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How to Upsell on Shopify: 7 Proven Tips with Examples
In the competitive world of eCommerce, increasing revenue and building a loyal customer base are the keys, and that's where upselling comes in handy. It's like the "extra cheese on your pizza" of eCommerce - a simple and effective way to boost your average order value and entice customers to return.
In this article, we'll share 7 proven tips on how to upsell on Shopify like a pro. Whether it's during the customer journey or Shopify upsell after purchase, we've got you covered.
Plus, we'll provide practical, real-world examples to help you apply these strategies to your store.
What Is Upselling?
Upselling is a sales technique encouraging customers to upgrade their purchase to a higher-end or pricier product than initially intended. By offering complementary or upgraded products, you can enhance their overall experience and boost their satisfaction while boosting your sales at the same time.
When shopping for Brow Powder on the Kelley Baker Brows website, you'll get recommendations for other brow essentials like highlighters, sharpeners, or setting gels - everything you need to slay those brows!
Upselling vs. Cross-selling?
Upselling and cross-selling are both strategies used to grow revenue, but they work in different ways and serve different purposes.
| Strategy | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Upselling | Encourage the customer to choose a higher-priced or upgraded version of the product they’re already considering. | A shopper looking at a mid-range laptop is shown a premium model with double the storage capacity. |
| Cross-selling | Suggest related products that complement the main purchase. | The shopper sticks with the mid-range laptop but adds a wireless mouse and a protective sleeve to the cart. |
A simple way to remember the distinction: upselling focuses on better versions of the same product, while cross-selling focuses on complementary add-ons. Both methods increase order value, but upselling usually comes first since it directly relates to the shopper’s original intent.
Learn more: Cross-selling and Up-selling: The Ultimate Guide to Driving Sales
How Important Is Upselling to Your Shopify Store?
Here are some specific benefits of upselling for your Shopify store:
- Boost your average order value (AOV): Encourage customers to buy additional or higher-priced products, leading to larger orders and an increase in the average order value.
- Increase conversion rates: When you place your upsell offers at the right point in the customer journey, you can turn browsers into buyers since their intention is already high.
- Deliver a better shopping experience: It's not just about making sales; it's about being a helpful guide to your customers. By suggesting upgrades they may not have even known they needed, you can enhance their experience and boost their satisfaction and loyalty. A win-win situation!
- Help your business grow faster: Increasing conversion rates, boosting order value, generating more revenue, and fostering customer loyalty - obviously, upselling has everything to grow your store faster. Studies have shown that upselling can increase revenue by an average of 10-30% and is 68% more cost-effective than acquiring new customers.
The Psychology of Upselling
Well before a shopper clicks Add to Cart, their mind is already weighing a key question: Is this upgrade actually worth it?
Effective upsells succeed because they tap into proven consumer psychology principles—most notably price anchoring, the decoy effect, and brand trust.
Price Anchoring and the Decoy Effect
Price anchoring happens when shoppers use the first price they see as a reference point for evaluating everything that follows.
For example, imagine landing on a headphone product page where the premium Pro Max version appears first at $299. That initial price immediately sets expectations. When the shopper then sees a Pro version at $199 and a Lite version at $179, the $199 option suddenly feels like the most reasonable choice—even though it’s still a significant purchase.
A peer-reviewed study published in February 2025 involving 2,000 online shoppers found that introducing a higher reference price increased perceived value by 32% and significantly raised purchase intent.
Brands often reinforce this effect using a decoy. By introducing an option that makes the preferred choice look more balanced, shoppers are subtly nudged toward a specific decision. In a 2024 field experiment in Jakarta, the presence of a decoy option shifted behavior enough that 68% of participants chose the higher-priced size.
Importantly, anchoring and decoys aren’t meant to force a sale. Their purpose is to position the target option as the most attractive balance of cost and value.
Establishing Trust Before the Upsell
An upsell only feels acceptable when shoppers trust that the brand is acting in their best interest.
According to Salsify’s 2025 Consumer Research Report, 87% of consumers say they’re willing to pay more for products from brands they trust. That trust needs to be built before any upgrade is presented.
Clear return policies, verified customer reviews, and visible trust signals help reinforce credibility. Customer photos and testimonials, in particular, can reduce hesitation and make shoppers more comfortable spending extra on premium options.
How to Upsell Successfully on Shopify?
