Shopify checkout upsell rules: when the cart has X, offer Y

A single list of upsell products works until the catalog grows. The buyer with a mouthpiece in the cart needs the cleaning solution, the buyer with earplugs might take two more, and neither should see the other's offer. Upsell rules handle that: each rule says what the cart has to contain and what to offer when it does.

Rules are a mode of the upsell widget in Smart Checkout Widgets. This guide covers how they match, how the discounts work, and how to move a long rule set in from another app.

What a rule is made of

Every rule has a condition and an offer.

The condition can be any of these, and a rule can hold several:

• The cart has any of these products
• The cart has a product from a collection
• The cart has a product with a tag
• The cart total is above an amount
• The cart total is below an amount

With more than one condition, you choose whether the cart must match all of them or any of them. "Mouthpiece in the cart and total under $30" is one rule.

The offer is either products you pick or more of the product that matched. The second one is how you write "buy two more of the same". Each rule also has a quantity and an optional headline, so an offer can say why it is there instead of showing a generic label.

Rule order and "Stop here"

Rules run from the top down, and you drag them into the order you want. Turn on Stop here for a rule and, when that rule has something to show, the rules below it don't run. Use it to keep a strong offer from sharing the block with weaker ones. Put your most specific rules first and the broad catch-all rules last.

A discount for each offer

A rule can offer its product at full price, at an amount off each unit, or at a percent off. Buyers see the reduced price with the original crossed out, and the discount appears at checkout under the rule's headline.

The discount follows the rule. If a buyer adds the offer and then removes the product that earned it, the discount goes away. It also applies only to the number of units the rule offers, so a buyer can't add ten at the offer price when the rule offers one.

Check your other discounts before you launch. If the store runs an order discount that doesn't combine with product discounts, Shopify can keep the bigger deal and drop the upsell discount with no error. This guide explains how that happens.

Moving rules in from another app

You don't have to rebuild a long list by hand. Rules import and export as CSV, so you can bring in a spreadsheet, review what the import found, and confirm it. A rule set can run to a few thousand rules on one store.

After an import, use the cart tester in the editor. Pick products, set a cart total, and it shows which rules match. That finds a wrong tag or a misordered rule before a buyer does.

Where rules show

In checkout, the upsell block has an Add button, and that needs Shopify Plus because Shopify limits checkout blocks to Plus. Offer discounts depend on that button.

On every plan, the upsell widget can run on the Thank you and Order status pages. There, each offer links to a new cart as a "buy again" offer, at the normal price.

You can also fill the block with Shopify's own product recommendations if you would rather not write rules at all. If the widget's display conditions aren't met, nothing shows.

Three rules to start with

1. A consumable for its device. Cart has the device, recommend the refill, a small amount off.
2. More of the same. Cart has a tagged product, recommend more of it, with a percent off.
3. A small add-on for small carts. Cart total below your free shipping threshold, recommend a low-priced item that closes the gap.

Run those for two weeks and read the Results page before you add more. For where upsells sit in the wider checkout, see how to keep checkout upsells from feeling pushy.