Two Strategies, One Goal: More Revenue
If you've been exploring ways to grow your Shopify store's revenue without spending more on ads, you've likely come across the terms upselling and cross-selling. While both are powerful techniques to increase the amount customers spend, they work in fundamentally different ways. Understanding the distinction will help you apply each strategy at the right time — and in the right place.
What is Upselling?
Upselling encourages a customer to purchase a more expensive, premium, or upgraded version of the product they're considering. The goal is to increase the value of the single item being purchased.
Example: A customer is looking at a $49 standing desk mat. You present them with a premium ergonomic version at $89 — highlighting the superior material and longer warranty. That's an upsell.
Upselling works best when:
- There's a clear quality or feature difference between tiers
- The price gap feels justified by the added value
- The offer is shown at the right stage — ideally on the product page or at checkout
What is Cross-Selling?
Cross-selling recommends complementary or related products that go well with what the customer is already buying. The goal is to increase the total number of items in the cart.
Example: That same customer buying the standing desk mat gets shown a cable management kit and a monitor arm. Both products naturally complement the mat. Those are cross-sells.
Cross-selling works best when:
- Products genuinely complement each other
- The additional items solve related problems
- Recommendations appear in the cart or on the product page
Where to Show Each in Your Shopify Store
| Placement | Best for Upsell | Best for Cross-Sell |
|---|---|---|
| Product Page | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Cart | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Checkout | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Post-Purchase | ✓ Great for one-click upgrades | ✓ Great for add-ons |
Which Should You Use?
Use both. Stores that treat upsells and cross-sells as separate decisions end up underusing both. The customer journey has multiple stages — each one is an opportunity for a different type of offer.
One setup that covers the full journey:
- On the product page: Show an upsell to the premium version + cross-sell complementary accessories
- In the cart: Cross-sell frequently bought together items
- At checkout: Final upsell for a warranty, protection plan, or bundle upgrade
- Post-purchase: One-click cross-sell for a related product they didn't buy
How SmartSellio Handles Both
SmartSellio lets you create rules for both upsells and cross-sells from a single dashboard. You can target by:
- Specific product — show an upsell whenever a particular product is viewed
- Collection — cross-sell accessories to anyone browsing a category
- Tag — dynamically group products for flexible targeting
- Smart Recommendations — SmartSellio will show the right products based on Smart/AI algorithms and scoring system
All widgets are fully responsive, customisable to match your theme, and load asynchronously — so they never slow your store down.
Start Maximising Every Order
Stop leaving money on the table. Whether you start with upsells, cross-sells, or both, the important thing is to start. Try SmartSellio free for 14 days and see the impact product recommendations have on your revenue.