#1 Offer Compelling Product Bundles
Product bundling is a clever retail tactic combining complementary products to entice casual browsers and eager buyers. Travis Perkins, a UK-based retailer, saw impressive results with customized product bundles, including a 133% higher ROAS, an 11% increase in AOV, and a 53% decrease in cost per transaction.
To effectively use product bundling, it's crucial to choose the right technique. According to Taylor Daniel, a merchandise planning expert, brands should focus on one or two methods in their pricing and promotion strategies.
Here are three effective bundling techniques to consider:
- Buy-more-save-more bundles can drive sales of stagnant inventory by offering discounts when customers purchase more products. Choose items for the bundle based on your slowest-moving inventory category.
My Favourite Things has introduced "By More, Save More" bundles on a range of products, providing customers with attractive deals.
- Quantity discount bundles encourage customers to buy multiples of the same product, promoting replenishable items. Consider promoting bestsellers to increase AOV or experimenting with quantity discounts to move stagnantly replenishable.
Blume, a skincare store, incentivizes customers to buy more through its Buy 2 GET 1 FREE program.
- Frequently bought-together bundles are ideal for complementary or related products. Analyze your data to identify commonly purchased products and create pre-packaged kits, such as socks with shoes. Check out our Help Center article on How to install Frequently Bought Together on Shopify to make yours.
Amazon's famous "Frequently Bought Together" section suggests complementary products often purchased together, making it easier for shoppers to find related items and increase their order value.
Creating product bundles is a powerful way to increase sales, but you must ensure your customers see them. That's where GemPages comes in. With GemPages, you can create stunning product bundles and showcase them on your homepage, product pages, banners, and more. The best part? You don't need to be a coding expert to use GemPages. With its user-friendly interface and pre-built bundle strategies, you can create a bundle offer in minutes.
Get visual instructions on creating Shopify product bundles by watching the video below:
- Craft a Killer Landing Page: Don't just throw your product bundle onto any old page. Create a landing page showcasing your bundle's unique value and benefits. Check out our article on creating a standout Shopify landing page for tips.
- Power Up Your Copywriting: Convince customers to choose your bundle over a single product with persuasive copy that highlights the benefits and features of your bundle. Your website copy should answer key questions like "Why choose this bundle?" and "What makes it better?" in a compelling way that drives customers to make a purchase.
#2 Use Personalized Product Recommendations
Personalized product recommendations are like the "do you want fries with that?" of eCommerce - a simple yet effective way to increase sales and customer satisfaction.
When it comes to creating product recommendations on Shopify, there are a few different approaches you can take. One option involves adding custom code to your Shopify theme files, which requires technical knowledge of Liquid and JavaScript. If you're not comfortable with coding, a no-code page builder like GemPages can be a great choice. With GemPages, you can easily create beautiful, high-converting pages for your Shopify store, including product recommendation sections using the Related Products element.
Here are some GemPages product recommendations strategies for your store:
- Display "Similar Products" or "You May Also Like" on Product Pages: By suggesting products that complement or are similar to what a customer already sees, you can encourage them to add more items to their cart.
United by Blue's "You May Also Like" page offers a clean and effective way to suggest similar products to shoppers, enhancing their shopping experience and increasing the store's upselling potential.
- Display Product Recommendations on the Cart Page: After a customer has added items to their cart, use this opportunity to suggest other items they might be interested in. This Shopify upsell at checkout can be particularly effective for upselling items often bought together.
Tentree cart page features targeted products that entice customers to add them to their cart.
- Recommend Products with Hot Deals on the Thank You Page: After a customer has completed their purchase, use the thank you page to offer them exclusive deals on related products. This Shopify upsell after purchase can encourage them to make another purchase while still in a buying mood.
- Highlight Frequently Bought Products on Product Pages: If you have products often bought together, highlight this on the product page to encourage customers to add both items to their cart and increase your average order value.
- Personalize your upselling tactics with user data: By leveraging customer data, you can identify the best opportunities for upselling and create a tailored shopping experience that encourages customers to purchase more.
- Experiment with different recommendation strategies: Using A/B testing to determine what works best for your store. Our Shopify Product Recommendations article provides a comprehensive guide on how to implement various strategies.
#3 Upsell with Add-ons
By suggesting additional features or upgrades to a product that a customer is already interested in, you can increase the perceived value of the product and provide an enhanced user experience.
For example, if a customer shows interest in buying a tuxedo, retailers can suggest a matching top or offer gift-wrapping services. This strategy can add value to the purchase and incentivize the customer to make a confident buying decision.
