Mastering Shopify Post-Purchase Upsells: Boost Revenue and Customer Loyalty
by Hannah
Oct 10th, 2024
11 mins read
Have you ever received a reminder about AppleCare+ after purchasing a new Apple device? That's a classic example of a post-purchase upsell in action. Apple's strategy has proven immensely successful, with AppleCare+ sales soaring by 20% to $8.5 billion in fiscal 2021 (Warranty Week). This isn't just a minor revenue stream; it's a significant contributor to Apple's overall success.
While pre-purchase upsells are more commonly known and implemented, post-purchase upsells offer a unique opportunity to capitalize on customer intent and increase lifetime value. This comprehensive guide will equip you with everything you need to know about leveraging this powerful strategy for your Shopify store.
In this article, you'll learn:
The basic of how to differentiate pre-purchase and how it benefits your store, backed by data
Step-by-step instructions for setting up effective upsell campaigns on Shopify
Best practices and expert tips to maximize your upsell conversion rates
Shopify limitation and real-world examples of successful post-purchase upsell strategies
Whether you're new to e-commerce or a seasoned Shopify merchant, this guide will help you unlock the full potential of post-purchase upsells. By the end, you'll have the knowledge and tools to implement this strategy, increase your average order value, and foster long-term customer relationships.
Let's dive in and transform your Shopify store's post-purchase experience!
Many new merchants often confuse pre-purchase and post-purchase upsells. Before diving into implementation, it's crucial to clearly understand the distinction between these two strategies.
The primary difference between pre-purchase and post-purchase upsells lies in the timing of giving the offer.
Pre-purchase upsells are presented to the customer before they finalize their purchase. By strategically placing bundle offers, product recommendations, or upgrade options on product or cart pages, merchants can effectively influence the customer's decision and boost the average order value (AOV).
Post-purchase upsells, on the other hand, are presented after a customer has completed their purchase. Common tactics for post-purchase upsells include offering complementary products, additional services, or exclusive discounts through channels like Shopify post-purchase surveys, emails, or pop-ups. The goal here is to provide added value and encourage repeat purchases.
Upselling is a powerful strategy to boost store revenue
1.2. Benefits of Shopify Post-Purchase Upsell
Post-purchase upsells have emerged as a potent strategy for e-commerce businesses. Let's take a closer look at the benefits of Shopify post-purchase upsell, supported by real-world data.
Boosting Average Order Value (AOV)
Post-purchase upsells offer a straightforward way to increase AOV. By presenting relevant and enticing product options, you can encourage customers to spend more on their initial purchase.
According to ReConvert, post-purchase upselling resulted in a 5.6% uplift in average order value for their clients. This demonstrates the tangible benefits that businesses can achieve by strategically offering additional products after a purchase.
Improving Customer Satisfaction
By offering tailored product recommendations based on customer purchase history and browsing behavior, you can significantly improve the overall shopping experience.
This personalized approach demonstrates that you understand your customers' unique needs and preferences, fostering a stronger connection and increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases.
Enhancing Customer Retention
In the context of eCommerce, Shopify post-purchase upsell can be particularly effective in driving customer retention. According to Forbes, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70%, while a new prospect is 5 to 20%.
Given the high probability of selling to existing customers, post-purchase upsells provide an opportunity to offer tailored product suggestions based on the customer's initial purchase. This personalized approach can enhance the customer experience and increase the likelihood of repeat purchases.
Building Long-Term Relationships
Studies conducted by the Harvard Business Review have demonstrated that businesses adept at upselling can achieve a 20% increase in customer lifetime value. This underscores the substantial impact that effective upsells can have on a company's bottom line.
By consistently delivering exceptional value and exceeding customer expectations, businesses can cultivate a loyal customer base. These satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat purchasers and brand advocates, spreading positive word-of-mouth about the company.
In essence, Shopify post-purchase upsell offers a powerful strategy for eCommerce businesses to increase revenue, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive long-term growth. By leveraging data-driven insights and offering relevant product suggestions, businesses can maximize the potential of post-purchase upsells and achieve significant results.
Let’s dive into the practical steps for implementing post-purchase upsells and unlocking their full potential.
2. Unveiling the Power: Implementing Shopify Post-Purchase Upsell
Crafting a custom Shopify post-purchase upsell campaign from scratch can be a complex endeavor for merchants. It requires a deep understanding of Shopify's Liquid templating language, JavaScript, and potentially other programming languages (learn more at Shopify.dev docs). This involves:
Modifying Shopify's theme code: Merchants need to modify specific sections of their theme to introduce upsell blocks or pop-ups.
