Shopify in Cart Upsell Strategies: 2025 Guide to Boost Sales

Shopify in cart upsell is a powerful strategy implemented by many Shopify merchants to increase their average order value (AOV), especially during high-traffic seasons like Black Friday.

In this guide, we will provide you with proven strategies, tips, and instructions on how to effectively leverage the in-cart upselling tactic to boost sales for your Shopify store.

Let us start exploring the world of cart upselling.

What is Shopify In Cart Upsell?

Shopify cart upselling is a sales technique that incentivizes customers to upgrade the current item in their cart before checking out.

It usually involves recommending products that are a premium version of the product the customer already has in their cart. This strategy encourages customers to add premium features, upgrades, and add-ons to their product.

What are the Benefits of Shopify In Cart Upselling?

If used strategically, the Shopify in cart upsell feature can maximize your revenue. That being said, here are a few more reasons why you should use this upsell strategy.

Increase your store’s AOV

When you recommend relevant products during the cart stage of the customer’s shopping journey, you encourage them to purchase a better version of the item. This substantially increases your average order value.

Insights into customer preference

Interactions with customers through upselling strategies provide valuable insights. These include which products the customers frequently buy and their responses to higher-priced products. Analysing this data will help you understand which product to display, when to show it, and effective pricing strategies.

Enhance CX

Let’s take a scenario:
A customer adds a smartphone to their cart. You recommended that the customer buy a higher-end smartphone with added features. The customer selects the higher-priced version and proceeds to checkout. In this scenario, you provided the customer with a genuine product to enhance their shopping experience.

2 Methods to Present Cart Upsells on Shopify

There are two different ways you can present the Shopify in cart upsell feature. Each method provides unique benefits to the merchant.

Method 1: Cart page upsell

In this method, the upsell offers pop-up on the cart page. The pop-up with relevant products and add-ons is a great strategy by the merchant to offer a free gift or encourage customers to increase the order value.

Source: iCart

For example, in the above image, the iCart app pop-up displays a simple cart summary when customers hover over or click the cart icon. This lets them quickly see their items and continue shopping without leaving the page by offering a seamless shopping experience. iCart also helps you customize the pop-up with a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Method 2: Cart drawer upsell

The cart drawer is a slider that extends from the side when the customer continues to add items to their cart. The benefit of the cart drawer is that it allows customers to continue shopping without leaving the product page. Showing items to upsell here encourages the customer to add those items before checkout.

Source: iCart

For example, the above image shows iCart’s sticky cart drawer. This is developed to reduce cart abandonment and elevate the CX. Shopify merchants can customize the look and feel of the cart drawer to align with their store’s theme.

Merchants don’t require any coding experience to customize iCart’s cart drawer. They can start easily with pre-built, fully customizable design templates.

Now that you understand the primary methods to present upsells on Shopify, let’s understand the ways to implement them.

Best Methods to Implement Cart Upsells on Shopify

You can implement cart upsells on Shopify through custom coding or by installing an app from the Shopify App Store. Let’s understand both of these methods.

Method 1: Using JavaScript or Liquid

If you know how to code or have access to resources with experience in development, you can use JavaScript or Liquid to customize the upsell feature to your Shopify store.

Liquid is a templating language developed by Shopify to dynamically display data customized with your Shopify theme. Here’s a step-by-step process to implement this method:

Step 1: Select the item(s) you want to upsell.

Step 2: Modify your theme’s product and cart template files.

Step 3: Add custom JavaScript to detect when the item you have selected is added to the cart.

Step 4: Use JavaScript and Shopify’s Liquid to dynamically inject an upsell pop-up or message.

Step 5: Add an ‘Add to Cart’ button for the upsell offers.

Step 6: Use Shopify’s Ajax API to add the upsell item to the cart without requiring a page reload.

Step 7: Test this functionality on different devices.

Step 8: Utilise Shopify analytics to monitor the effectiveness of your upsell strategy.

Note: This method has its benefits, including complete control over the upselling workflow and no additional costs for apps, but it does require technical expertise in coding.