#4 Create Conversion-driven Pop-ups
Pop-ups have earned themselves a bad reputation over the years, with most people regarding them as the most hated advertising technique on desktops, as revealed by a study conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group.
However, the reality is that pop-ups can serve as more than just an advertising tool. In fact, they can be an interactive method for eCommerce sellers, particularly when it comes to upselling. By promoting sales or suggesting complementary purchases/cross-selling at checkout, pop-ups can be a valuable resource for Shopify owners.
A pop-up is not just a pure advertising method but rather an engagement tool that connects with website visitors.
To ensure a successful pop-up strategy, here are some DOs and DONTs to keep in mind:
- DON'Ts:
- Continuously display the pop-up
According to a survey on pop-ups, 45.6% of respondents expressed annoyance with pop-ups due to their ubiquity, while 28.6% found them irritating because they always appear first when accessing a website.
- Use a dull design
Your pop-up should be anything but dull and unappealing. It should catch the user's eye and pique their interest, making them want to engage with it rather than dismiss it immediately.
- Try to aggressively gather personal information
Don't be too pushy when it comes to collecting personal information through pop-ups. Users value their privacy, so asking for too much personal information too soon can be a major turnoff.
- DOs:
- Select an eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing design for your pop-up to make it stand out
Lil Bucks' pop-up is both engaging and on-brand, designed to capture the user's attention and match their brand tone perfectly.
- Don't leave your visitors empty-handed! Offer them a convincing incentive like a juicy discount code or a tempting free shipping deal to ensure they stick around.
Offering a discount can reduce the annoyance that customers may feel toward pop-ups since everyone loves a good deal!
- Set appropriate frequency and capping settings for your pop-up to avoid annoying your customers. We have compiled a comprehensive guide on website pop-ups, including best practices and everything you need to know to rock it.
- Experiment with different timing options and test! Find the perfect balance between visibility and user experience to maximize the impact of your pop-up. For those new to website pop-ups, we suggest setting the release time between 15 to 60 seconds.
#5 Design An Effective Loyalty Program
Designing an effective loyalty program can be a game-changer for your business. Did you know that loyal customers spend 67% more than new ones? By creating a loyalty program, you can boost your sales and encourage repeat purchases. Here are some ideas to help you design a loyalty program that will help you upsell:
- Loyalty Points: Offer loyalty points for every purchase made by your customers, which they can redeem for discounts or free products in the future. This can help build customer loyalty and encourage them to buy from your store.
Growave is one of the most cost-effective Shopify upsell apps that provide a loyalty program, along with a range of other useful features.
Boost customer loyalty with Growave's rewards program and VIP tiers.
- Special Discounts for Members: Consider offering exclusive discounts or vouchers for customers who have spent a certain amount in your store. This will not only incentivize customers to spend more but also make them feel valued as a member of your loyalty program.
Seafolly's Beach Club program offers various membership tiers with corresponding benefits and rewards.
#6 Discount (But Use It Wisely)
Discounting means slicing the price tag of an item to make it more attractive to customers. Well, duh. You knew that, right? But did you also know that discount pricing can be a powerful strategy to achieve three key business goals?
First, it can increase customer traffic to your store or website. Second, it helps to clear out old inventory that's been collecting dust in your stockroom. And last but not least, it can lead to an uptick in sales. (Cha-ching!)
But, like all good things, it's best used in moderation. Otherwise, you risk losing the power of the discount and cutting into your profits.
Here are some smart ways to use discounts to upsell on Shopify:
- #1 The "Dummy Choice"/ Price Anchoring: Make your discounted item seem like a great deal by offering a higher-priced, similar product as a comparison.
When comparing the price of a print subscription alone to the price of a print and web subscription together, it's a no-brainer to choose the latter. Why pay the same amount for less?
- #2 Free Shipping: Did you know that 90% of customers say free shipping makes them more likely to buy? Learn how to offer free shipping on Shopify today.
Kylie Cosmetics utilizes free shipping to promote increased purchasing among customers.
- #3 Personalized Offers: Use data on your customers' buying habits and preferences to create personalized discounts and offers that speak directly to their needs.
- #4 Follow-Up Offers: Don't let abandoned carts go to waste! Use automated emails to send reminders and special offers to customers who left items in their cart but didn't complete their purchase.
Win your customer with a good abandoned cart mail
#7 Take Advantages of Urgency and Scarcity
Seasonal sales, like Black Friday, are extremely effective in generating a buzz among customers. But have you ever wondered why? Well, the answer lies in urgency and scarcity tactics. Customers are more likely to take action when they know that the offer is only available for a limited time or when the product is running low in stock.