Creating custom logic: They must write custom code to determine which products to recommend based on customer data, purchase history, or other criteria.
Ensuring compatibility: The custom upsells must seamlessly integrate with the existing checkout process and not interfere with other functionalities.
These technical challenges can be time-consuming and require significant coding expertise. Therefore, the most efficient approach for most businesses lies in leveraging third-party apps. These apps streamline the process, allowing you to focus on crafting compelling offers without diving into complex coding.
Now, we'll demonstrate a step-by-step guide using a popular Shopify post-purchase extension to implement common tactics of Shopify post-purchase upsells, including offering complementary products, sending emails, creating limited-time offers, and personalizing recommendations.
2.1. Complementary Products
To effectively identify and recommend complementary products, Shopify apps typically employ the following strategies:
Product relationship data: The Shopify post-purchase app analyzes data on frequently purchased products together. This can reveal patterns and associations that suggest natural pairings.
Product attributes: By examining product attributes like category, brand, or features, Shopify apps can determine complementary products based on shared characteristics.
In this section, we will use the ReConvert app as an example of how to implement after-purchase upsells with complementary products.
You can refer to ReConvert document to set up your complementary product upsells:
Navigate to the dashboard and click on "Settings" in the top menu.
Select "General Settings".
Scroll down to the "Order" settings section.
From the dropdown, choose "Add items" to the original order.
A new set of "Additional/advanced settings" will appear. These settings provide granular control over when to add items to the original order.
Choose which sections should add upsells to the original order and which should create a new order.
Select product upsell.
Set up the post purchase upsell with Reconvert app.
2.2. Shopify Post-purchase Emails
Shopify post-purchase upsell emails offer a powerful opportunity to continue engaging with customers and drive additional sales. By sending targeted and personalized emails, you can offer complementary products, suggest upgrades, or provide exclusive discounts.
To demonstrate how to effectively implement post-purchase emails, we'll utilize the OrderlyEmails app, a powerful tool designed to streamline the process and enhance customer engagement.
A commonly used tactic for post purchase upsell is mailing
Log in to your "Shopify admin" and navigate to the "Apps" section.
Click the "Customize" theme button on your design.
In the email editor, choose the email template you want to modify (order confirmation email, thank you email, follow-up email, etc.)
Click the "Add section" button and select the "Recommended products" section.
You can drag and drop the section to change its position in the email and customize its appearance.
(*) Note: Emails will exclude products that the customer has already purchased in that order.
2.3. Limited-Time Offers
Limited-time offers are a powerful tool for creating a sense of urgency and driving sales. By offering exclusive discounts or bonuses for a limited time, you can encourage customers to take immediate action. Shopify upselling apps can help you automate this process and ensure that offers appear at the right time in the post-purchase flow.
Create the urgency for post purchase upsell
Here's how to effectively implement limited-time offer pop-ups on your thank you page by Reconvert app:
Click on the "Thank You Pages" dropdown menu and select your desired thank you page.
Select "Customize" to open the thank you page editor.
Click on "General Settings" within the thank you page editor.
Choose "Pop-Up With Timer" from the available options.
Enable "Pop-up": Activate or deactivate the pop-up on your thank you page.
Select the "Criteria": Choose when the pop-up appears (e.g: Once per order)
Customize the "Pop-up Display": Edit background color, add any text, links, GIFs, or images, etc.
Adjust "Timer" duration: Set the duration before the limited-time offer expires.
2.4. Personalized Recommendations
Personalized recommendations are a powerful way to enhance customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of additional purchases. By leveraging Shopify post-purchase upsell apps to gather customer data and analyze their behavior, you can offer highly relevant and compelling product suggestions.
If you’re looking for an easy way to create tailored upsell offers, you can take a look at the ReConvert app. Here’s a breakdown of how it can implement your Shopify post-purchase upsell recommendations:
Navigate to the Funnels menu in the app Dashboard.
Select the funnel you want to edit.
Choose the Edit option for the specific offer you want to modify.
Select product: Choose the product to be featured in the upsell offer. You can select the most expensive or cheapest product purchased, use recommendation apps, or manually choose a specific product.
By offering personalized recommendations, you can create a more engaging and satisfying shopping experience for your customers. This can lead to increased customer loyalty, repeat purchases, and higher average order values.
