Upsell Strategies are rule-based product selection engines that control which products appear in your upsell components. Instead of manually picking products or relying solely on AI, strategies let you create IF/THEN rules — for example, "if the customer has a jacket in their cart, show matching scarves." Strategies can be used as the product source for any upsell block on Checkout, Thank You, or Order Status pages, as well as in Post-Purchase Funnels.
Getting Started
From the sidebar, navigate to Upsell Strategies (or Data Sources).
Click Create Strategy to open the strategy editor.
Upsell strategies list
Configuration
Strategy Name
Give your strategy a descriptive name (e.g., "Cross-Sell Accessories" or "Bundle Upsell — Skincare"). This name appears when selecting a product source in the Upsell Builder and Post-Purchase Funnel Editor.
Product Filters and Exclusions
Control which products are eligible to be shown by the strategy:
Exclude out-of-stock products — hide products/variants that are currently unavailable
Exclude input products — don't recommend products that are already in the customer's cart
These filters apply globally across all rules in the strategy.
Strategy configuration with filters
Fallback Behavior
When no rules match a customer's context, the strategy can:
Show AI Recommendations — fall back to automatic product suggestions based on the customer's behavior
Show Nothing — don't display the upsell component at all
Rules
Rules are the core of a strategy. Each rule follows an IF/THEN pattern: IF certain conditions about the order are met, THEN show specific products. You can add up to 10 rules per strategy.
Rules section with IF/THEN builder
Creating a Rule
Click Add Rule to create a new rule. Each rule has three parts:
1. Conditions (IF)
Define one or more conditions that must be met. Available condition fields include:
Product Tag — a product in the cart has a specific tag
Product Type — a product in the cart is a specific type
Collection — a product in the cart belongs to a specific collection
Customer Tag — the customer has a specific tag
Cart Value — the total cart value meets a threshold
Product Price — a product's price meets a threshold
Product Metafield — a product has a specific metafield value
Market — the customer is shopping in a specific market
Vendor — a product in the cart is from a specific vendor
When a rule has multiple conditions, choose the match type:
All conditions must match (AND) — every condition must be true
Any condition matches (OR) — at least one condition must be true
2. Result Products (THEN)
Define which products to show when the conditions match:
Specific Products — hand-pick exact products from your catalog
Products with Tag — show all products that have a specific tag (e.g., tag "upsell-accessories")
Products in Collection — show products from a specific Shopify collection
Variants by Option Value — show variants matching a specific option (e.g., color "Red")
AI Recommendations — let AI choose based on the customer's context
Recently Viewed — show products the customer browsed recently
3. Exit If Matched (Optional)
Toggle "Exit if matched" to stop evaluating subsequent rules when this rule matches. If turned off, the system continues checking lower-priority rules and may combine results.
Rule Priority
Rules are evaluated in order from top to bottom. The first rule that matches determines which products are shown (when "exit if matched" is on). Drag and drop rules to reorder them — put your most specific rules at the top and broader catch-all rules at the bottom.
Drag-and-drop rule reordering
Discounts (Optional)
You can attach an automatic discount to all products served by this strategy.
Discount Settings
Enable Discount — toggle on to apply a discount
Discount Type:
Percentage — e.g., 15% off
Fixed Amount — e.g., $5 off
Discount Value — the amount or percentage
Discount Message — text shown to the customer (e.g., "Bundle & Save 15%")
Strikethrough Pricing — show the original price crossed out next to the discounted price
Discount configuration
Saving and Using Your Strategy
Click Save to store your strategy.
Connecting a Strategy to an Upsell
To use your strategy as the product source for an upsell:
Open the Upsell Builder (Checkout, Thank You, or Order Status)
In the product source selection, choose "Upsell Strategy"
Select your strategy from the dropdown
The upsell component will now use your strategy's rules to determine which products to show each customer
You can also select a strategy as the product source for any offer in a Post-Purchase Funnel:
Open the Post-Purchase Funnel Editor
When configuring an offer's product source, choose "Upsell Strategy"
Select your strategy
Selecting a strategy as product source in the upsell builder
How Strategies Work at Runtime
When a customer reaches checkout (or a post-purchase offer), here's what happens:
The strategy's exclusion filters are applied to remove ineligible products
Rules are evaluated top to bottom against the customer's context (cart contents, customer tags, cart value, etc.)
The first matching rule's result products are loaded
If "exit if matched" is on, evaluation stops; otherwise, subsequent rules continue
If no rules match, the fallback behavior kicks in (AI recommendations or nothing)
If a discount is configured, it's applied to the resulting products
Product data is pre-cached for fast loading — the system resolves products when you save the strategy and refreshes periodically. This ensures checkout performance isn't impacted by complex rule evaluation.
Tips
Start with 2-3 rules and expand as you learn what converts. Keep your strategy focused.
Put specific rules first — a rule like "cart contains Product X → show Product Y" should come before a broad rule like "cart value > $50 → show bestsellers"
Use "exit if matched" on your specific rules to prevent them from being overridden by broader rules below
Combine with targeting — the strategy controls which products to show, while the upsell block's targeting controls which customers see the upsell. Use both together for precision.
Tag-based results are great for scalability — as you add new products and tag them appropriately, they automatically appear in the right strategies without manual updates
Discounts drive conversions — even a small 10% discount with strikethrough pricing significantly increases upsell acceptance rates