Method 2: Using Shopify Applications

Select the best cart upsell apps you want to include in your Shopify store. Install the application and start adding an upselling feature in your Shopify store.

iCart Cart Drawer Cart Upsell, for example, specializes in both in cart upsell and cross sell. It does more than just cart drawer upsells and cart page upsells. It offers a full cart upsell feature to present upselling more effectively.

Now, let’s understand some best practices for cart upselling in Shopify.

Best Practices to Generate More Sales Through Upselling in Shopify

These are some of the best practices to follow to ensure your upselling strategy reaches its full potential.

#1 Set clear rules

Communication is key. The benefits of an upsell should be clearly communicated to the customer. It can be an upgrade, discount, or gift. Clearly state what the customer will receive with the upsell.

#2 Make it easy to decline

Don’t overwhelm the customer with upsells. Make it easy for the customer to decline. Going overboard with upselling offers will frustrate the customer, and they may never opt to revisit your Shopify store. It’s also a good idea not to confuse the customer with multiple options.

#3 Smart Shopify upselling

Always be smart with the timing of presenting your upsell products. The most effective way to upsell in cart is by offering relevant items just before the checkout. Also, make sure your upsell products are closely related to the items in the customer’s cart. Analyze the data to suggest items that are frequently bought together to boost sales.

#4 Cart optimization

Show clear CTAs for the customer to add the upsell item easily. Additionally, test for mobile optimisation on your cart. Mobile-first ecommerce has been at the forefront, making it necessary to capture sales from mobile users.

#5 Upselling flow

Ensure the upsell process aligns seamlessly with the customer’s shopping experience. Don’t complicate the purchasing by adding irrelevant upselling pop-ups. Make sure the upsells don’t slow the customer’s checkout process.

What are the Other Types of Upselling Techniques in Shopify?

Apart from the cart page upselling, Shopify merchants employ various upselling techniques to increase their average order value (AOV). Below are a few key upselling techniques.

Product page upselling

This encourages the customers to buy upgraded versions of the product that they intend to purchase. This upselling strategy is used directly on the product page if different versions of the same product are available.

For example, if a customer is buying a smartphone for $299, you should recommend an upgraded version with a price tag of $359 on the product page.

Checkout page upselling

This encourages customers to buy add-ons or relevant products during the checkout process. This upselling strategy is employed when a customer is reviewing items in their cart before proceeding to checkout.

For example, if a customer buys a laptop and proceeds to checkout, suggest to the customer: “Add a laptop sleeve to your cart for just $8.99 to keep your device safe”

Post-purchase upselling

The post-purchase strategy is used when the customer has processed the order, just before the payment success pop-up appears. The customer is likely to buy impulsively because they have already completed the payment.

For example, “Thank you for the order. Buy this matching wallet for $1.99. No need to re-enter card details”

Conclusion

Many merchants rely on Shopify upsell in cart strategies to increase average order value without being too pushy. Show relevant products, avoid overwhelming customers, and manage a smooth checkout process to generate more revenue through your Shopify store.

FAQs

1. What’s the difference between upselling and cross-selling?
The key difference between upselling and cross-selling is that in upselling, the merchant will suggest an upgraded or premium product, and in cross-selling, the merchant will suggest items related to the product.

2. How can I upsell on Shopify?
You can add the upsell feature by custom coding through JavaScript or Liquid, or by installing upsell applications like iCart Cart Drawer Cart Upsell through the Shopify App Store.

3. What is an example of an upsell?
A customer adds earbuds to the cart from an online store. The store merchant suggests upgrading the earbuds with a noise-cancelling feature. The customer upgrades and proceeds to checkout. This is an example of upselling.

4. Which are the best upsell apps available in the Shopify App Store?
iCart, UpCart, Selleasy, and ReConvert are among the top apps available in the Shopify App Store for upselling.

5. What are some of the types of upselling?
Product upgrades, extended warranties, add-ons, bundles, and subscriptions are some of the best types of upselling.