By following these guidelines and utilizing the functionalities of Shopify apps, you can easily implement effective Shopify post-purchase upsell campaigns in your store. Remember to experiment and analyze results to constantly refine your approach and maximize its impact on customer satisfaction and revenue.
3. Best Post-Purchase Upsell Shopify Practices for Success
While we've covered the fundamental aspects of Shopify post-purchase upsell, let's delve deeper into some specific strategies and tactics that can elevate your results:
3.1. Limit Choices
When implementing Shopify post-purchase upsell, it's crucial to present customers with a focused selection of options. Overwhelming customers with too many choices can lead to decision fatigue and reduce the likelihood of conversion.
Choose the most related products to offer as post purchase upselling
A general guideline is to limit upsell options to a maximum of three. If you have more than three relevant upsells, consider presenting them in a staggered manner. For example, you could initially present two options and then offer the third option if the customer shows interest in the first two.
3.2. Offer One-Click Post-Purchase Upsells
To maximize the effectiveness of your post-purchase upsells, it's essential to offer a seamless and frictionless experience for your customers. One-click post-purchase upsells are a powerful tool for achieving this goal.
Seamless integration: Ensure that the upsell offer appears immediately after the customer completes their purchase.
Clear and concise presentation: Present the upsell offer in a way that is easy to understand and accept.
Limited-time offers: Create a sense of urgency by offering time-limited discounts or bonuses.
3.3. Set Up Thank You Page Upsell
The thank you page is a prime opportunity to present Shopify post-purchase upsell offers. By strategically placing upsells on this page, you can capitalize on the post-purchase euphoria and increase the likelihood of additional purchases.
When creating a thank you page upsell, you need to consider the following:
Strategic placement: Display the upsell offer on the thank you page, immediately after the customer completes their purchase.
Relevant and personalized offers: Ensure that the upsell offers are tailored to the customer's individual preferences and purchase history.
Easy to accept: Make it simple for customers to add the upsell to their order with a single click.
3.4. Create Reorder Button Post-Purchase Upsell
Reorder buttons are a powerful tool for encouraging repeat purchases and building customer loyalty. By offering customers the option to easily reorder products they have previously purchased, you can streamline the process and increase the likelihood of future sales.
Bulk store includes an option to reorder in their order status page
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively optimize your Shopify post-purchase upsell campaigns and increase your average order value, customer satisfaction, and long-term revenue.
While Shopify offers a robust platform for online stores, it's essential to be aware of the following Shopify limitations and considerations when implementing post-purchase upsell extensions:
Payment provider restrictions:
Third-party payment providers requiring customer CVN/CVV retention (e.g., Braintree, Payflow Pro, PayPal Payments Pro, Eway) are not supported.
Unsupported payment methods:
Post-purchase Shopify pages won't be displayed if the customer uses installment services (Klarna, Affirm, AfterPay) or wallet services (Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Google Pay).
Gift cards or non-credit card payments for the initial purchase will also prevent post-purchase pages from appearing.
Analytics limitations:
Third-party analytics services using Shopify Pixel API (Google Analytics, Facebook, Pinterest, Snap) only report the initial purchase event and value.
Analytics services relying on ScriptTag or additional scripts may have incomplete conversion data due to being triggered only on the Order status page.
Duties, multiple currencies, and order creation delays:
Post-purchase offers won't be shown for orders with duties or multiple currencies.
In scenarios like flash sales with high system load, order creation might be briefly delayed for a seamless experience. This can temporarily prevent post-purchase pages from appearing.
Multiple apps and fulfillment holds:
Merchants using multiple post-purchase checkout extensions must select the preferred app in Shopify admin settings.
Shopify places a hold on fulfillment for orders undergoing post-purchase upsells, which is released after the customer completes the flow or within a set timeframe.
Order status page and API versioning:
Post-purchase pages shouldn't replace the Order status page.
Post-purchase checkout extension APIs are not versioned and don't follow the Shopify API versioning schedule.
Shipping address and local delivery:
Orders without a shipping address (digital products, local pickup) won't support post-purchase upsell Shopify.
Local delivery orders also won't display post-purchase offers.
Order minimum and offer limits:
Orders must be at least $0.50 for post-purchase offers to be eligible.
Customers can accept a maximum of three post-purchase offers per checkout.
Sales channel and post-purchase page creation:
Post-purchase upsells are only supported for orders placed through the Online Store sales channel.
You can create only one post-purchase page, but pagination can be used to create multiple sections within that page.
With a clear understanding of these limitations, merchants can design and implement post-purchase upsell campaigns that boost revenue on Shopify.
