This is the upsell and cross-sell strategy we run on our own stores. It currently adds an extra $10,038 per month — almost 20% of our total revenue — and uses seven different offer placements spread across the entire customer journey, from the product page all the way through to the thank you page.
You do not need to use all seven to see results, but the more of the journey you cover, the more opportunities you give customers to say yes. If you're just getting started, we recommend these three placements running on AI mode as a baseline:
Slide cart
Pop-up triggered by "Add to cart" action
Embedded offers on the product page
From there, layer in the remaining placements as you build confidence with what converts.
1. Embedded offers on the product page
Candy Rack gives you two embedded layouts on the product page that work well together:
Checkbox add-ons. Show a block of complementary products customers can select with a checkbox.
Upsell and cross-sell buttons. Directly below the Add to cart button, show one upsell and a few cross-sells, each with its own Add button.
Expect around 2% of orders to pick up an add-on through this placement alone.
Discount: None on cross-sells — the customer is still deciding on the main product, not looking for a deal. The upsell, however, carries a discount, since that's what makes trading up to a higher tier attractive.
2. Pop-up triggered by "Add to cart"
When the customer clicks Add to cart, we show a pop-up with similar offers to what is already embedded on the page. This might look redundant, but it is one of our best-performing placements — customers frequently miss the embedded offers entirely, and the pop-up forces a conscious yes-or-no decision before they continue to the cart.
Inside the pop-up we show the family pack upsell again, plus the same add-ons. One key detail: if the customer clicks the upsell, the family pack replaces the main product in the cart (they do not end up with both).
No (or low) discount on cross-sells. The upsell keeps its discounted price.
3. Embedded offers in the Slide Cart
Slide cart replaces Shopify's default cart drawer with a customizable cart that can show upsell and cross-sell offers directly inside it. Whenever the customer opens their cart to review it, the offers are right there alongside the line items — no extra pop-up, no interruption.
This is a perfect estate for order-level cross-sells like gift packaging, extended warranty, etc. If these aren't available on your store, feel free to s how the same products you'd offer in the product-page pop-up.
Smart targeting still applies — if the customer already has the upsell product in their cart, the offer is suppressed.
It's also time to be more aggressive with discounting, offer 10 - 15% discount on relevant cross-sells.
4. Embedded offer in the checkout (Shopify Plus only)
By the time the customer is in the checkout, they are committed. This is almost your last chance to upsell items they passed on earlier, so it is the first placement where we offer a small discount.
The add-ons that were full-price on the product page are now discounted here. Clicking Add adds the item to the order immediately — no extra checkout steps.
Please note this placement requires Shopify Plus (checkout extensibility).
5. Post-purchase offer (between checkout and thank you page)
After the customer completes payment but before they reach the thank you page, we show one more cross-sell with an aggressive discount.
This is a great placement for two reasons:
No extra payment friction. The customer has already paid; clicking Add attaches the item to their existing order without re-entering card details.
It is the genuine last chance to increase order value without them having to make a fresh purchasing decision. That justifies a deeper discount than anywhere else in the funnel.
If the customer skipped an add-on earlier in the journey, we try it one more time here with a better price.
6. Embedded offer on the thank you page
The thank you page is the last placement we use, but also the lowest-revenue one. Why? Because adding an item here requires the customer to go through checkout again — their address is pre-filled, but they still need to re-enter payment details.
That friction means only your very best deals should live here. If the offer is compelling enough to justify a second checkout, it can work. Otherwise, save the placement for promotions rather than routine cross-sells.
The discount ladder
The pattern across the seven placements is a gradual increase in discounting as you move deeper into the funnel:
Stage | Discount approach |
Product page (embedded) | None on cross-sells |
Product page (pop-up) | None on cross-sells; discount on the upsell tier |
Slide cart | None or low (10 - 15%) on cross-sells |
Checkout (pre-purchase) | Minor discount (20%) |
Post-purchase page | Aggressive discount (+25%) |
Thank you page (embedded) | Best deals only (+50%) |
The logic is straightforward: early in the journey, the customer is still deciding on the main product — they do not need a discount yet. As they progress and the opportunity cost of missing the add-on rises, a discount does more work.
Key principles worth calling out
Hide offers for products already in the cart. Candy Rack does this automatically, and it matters — repetition burns trust.
Offer similar products throughout the journey. If your catalog is small, there is nothing wrong with showing the same add-ons in multiple places. Different customers notice different placements.
Pop-ups force a decision; embedded blocks are easy to miss. Use both. The embedded placements catch attentive shoppers; the pop-ups catch the rest.
A/B test your offers. We run ongoing tests through the Intelligems integration to refine which products, discounts, and copy work best. What converts on one store will not automatically convert on another.
But won't that many offers hurt my conversion rate?
The most common fear with stacking upsell placements is that they will annoy customers and drive them away. Our data does not support that. We maintain an 8% average conversion rate — with some days above 10%. In other words: you can use multiple offer placements to lift average order value without negatively impacting your overall conversion rate.
One last thing
This strategy is what works for us today, and it evolves over time. We iterate based on what we learn from our own stores and from merchant feedback. If you have a strategy that is working unusually well for you, we would love to hear about it — drop us a line at [email protected].