while configuring it.
4. Choose All customers or add customer, cart, order, market, discount, or purchase-history filters.
5. Under Product modules, add one or more supported product sources.
6. Review warnings and the resolved product preview.
7. Configure discounts, quantity controls, and offer text.
8. Add content blocks under Offer layout when supported.
9. Review design and advanced settings.
10. Save the strategy.

Reorder multiple modules to control which source is evaluated first. Use fallback modules only when they provide a useful alternative if the earlier source returns no eligible products.

For a Free Shipping Upsell, complete the additional shipping and filter sections. Confirm the tier name, destination, currency, amount, subscription behaviour, and products eligible for recommendation.

Optional: ask Sidekick to stage a starting point

Shopify Sidekick can prepare supported strategy fields when you describe the placement, audience, products, and offer you want.

For example:

Create a Checkout upsell for Canadian orders over $100 using recently viewed products and a 10% discount.

Sidekick can stage supported fields, but it does not save or activate the strategy. Review every field and complete any product, variant, collection, market, or installation choice that requires merchant input.

Configure product modules

Each product module determines how candidate products are sourced. Depending on the module, you can select exact products, collections, search rules, recommendations, integrations, metafields, or products already in the cart.

Review:

• market and publication availability;
• allowed variants and selling plans;
• inventory and Hidden Products;
• module-specific filters;
• recommended quantity and customer-facing copy.

For a Collection module, Variants offered can limit the selectable variants by option name and value. This is separate from audience targeting based on the variant a customer already bought.

Configure offer safeguards

Use Offers to set the supported strategy discount and quantity boundaries. Review how the discount interacts with compare-at prices, existing sale prices, discount combinations, and the selected modules.

Open Strategy Discount > Advanced discount settings when you need to:

• avoid applying the strategy discount to items already on sale;
• hide the strategy when an existing checkout discount conflicts with the advertised product discount.

The conflict safeguard can match any conflicting discount, names or codes containing text, or exact codes. At checkout it can also detect codeless automatic Shopify discounts by name.

Add content blocks

Under Offer layout, add reusable banners, trust content, reviews, FAQs, progress bars, payment icons, or other supported content blocks.

Drag each block before or after the product offer, or into a supported product-selection modal. A shared block can be used by multiple strategies. Duplicating a strategy creates independent copies of its content blocks by default.

For a content-only strategy, add the blocks and enable Only show this strategy when an app block requests it by ID. Then choose the locked strategy in the Shopify app block.

Preview the complete experience

Open Preview after saving. The strategy preview combines the resolved products, content blocks, and saved branding for the selected surface.

Check:

• every placement included in the strategy;
• narrow and wide layouts;
• content-block order and responsive visibility;
• product, variant, price, discount, and quantity information;
• card frames, images, offer text, and checkout pagination;
• accept and decline branches for One-click Upsell.

The admin preview confirms the configured presentation. It does not prove live targeting, payment, app-block installation, or a completed order update.

Review advanced settings

Available controls can include variant selection, strategy locking, schedule, and integration events.

A locked strategy is excluded from normal strategy matching and appears only when a supported app block requests its ID. Use this when different blocks intentionally request different strategies.

Select a connected Klaviyo or Postscript event only when that integration should receive the supported eligibility event.

Install and activate

1. Resolve every warning or incomplete module.
2. Save the strategy as Draft.
3. Install the required Shopify extension when the placement reports Not installed.
4. Check the placement in Shopify's editor or a live non-order test path.
5. Set the strategy to Active.
6. Monitor its first impressions, accepted offers, and paid upsells.

For Checkout, add a suitable product to the cart and continue to checkout without placing an order. For Thank You Page and Order Status Page placements, use Shopify's checkout editor. Create a controlled order only when an end-to-end result must be verified.

Duplicate a strategy

Use More actions > From another strategy on the strategy list, or Duplicate Strategy on an open strategy.

The duplicate is independent. Review its name, status, schedule, placements, markets, targeting, products, content blocks, design, and installation before activating it.

Compare variants with a split test

Use More actions > Create split test to compare a control with a variant or a holdout. A strategy already in a split test cannot join another one.

See Running an A/B Test for an Upsell Strategy for traffic, evidence, automation, and winner settings.