5. Real-World Examples of Shopify Post-Purchase Upsell
5.1. Kettle & Fire: Boost AOV with Post-Purchase Upsells
Kettle & Fire, a renowned bone broth brand, effectively utilized Shopify post-purchase upsell to encourage customers to buy multiple flavors and increase customer lifetime value. By offering a variety pack option at a discounted price on the checkout page, Kettle & Fire successfully incentivized customers to try different flavors and expand their product preferences.
This strategy led to a 140% increase in checkout conversion and a 41% increase in average revenue per customer. Customers who purchased multiple flavors were more likely to become repeat customers, demonstrating the effectiveness of post-purchase upsells in fostering long-term loyalty.
5.2. Laumière Gourmet Fruits: Leverage Thank You Page Upsell
Laumière Gourmet Fruits, a leading Shopify gourmet food brand, faced a common challenge faced by many online businesses: escalating advertising costs. To offset these rising expenses without compromising product quality, the company turned to post-purchase upsells.
Example of post purchase upsell from Laumière Gourmet Fruits
By implementing a series of thank you page upsells, Laumière Gourmet Fruits achieved remarkable results. The Shopify post-purchase upsell contributed to a 10% increase in gross revenue during Q4, setting a new company record. Moreover, the strategy generated a 4,246% return on investment, demonstrating its effectiveness in driving sales.
These real-world examples demonstrate the power of post-purchase upsells in driving revenue and building customer loyalty for Shopify stores.
So, why shouldn't you be the next success story? With the right strategies and tools, you can easily implement post-purchase upsells in your Shopify store and start reaping the rewards.
6. Conclusion: Elevate Your Store with Shopify Post-Purchase Upsell
Shopify post-purchase upsell offers a powerful way to turn one-time shoppers into loyal customers, boosting your revenue and building a thriving online business.
By carefully considering the strategies outlined in this article, you can create compelling upsell offers that drive additional sales, enhance customer satisfaction, and foster long-term relationships.
Key takeaways:
Post-purchase upsells can increase average order value, customer satisfaction, and retention.
Common tactics include offering complementary products, upgraded versions, limited-time offers, and personalized recommendations.
Shopify apps can help streamline the process of implementing post-purchase upsells.
Be aware of Shopify's limitations regarding payment providers, analytics, and order status pages.
Effective strategies include limiting choices, offering one-click upsells, setting up thank-you page upsells, and creating reorder buttons.
Ready to boost your store revenue with Shopify post-purchase upsell? Follow our step-by-step guidelines and try Qikify Checkout Customizer to do it without any code and for maximum results.
Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your online store to the next level!
7. FAQs
1. Which app is used to insert post-purchase upsells to Shopify?
There are several Shopify post-purchase apps that can be used. Here are a few popular options:
When choosing an app, consider your specific needs and preferences, as well as the features offered by each app. It's also a good idea to read reviews and compare pricing to find the best option for your business.
2. What is the conversion rate for post-purchase upsell?
The average conversion rate for post-purchase upsells is around 4%, but can vary significantly based on factors. Some businesses report much higher rates, such as 10% or more. By carefully considering important factors and implementing effective upsell strategies, you can significantly increase your conversion rates and drive revenue growth.
3. What is a post-purchase example?
Imagine you just purchased a new smartphone from a Shopify store. After completing your order, you're redirected to the post-purchase page. On this page, you might see offers for a protective case, a screen protector, or a wireless charger.
These are examples of post-purchase upsells that can increase the average order value and provide additional value to the customer.
4. What is the Shopify post-purchase page?
The Shopify post-purchase page is the page that customers see after they have completed their order. It typically includes information about the order, such as the order number, shipping address, and total cost. It may also include options for tracking the order, returning or exchanging items, leaving a review, or choosing upsell options.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lauren Nguyen
Growth Marketing Specialist at Qikify
Hey there! Lauren here - the data-driven marketing gal at Qikify. My thing? Providing eCommerce merchants like you with the most valuable insights and streamlined solutions to help grow your online stores and drive more sales. Since joining this exciting industry, I've been all about sharing expertise to boost your success.
When I'm not geeking out over marketing, you'll find me kickstarting my day with a delicious morning coffee (and let's be real, an afternoon cup is a must some days to power through).
Feel free to connect with me through LinkedIn. I'm always stoked to chat with fellow marketing enthusiasts, store owners, swap ideas, and explore cool new collaborations. Together, we can take your online business to new heights!