For instance, if a customer can buy a new phone at a discount throughout the year, they may not feel the need to buy it immediately. However, if the same phone is offered at a discounted price for a limited time, customers are more likely to make the purchase.
By incorporating urgency and scarcity tactics into your marketing strategy, you can increase demand and encourage customers to take action. This can be done by integrating a countdown timer, promoting a flash sale, or notifying potential customers of low inventory.
Not only do these tactics increase sales, but they also create a sense of excitement and urgency among customers, making them more likely to remember your brand and return for future purchases
Upselling Examples You Can Follow
Upselling is widely used across both B2C and B2B sales models to encourage customers to choose higher-value options. Below are practical examples across different use cases.
Ecommerce Upselling Examples
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A bedding brand features a side-by-side comparison on its entry-level sheet product page, highlighting premium collections with higher thread counts, deeper colors, and a prominent “Shop Premium” call to action.
-
On a compact tabletop fire pit page, an embedded product card promotes the larger model, emphasizing extended heat output and a wider burn area—naturally steering shoppers toward the higher-priced version.
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A functional beverage store sets a one-time purchase as the default, while a visually prominent option near checkout offers a discount and free shipping for subscription orders.
B2B and Wholesale Upselling Examples
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A cleaning supply distributor displays real-time unit pricing for bulk quantities, clearly showing cost savings as buyers move from single cartons to full cases.
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A cookware manufacturer guides hospitality buyers through a dedicated “Hotel & Restaurant Supply” section, showcasing complete kitchen bundles and professional-grade product lines rather than individual items.
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An office furniture supplier adds a “Build Your Workstation” panel to desk pages, where selecting a desk unlocks a bundled discount on chairs and accessories.
The Rules for Upselling on Shopify
Present Upsells at the Right Time, Right Place
Imagine this: someone offers you a piece of cake. You might decline, saying you're not interested. Or you might accept it if you're in the mood for something sweet. The same goes for upselling. To increase the likelihood of a customer accepting an upsell, you must offer it at the right time and place.
So, when is the right time? Typically, it's when the customer's buying intent is high. This could be on the product page, cart/checkout page, or even after checkout (post-purchase). These are the moments when the customer is most engaged and more likely to make a purchase.
To drive conversions, it's best to place upsells when a customer's buying intent is high.
Increase Customer Happiness, Not Just the Sale
While it's important to present additional options to customers, there are certain occasions where you should hold back:
- During customer service: When a customer has an issue, the last thing they want is a sales pitch. Instead, focus on providing solutions and building trust.
- When there's a budget: Not everyone has the budget for premium upgrades. Be mindful of this and suggest affordable alternatives or how upgrades could benefit them in the future.
- When the upsell isn't relevant: If the additional offer isn't relevant to the customer's immediate needs or purchase, it's better to hold back. Always prioritize the customer's needs over your own.
Again, remember, timing is everything. Don't try to sell a cake to someone on a diet - it won't end well for anyone!
Narrow Choices for Better Conversion
In a study, 60% of visitors flocked to a booth with more options, but only 3% of them made a purchase.
In contrast, at a booth with fewer choices, only 40% of visitors stopped by, yet 30% of them went on to make a purchase.
So, narrow your choices to increase your chances of converting visitors into buyers!
Keep the Upsell Affordable
Don't miss out on potential sales by offering upsells that are too expensive. Instead, suggest affordable options that complement what your customers are already purchasing. For example, if they're buying a shirt, suggest a similar one in a different color, rather than a pricey jacket.
Measuring Your Results
Imagine being a skilled chef, sampling various cake flavors to determine which one your guests will enjoy the most. With GemPages A/B testing, you can apply the same concept to upselling techniques, allowing you to test and discover which tactics your customers can't resist.
Should you show a tempting photo of your upsell, or leave it up to the imagination? Maybe add some clever copy to seal the deal?
A/B testing takes the guesswork out of the equation, showing you which strategy is the most effective. It's like having a crystal ball that tells you which upselling moves will make your customers say, "Yes, please!"
The Bottom Line
Looking to boost your sales and customer loyalty? Upselling is the way to go! With the help of GemPages, you can design a store page that sells without any coding knowledge and has everything you need for effective upselling.
So don't miss out on the chance to increase your sales and keep your customers happy - give these proven tips and examples a try today!
FAQ about How to Upsell on Shopify
