Below their industry on AOV
More than half the stores we audit earn less per order than their industry peers. Traffic and product pages can be healthy while every completed order leaves revenue behind.
PDQ store audits
Checkout upsells that raise AOV without hurting conversion
Checkout upsells raise average order value by presenting the right offer at the moment buying intent peaks. The ones that work are targeted, matched to cart and customer, margin-aware, and A/B tested. The ones that don't are generic widgets that clutter checkout and drag conversion.
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Why does checkout leave AOV behind?
Based on PDQ audits of 600+ Shopify stores, each benchmarked against its own industry.
Checkout does nothing to raise cart value
Below-industry AOV is often a checkout problem: no offer at the moment of highest intent, no threshold incentive, and nothing to sell beyond what is already in the cart.
Friction replaces relevance
Untargeted offers get ignored at best. At worst, they add friction where the purchase is most fragile. The fix is a tested, targeted, margin-aware system.
How does PDQ increase AOV at checkout?
The fix is not adding another generic widget. PDQ treats checkout upsells as a tested system: targeted to the shopper, accountable to margin, and measured against conversion on every experiment.
01
Show the right offer, not a random one
Most upsell setups show the same product to everyone. PDQ's Smart Upsell Engine picks the offer by cart contents, customer segment, and behavior, so a first-timer with a $40 cart and a returning VIP with a $200 cart see different things. Relevant offers convert; generic ones get ignored.
02
Make every offer margin-aware
An upsell that raises the cart but erodes profit is not a win. PDQ's margin-based logic only surfaces offers when the economics work: premium upsells to high-margin carts, held back where margin is thin. AOV that protects profit, not just a bigger number.
03
Reward bigger carts with a gift
A free gift unlocked at a cart threshold gives shoppers a concrete reason to add one more item. Gift options and qualifying criteria are fully customizable, and it works alongside the free-shipping threshold to stack two reasons to spend more.
04
Sell the add-ons only checkout can sell
Shipping protection, priority processing, extended warranty, and gift wrapping are digital upsells that cost nothing to stock and drop almost entirely to margin. PDQ tests fixed or percentage-of-cart pricing and shows each add-on by segment.
05
Test every offer, ramp the winners
Every upsell is an A/B test, not a set-and-forget widget. PDQ measures each offer's real impact on AOV and conversion together, kills the ones that drag either, and scales the ones that lift both. This is what separates upsells that work from upsells that clutter checkout.
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What does PDQ's testing discipline deliver?
A cross-test conversion result, not an upsell-specific performance claim.
+19% CVR
PDQ's winning A/B tests deliver an average +19% CVR improvement, measured across 36 experiments
Checkout upsell questions
What is a checkout upsell?
A checkout upsell is an offer presented during checkout, after a shopper has committed to buying but before payment. Because intent is highest at this moment, a relevant offer can raise order value without restarting the purchase decision. Offers can be products, gifts unlocked at a cart threshold, or digital add-ons like shipping protection.
Do checkout upsells hurt conversion?
Badly targeted ones can. An irrelevant offer adds friction at the worst possible point. That's why upsells should be A/B tested against a control, measuring conversion and average order value together, and removed if they drag either. Tested this way, upsells raise revenue per checkout without a conversion cost.
What's the difference between checkout upsells and post-purchase upsells?
Checkout upsells appear before payment and change the current order. Post-purchase upsells appear after payment, typically as a one-click add-on to the completed order, with zero risk to the original conversion. They solve different problems and work together: checkout upsells raise AOV, post-purchase upsells add revenue with no checkout friction at all.
How do I increase average order value on Shopify?
Four levers work at checkout: targeted product upsells matched to cart and customer, a free-shipping threshold set just above typical cart value, gifts unlocked at spending tiers, and digital add-ons like shipping protection or priority processing. Test each against a control rather than stacking all four at once, so you know what's earning its place.
Related checkout problems
Free Shipping Threshold
Find the exact threshold that maximizes revenue per checkout
Shipping Personalization
One-size-fits-all shipping loses money at both ends — tailor it by segment, zone, and cart
Checkout Issues Report
Not sure where you're leaking? Start with the 12 most common checkout issues, from 600+ store audits.
