What is average order value?

Average order value, or AOV, is the total revenue divided by the number of orders over a period. If you made $3,000 from 60 orders, your AOV is $50.

What is the difference between an order bump and a post-purchase upsell?

An order bump is a tick box on the checkout page, shown before the shopper pays. A post-purchase upsell is a one-click offer shown right after payment, so the shopper does not enter card details again.

Can I run upsells on Shopify's own checkout?

Shopify's checkout can be extended in some ways depending on your plan and apps. A custom checkout gives you order bumps and post-purchase offers as built-in features. Check what your current plan allows.

Will upsells hurt my conversion rate?

They can if they are pushy or unrelated. A small, relevant order bump rarely gets in the way. A post-purchase offer appears after the sale, so it cannot block the first purchase. Test and watch your numbers.

How much will upsells raise my revenue?

We will not promise a number. Results depend on your product, price, traffic and offer. Test one change at a time and measure it.

How a custom Shopify checkout with one-click upsells raises average order value

Getting a shopper to your checkout costs money. You pay for ads, content or influencers to bring them there. Once they are on the checkout page, you have already paid for the most expensive part.

That is why raising average order value (AOV) is the cheapest growth lever many stores have. If every order is a little bigger, the same traffic makes more revenue, and your cost per sale stays the same.

This article explains how order bumps and one-click upsells work, what to offer, and how to avoid the mistakes that hurt trust. There are no made-up numbers here. Results depend on your store, so test and measure.

What is AOV, and why does it matter

AOV is your revenue divided by your number of orders. If you made $4,000 from 80 orders, your AOV is $50.

AOV matters because of margins. In dropshipping you often pay for ads per click, and the ad cost per order is fixed. If the order is bigger, that ad cost is spread over more revenue. A small lift can be the difference between losing and making money on an ad.

There are four common ways to raise AOV:

Order bumps at checkout.
Post-purchase upsells.
Bundles and quantity discounts.
Free shipping thresholds.

This article focuses on the first two, because they happen on the checkout, where you can add them without changing your product pages.

Order bumps

An order bump is a small, easy “yes” shown on the checkout page, right before the pay button. The shopper ticks a box to add one extra item to the order.

Examples:

“Yes! Add gift wrap for $2.99.”
“Add a protection plan for $4.99.”
“Add a second cable for $6, 40% off.”

Order bumps work because the shopper has already decided to buy. The extra item is small and the choice takes one click.

What makes a good order bump

Relevant. It should fit what is in the cart. A phone mount fits a phone case. A pet toy does not fit a phone case.
Cheap compared with the main item. A good rule of thumb is that the bump should be a fraction of the cart value, so it feels like a small add-on.
Clear. Say what it is and what it costs in one line. No tricks.
Easy to ignore. Nothing should block the shopper from paying if they skip it.

One-click post-purchase upsells

A post-purchase upsell is an offer shown after the shopper has paid. They see a page that says something like “Add this to your order”, with an accept button and a no-thanks link.

If they accept, the item is added to the same order with one click. They do not type their card details again, because the offer uses the payment method they just used.

This is powerful for one reason: the first sale is already safe. The offer cannot get in the way of the purchase, because the purchase is done.

Accept and decline funnels

You can chain offers. If the shopper accepts offer one, show offer two. If they decline, show a smaller or cheaper alternative. Keep chains short. Two steps is plenty, and more starts to feel like a trap.

What to offer after purchase

A complementary item to what they just bought.
A bigger pack of the same product (“Get 3 for the price of 2”).
A cheaper add-on if they declined a bigger one.

A custom checkout makes this easier

On a basic checkout you may need extra apps, or you may be limited by your plan, to add bumps and post-purchase offers. A custom checkout builds these in.

With CheckoutFlare, both tools sit on one page, Upsells & offers. Order bumps and post-purchase offers are available from the Starter plan. The shopper never leaves a fast, branded checkout, and the paid order, including the extra item, is written back into Shopify so your fulfilment apps see a normal order. The upsells guide walks through each setting.

How to pick your first offer

Do not start with ten ideas. Start with one.

Look at your best seller. Which product do most shoppers buy?
List what people usually need with it. Accessories, refills, protection, gift options.
Pick the cheapest, most useful item. It should be something you can fulfil without extra hassle.
Check your margin. A discount that removes all profit is not an upsell, it is a gift.
Write a clear one-line offer.

Then run it for long enough to see a real difference. A few orders is not enough to judge.

What to measure

Track these numbers before and after you add an offer.

AOV. The main goal.
Conversion rate. Make sure the checkout is not losing sales.
Take rate. The share of shoppers who accept the offer. If almost nobody accepts, the offer is not relevant or the price is off.
Refund and dispute rate. If it goes up, shoppers may be confused about what they bought.
Profit per order. AOV can rise while profit falls if the add-on has a thin margin.

Change one thing at a time. If you change the offer, the price and the wording together, you will not know what worked.

Mistakes that cost sales and trust

Unrelated offers. They feel like spam.
Hiding the price. Always show the full amount before the shopper accepts.
Pre-ticked boxes. Adding things without the shopper choosing is a fast route to refunds, chargebacks and angry emails. Leave bumps unticked.
Too many steps. A long chain of offers after purchase makes people feel trapped.
Offers you cannot fulfil. If the add-on comes from a different supplier with a longer delivery time, say so.
Forgetting shipping. An add-on that changes the parcel size or weight can change your shipping cost. Check your shipping rates.
Ignoring disputes. Clear descriptions and honest delivery times reduce chargebacks. See Refunds and disputes.

Pair upsells with free shipping thresholds

A free shipping threshold nudges shoppers to add an item to reach the number. For example: “Free shipping over $60”. If the cart is $52, an order bump of $9 gets them over the line, and they feel they got something for free.

This only works if your margin can absorb the shipping cost at the threshold. Do the maths on a few sample carts first.

Tracking your results

Upsells make more sense when you can see the effect. Set up your pixels and tracking so your ad platforms receive purchase events with the right values. The Meta Pixel with Conversions API, plus TikTok and Google pixels, are supported. Accurate values help your ads learn from real order totals, not just the first item.

Getting started

Design your checkout and set your shipping rates.
Add one order bump for your best seller.
Add one post-purchase offer that complements it.
Run a test order to see exactly what the shopper sees.
Go live and measure AOV, conversion and profit for a few weeks.

You can build and test everything on the free plan, and Starter is $0 a month plus 1% of each order. Your first $1,000 of sales per store are fee-free. See the pricing page for details.

The short version

Raise AOV by making it easy for happy buyers to add something useful. Use order bumps on the checkout, and one-click offers after payment. Keep them relevant, honest and short. Measure the result, and drop anything that hurts trust or profit.