Post-purchase upsell on Shopify: the page after payment and the thank-you page
The moment after payment is a quiet one. The customer has decided, the order is placed, and nothing you show now can put the sale at risk. That makes it a reasonable place for one more offer: something that goes with what was just bought, at a price that makes sense to add now rather than in a second order.
On Shopify there are two places to make that offer, and they behave differently. Knowing the difference saves a lot of confusion when an offer does not show.
The two places Shopify gives you
The post-purchase page. This page sits between payment and the thank-you page. When the customer accepts an offer here, the product is added to the order they just paid for and charged to the payment method they just used, without a second checkout. Shopify builds this page from post-purchase checkout extensions, and on a live store an app needs Shopify's approval to use them.
Shopify also decides when the page appears. According to Shopify's developer documentation, it is skipped for some payment methods, including wallets and instalment services, for orders paid with a gift card or other non-card methods, and for some delivery types such as local delivery. It applies to Online Store orders, and only one app can run the page on a store at a time. Check the current Shopify documentation for the full list, since it changes.
The thank-you and order status pages. These pages accept app blocks. An offer shown here does not have Shopify's one-click payment behind it, so adding the product means editing the order, and the customer pays the difference separately.
Shopify provides the pages; the offer itself, which product to show, to whom and at what price, comes from an app.
How AfterSale Suite does it
The thank-you offer module lets you write up to 20 offer rules. Each rule has:
- a trigger: any order, or orders that contain a given product, variant or collection
- the offer: a specific variant, or the top-selling product of a collection you choose
- an optional discount, as a percentage or a fixed amount
- where it shows: the thank-you and order status pages, and, if you tick it, the post-purchase page right after payment
The rules are checked in the order you set and the first one that matches decides. An offer is skipped when the product is out of stock, already in the order, or would cost less than a sensible minimum after the discount, so the customer never sees an offer that cannot be fulfilled.
On the post-purchase page, the customer sees the product, the price and what it was before any discount, and accepts or declines with one click. The page says that the charge goes to the payment method just used.
On the thank-you and order status pages, the customer adds the product to the same order with one click and receives an invoice for the amount. Because this changes the order, it follows the order editing window you set: once the window closes, the block stops offering. The product ships with the original order.
On the same pages you can show a single-use coupon for the next order, for customers who are not ready to buy more today. After delivery, replenishment reminders and product suggestions can bring them back by email.
Limits to know before you install
- The post-purchase page depends on Shopify granting the app access to post-purchase extensions on live stores. Until it is granted on your store, the other modules, including the offer on the thank-you page, work as normal.
- The post-purchase page is skipped for the payment methods and order types Shopify excludes, as described above. On those orders the customer can still see the thank-you page offer while the edit window is open.
- The thank-you and order status offers need Shopify's new customer accounts and an open order editing window.
- One offer is shown at a time. If several rules match, the first one in your list wins.
- Replenishment reminders and product suggestions go only to customers who accepted marketing, and they are sent by your store through Shopify Flow, so Flow must be installed.
Getting started
Install the app, turn on the thank-you offer under Modules and write one rule: a trigger based on your most common first purchase, an offer that genuinely goes with it, and a modest discount. Place a test order paid by card to see the post-purchase page, then one paid another way to see the thank-you page offer.
Start with one rule, read what customers accept, and add more only when you know which pairs work.
You can find the app here: AfterSale Suite on the Shopify App Store.