Shopify Upsell At Checkout: Proven Strategies to Improve Sales

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Upselling on Shopify is a popular marketing strategy utilized by merchants to enhance sales. Merchants can implement upselling at different places to get conversions, especially during the checkout.

In this article, we will go through important techniques and strategies for Shopify upsell at checkout. It will equip you with essential insights to get the best results from your campaigns. Let’s discover it!

1. What is upsell at checkout in Shopify?

Upselling at checkout in Shopify is offering additional products or upgrades to customers as they finalize their purchases. This strategy focuses on suggesting relevant or complementary items that enhance the customer’s initial purchase. In the checkout phase, which is a critical point of decision, Shopify merchants can utilize upselling to boost sales and improve customer’s shopping experience.

When a customer reaches the checkout page, they’re often already committed to buying. So, this is your chance to present offers that add value to their purchase. You can integrate popups or product add-ons there, incentivizing customers to spend more.

You can create checkout upsell offers by coding or using third-party apps. Coding allows you to customize the offers in any way you want, while Shopify apps are a convenient and helpful option for implementing upselling quickly. However, coding will not be available on the checkout page starting in August 2024. So, it would be best if you considered using a suitable Shopify upselling app to make your upsell offers.

2. Different methods to upsell at checkout in Shopify

2.1 Upsell popups

Upsell popups are frequently used to encourage additional purchases during the checkout process. They usually appear when customers are about to complete their purchase or have just added items to their cart. For instance, when you shop at Black Ember, after you add a backpack into your cart, it presents a popup showing complementary items.

It’s important to ensure that the upsell popups are relevant and timely. This decides the success of your upselling campaign. Besides, the popups should be easy to close, making the shopping experience smooth.

2.2 Product add-ons on the checkout page 

Another upselling method is providing product add-ons on the checkout page. This involves displaying extra product options or enhancements alongside the purchased primary items. For example, when you choose swim shorts on Speedo, it shows other similar and extra products that you can buy.

This method keeps the upsell offers visible without requiring customers to navigate away from the checkout page. So, it’s convenient and effective for upselling. Of course, you should ensure that the add-ons are relevant and presented clearly and user-friendly. This enhances the likelihood of additional purchases.

3. What are the benefits of upselling at checkout in Shopify?

Increase average order value

The first benefit of upselling at checkout is the increase in average order value. When customers are presented with additional product options or enhancements during the checkout process, they are more likely to spend more than they initially intended. Integrating upsell popups or product add-ons enables you to effectively incentivize customers to add more items to their cart. So, you can boost the overall revenue per transaction.

Improve customer retention

Upselling at checkout also helps you improve customer retention. Offering relevant and valuable add-ons demonstrates a deep understanding of your customer’s needs and preferences. This way allows you to make customers feel they are receiving more value for their money, enhancing the shopping experience. It fosters a sense of loyalty and satisfaction, making customers return to your store for further purchases. 

Besides, when your customers have positive experiences with upselling offers, they are more likely to share their satisfaction with others. This potentially leads to new customer acquisition through word-of-mouth referrals.

Enhance customer experience

When you provide thoughtful and relevant product suggestions, you make it easier for customers to find additional items that complement their purchase. This convenience reduces the need for customers to search for these items elsewhere, streamlining their shopping journey. Besides, a good upsell offer is also well-integrated into the checkout process, ensuring that it adds value. Such an upsell, which aligns with customers’ needs, makes them feel beneficial. Therefore, it improves their experience.

Maximize ROI

Another benefit of upselling at checkout is maximizing return on investment (ROI). Upselling techniques enable you to increase revenue without incurring substantial additional costs. 

Unlike other marketing methods that need a lot of money for ads or promotions, upselling takes advantage of the customers you already have and the buying process they’re already engaged in. This cost-efficient approach allows you to generate more revenue from each transaction while keeping marketing expenses in check. Besides, the increased average order value and improved customer retention resulting from successful upselling efforts also contribute to a higher ROI.

4. How to leverage your upselling strategy?

4.1 Add conditional cart upsell 

Conditional cart upsell involves showing additional product offers based on specific conditions. This method allows you to tailor upsell offers to individual customer behavior or different customer segments. So, you can significantly increase the likelihood of additional purchases.

To implement conditional cart upselling, you should start by analyzing customer data to categorize your customers into groups. Then, you can leverage tools like BOGOS to create and customize offers based on location, purchase history, or customer tag. It also allows you to build offers with specific URLs for special events.

Conditional upselling makes it possible to target customers accurately. Utilizing this strategy helps you increase the average order value and drive more sales.

4.2 Add post-purchase upsell

Post-purchase upselling occurs after the customer has completed their initial purchase but before they finalize the transaction. This strategy takes advantage of the customer’s positive buying intent and provides additional offers that complement their recent purchase. Here’s an example of post-purchase upsells:

This approach can be highly effective as customers are often more receptive to additional offers when they feel they’ve already made a positive purchasing decision. You should ensure the products offered should be relevant and provide added value to the customer, encouraging them to make another purchase without feeling overwhelmed.

4.3 Limited-time offers

Limited-time offers highlight the time-sensitive nature of the upsell opportunity, creating a sense of urgency and encouraging customers to make additional purchases. These offers are effective in driving quick decisions and increasing the average order value. Seoulbox’s case below is a typical example of utilizing such offers.

