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Quick Win - Setting Up Your First Post Purchase Upsell

spend ~9 minutes setting up your first post purchase upsell!

Cecilia Wilbur avatar
Written by Cecilia Wilbur
Updated over a month ago

What you’ll do

  1. Turn on global defaults so the Thank‑You page can show subscription upgrades.

  2. Launch a simple, high‑fit upsell for example - in this guide, we’ll use the example of, cross-selling a "nighttime" variant when a customer buys a “morning” variant.

  3. Measure for success

Why it works

  • The offer appears after checkout, so there’s no checkout conversion risk.

  • It turns one‑time buyers into subscribers or adds a relevant product in one click.

  • Fast to launch; results show up immediately in your existing analytics.

This will take you about 9 minutes to set up!


1) Turn on the global defaults (>1 minute)

Path: Optimization → Post Purchase UpsellsDefault Settings

There is no reason not to have these default settings turned on! When you first click Post-Purchase Upsells, the default settings modal will pop up for you.

Recommended settings

  • Offer subscription upsells to one-time checkout: On. Make sure this is turned on! It will show customers “upgrade to subscription” when the purchased item has a selling plan.

  • Default subscription shipping price: $0 to keep acceptance friction-free. Only set a value if the upsell meaningfully changes shipment weight (e.g., 1-pack → 3-pack for heavier products).

    • (optional) Additional promotion discount: If left blank, the selling-plan discount still applies; use this only when you want to offer additional discounts to really sweeten the deal.


3) Launch your first upsell (~7 minutes)

Path: Optimization → Post Purchase UpsellsCreate New Post Purchase Upsell

For the sake of using an example, the setup steps will assume you are creating your first post purchase upsells for morning vs. night-time tea blends.

Setup steps

  1. Name it clearly (e.g., Upsell · Nighttime Product · First Win).

  2. Conditions (pick one simple pattern):

    • Exclude the target product: Excludes All Products Selected → choose your “nighttime” variant(s). The offer shows only when "nighttime" isn’t already in the order.

    • Cross-sell by context: Includes Any Products Selected → choose your “morning” variant(s) so "nighttime" appears when a morning item is purchased.

  3. Upsell productsSelect Specific Products:

    • Choose the “nighttime teas” variants to offer as a subscription.

    • Shipping cost: keep $0 unless weight genuinely impacts cost.

    • Additional discount: add a modest bump (e.g., 20%). This stacks with the selling-plan discount in practice.

  4. Prioritization: Leave the “prioritize configured products” box unchecked for your first launch so the default upgrade-to-subscription offer can appear at the top. Check it only when you want your configured upsell tiles to take precedence over that.

  5. A/B testing: Skip Test products against each other on your first run to get a clean baseline.

  6. Toggle ActiveSave.

Outcome: A Thank-You-page upsell that upgrades a one-time buyer to a subscription or adds a high-fit product in one click.


2) Enable Stay AI on Shopify’s Post-purchase page (≈1 minute)

Path (Shopify Admin): Settings → CheckoutPost-purchase page → select Stay AISave.

This is required so your upsell actually renders on the Thank-You page.


Measure success (use metrics you already track)

Path: Analytics → Product PerformancePerformance

  • Subscription opt-in & first-order value: Track first-order subscription AOV and subscription opt-in in the dashboard.

  • Retention: Monitor retention for the affected variants over time as you iterate.


Your Post-Purchase Upsell Checklist

  • Defaults on: subscription upsells enabled; default shipping $0; optional promo discount set if desired.

  • Set your first upsell live: clear name, simple condition, products selected, prioritization decided, Active + Saved.

  • Shopify set: Post-purchase page provider = Stay AI.

  • Measure success: Comparison benchmarks documented; exports available if needed.

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