When setting up limited-time offers, you should communicate the time frame clearly and make the offers compelling enough to drive a decision. You can also utilize countdown timers to highlight the urgency.

4.4 Smart product recommendations

Smart product recommendations require using algorithms and data-driven insights to suggest relevant products to customers. These recommendations are based on their browsing history, purchase behavior, and preferences. This personalized approach can improve your upselling strategy’s effectiveness by presenting offers that are tailored to each individual customer’s interests. For instance, when you buy a product for an oversized individual on Under Armour, it suggests other similar items for oversized people. 

5. 3 Best apps to upsell at checkout in Shopify

Selleasy

The first app we want to introduce for checkout upselling is Selleasy. It’s built to help merchants increase sales via upselling and cross-selling. The app has various features, including pre-purchase and post-purchase upsell offers, frequently bought-together bundles, and product add-ons. When using it, you can create offers manually or utilize automatic product recommendations. 

Selleasy supports many languages and currencies, making it versatile for a global audience. It is highly praised for its ease of use, customization options, and seamless integration with Shopify stores. Selleasy’s team also provides great customer support, including free setup assistance via Zoom, chat, or email. The app has a free plan, and its pricing tiers are very affordable.

Monk Free Gift

Monk Free Gift, developed by Monk Commerce in 2021, is a highly-rated Shopify app for upselling and cross-selling. The app combines upselling and gifting functionalities, allowing you to present gift offers, discounts, and recommendations from product pages through to checkout and post-checkout. It also includes a tiered progress bar to improve the cart’s conversion rates. 

Another standout feature is its customizable design, which enables users to tailor the appearance and interface of widgets and popups, including options for text translation. The app also has a powerful eligibility engine that personalizes buyer experiences based on specific criteria like product types, quantities, and cart values. Merchants usually appreciate Monk Free Gift for its user-friendly interface and nice customer support. You can test the app with its available free plan or free trial.

UpsellPlus Checkout Upsells

The next app you can consider is UpsellPlus Checkout Upsells, which is designed for checkout upsells. It was launched in 2021 and has obtained a high rating of 4.9 out of 5 on Shopify.

It provides various features to improve the checkout experience. Merchants can customize the checkout, cart, and post-purchase pages with upsell offers and other enhancements. It supports upselling from one-time purchases to subscription models, helping to boost recurring revenue. You can also add custom sections, such as gift messages or delivery notes, to the checkout page.

UpsellPlus includes A/B testing capabilities to identify the most effective upsell offers. It also supports conditional offers based on specific rules set by the merchant. Besides, the app also offers analytics to track upsell performance and revenue generation. If you want to try the app, utilize its available free trial.

6. What not to do when you upsell at checkout?

Overwhelm your customers with a lot of offers

One big mistake is giving customers too many upsell offers at checkout. Lots of options can confuse and frustrate customers. If there are too many choices, they might hesitate or even cancel their purchase.

To avoid this, you should focus on presenting a limited number of relevant upsell options. Choose offers that are directly related to the items in the cart and provide clear value. For example, if a customer is buying a camera, offering a few carefully selected accessories like a memory card or a protective case is more effective than showcasing a wide range of unrelated products. Remember to make the upsell offers straightforward and easy to understand, ensuring that they enhance rather than complicate the checkout experience.

Repeat products that you have already shown on the product or cart page

Showing products that customers have already seen on the product or cart page can be annoying. If a customer has already looked at or added an item to their cart, offering the same product again as an upsell seems repetitive and unnecessary. This can make the shopping experience less enjoyable and reduce the value of the upsell offer.

You should ensure that upsell offers are fresh and distinct from what has already been presented. Use the opportunity to suggest complementary or higher-value items that align with the customer’s current purchase. For instance, if the customer has already chosen a specific type of laptop, you might offer accessories like a mouse or a laptop stand rather than presenting the same laptop model again. This approach keeps the upsell offers engaging and relevant, enhancing the customer experience.

Ignore mobile users

In today’s mobile-driven world, ignoring mobile users when implementing upselling strategies is a critical error. A lot of customers use their smartphones or tablets for shopping, so if your upsell offers are not optimized for such devices, you risk losing potential sales and frustrating users.

Therefore, creating mobile-friendly upsell offers that provide a seamless experience across all devices is necessary. That means you will need to design responsive popups and add-ons that work well on smaller screens and touch interfaces. You may test your upsell features on different mobile devices before launching your campaign.

Create a cluttered design on the checkout page

A messy checkout page can make the shopping experience worse. If the checkout page is disorganized, customers might get frustrated or confused and might abandon their carts. So, you need to keep your checkout page clean and simple. Make sure upsell offers fit smoothly into the checkout process without interrupting it.

Make disruptions during the checkout process

Disruptions during the checkout process are another factor that can negatively affect the customer’s experience. If upsell offers disrupt the flow of the checkout or create additional steps, customers may become frustrated and abandon their purchase. In contrast, upsell offers should be presented in a way that complements the checkout process. Popups or upsell options need to be easily accessible without requiring additional clicks or navigation. 

7. Conclusion

Lots of merchants use Shopify upsell at checkout as an effective way to improve their stores’ sales. You can also do that with our mentioned strategies. Try the checkout upselling method today to drive better conversions and increase revenue!

8. FAQs