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Increase Your Order Value With Smart Upsells
Personalize product recommendations, customize upsell offers, increase AOV, and boost sales with our all-in-one WooCommerce Upsell plugin.
Increasing the average order value gets easier the moment you show the right offer at the right point in checkout. Order bumps and upsells both do this, and both raise revenue from customers you have already earned, but they work in different ways and at different moments.
If you run an online store, the real question is not “which is better?” It is “which one fits this offer, and when should I show it?” Get that wrong and you either leave money on the table or add friction that costs you the sale. In this guide, we cover:
Let’s get started.
Show order bumps using UpsellWP’s checkout upsell feature and increase your store sales.
Order bumps are additional offers displayed to customers at their checkout and encourage them to add more to their cart. For instance, if a customer is purchasing a laptop, an order bump might suggest adding a laptop sleeve or mouse at a discounted price.
It’s a gentle suggestion made to increase your average order value without overwhelming the customer. The customer accepts it with a single click on a checkbox, right before they pay, so there is no extra page and no separate decision to slow them down.
Keeping the product suggestion relevant is the crucial element in order bumps to make it feel like an added value to the customer’s primary purchase.
To study more about order bumps, check out this list of best order bump plugins for WooCommerce .
Upselling is an effective sales strategy where you encourage customers to purchase a high-cost or premium version of the product they’re currently viewing. For instance, if a customer is buying a laptop, an upsell might offer a higher value or the latest version of the product.
It’s all about convincing customers to spend more on something better, with added value, features, quality, and benefits. Upselling works best only when the additional value is clear and compelling, making customers believe they’re getting a better deal by spending a little more.
Because the price is higher, an upsell usually needs a little more convincing than an order bump, which is why it often gets its own space, such as a cart offer, a post-purchase page, or a popup.
Note: Cross-selling is another strategy where you sell related products based on their current purchase. Check out this guide to learn the difference between upselling vs cross-selling .
Related Guide: Here’s the curated list of the best WooCommerce upsell plugins and cross-sell plugins for WooCommerce .
| Feature | Order Bumps | Upsells |
| Placement | Displayed during checkout, alongside the cart and payment form. | Shown before, during, or after purchase, such as shop/product/thank you pages. |
| Purpose | Focuses on smaller product add-ons that complement primary purchase. | Aims to encourage customers to purchase more expensive products. |
| Price Range | Typically low-priced items are suggested. | Higher-priced options are suggested |
| Relevance | Highly related to the primary purchase. | May or may not be directly related but adds value to the first purchase. |
| Customer Commitment | Requires minimal decision-making due to low cost. | Required more thought as it involved spending more. |
| Impact on AOV | Provides a moderate boost in average order value. | Significantly increase the average order value. |
| Best Use Case | Ideal for adding complementary or necessary items. | Works best for offering premium upgrades. |
The simplest way to remember it: an order bump is a pre-checkout offer the customer accepts before paying, while an upsell is usually a higher-value offer shown in the cart or after the initial purchase is secured.
Definitions are useful, but numbers tell you where to spend your effort. Here is what the data shows about how each performs.
Order bumps convert surprisingly well. Because they are low-cost, relevant, and take one click, a large share of customers accept them. Funnel data from Data Driven Marketing found that anywhere from 20% to 60% of customers act on a well-structured order bump, with the average cart-value increase landing near 15%. That consistency is why order bumps are often the fastest win when optimizing a checkout.
Upsells convert less often, but each acceptance is worth more. The same data set puts upsell take rates closer to 10% to 20% for digital products, with physical goods usually lower. The payoff is size: because upsells offer premium or higher-priced items, merchants commonly see around a 20% lift in average order value from upsells, even at the lower acceptance rate.
Both matter because the base numbers are small. The average eCommerce conversion rate sits at roughly 2.5% to 3%, so every extra dollar from a customer who already decided to buy is efficient revenue you do not have to pay again to acquire. And order bumps specifically help offset lost carts, which matter given that a large majority of eCommerce carts are abandoned before purchase.
The takeaway from the data is not “pick the winner.” It is that order bumps give you frequent, small, reliable wins, and upsells give you rarer, larger wins, so most stores that maximize AOV run both.
You do not have to choose one forever. You choose per offer. Run any product you are thinking of promoting through this quick test:
A helpful rule of thumb: if the offer needs more than a sentence or two to justify, it is probably an upsell, not a bump. Order bumps work because they need almost no explanation.
Here are the industry-wise examples of order bumps and upsells.
| Industry | Order Bumps | Upsells |
| Fashion | Add a pair of socks or belt at checkout when a pair of pants is purchased. | Upgrade to a premium version of the clothing item. |
| Electronics | Add a screen protector or charging cable. | Upgrade to a higher store capacity device. |
| Food & Beverage | Add a chocolate or cookie at the checkout. | Upgrade to an assorted winter chocolate box. |
| Fitness | Add a resistance band. | Upgrade to complete gym equipment. |
| Beauty & Skincare | Add a travel-sized product. | Upgrade to a premium skincare kit. |
| Software/SaaS | Offer support for a small amount. | Upgrade to the pro version with advanced features. |
Ikea uses order bumps to the maximum by showing related products at checkout. Here, for a ‘storage unit’, they recommended a microwave lid, trash can, and more.
Here’s how it works:
Katespade is a fashion brand that uses upselling to boost its revenue. Here, they have suggested high-priced wallets on the product page of an ordinary wallet.
Alt=”Brand example for suggesting upsells”
Here’s how it works:
Some of the best practices to set up order bumps are:
In this order bump template, you can see the discount offer and a clear CTA text. Plus, it’s strategically placed above the ‘place order’ button to make customers accept the offer right before completing their purchase.
Pricing is where a lot of stores get order bumps wrong, and it is one of the easiest things to fix. The goal is a price low enough to be an impulse “yes,” but high enough to meaningfully add to the order.
A practical guideline from published funnel testing is to price your order bump at roughly 33% to 66% of the primary product’s price. So if a customer is buying a $90 item, an order bump somewhere between $30 and $60 tends to perform well, and you can round to a clean number to sit alongside the main price.
Two more pricing notes worth keeping in mind:
Here are some of the best strategies to implement upsells:
In a good upsell offer placed on the cart page, the recommended products sit right below the items already added, the products are offered at a discount, and customers can adjust the quantity of the upsell products. That combination of relevance, a visible saving, and control is what makes an upsell feel like an upgrade rather than a hard sell.
Order bumps work best as low-cost, complementary add-ons during checkout, while upsells focus on premium alternatives or higher-priced products to increase sales . But both order bumps and upsells have their place in boosting conversion rates and enhancing the shopping experience.
The data backs this up: order bumps give you frequent small wins at a high take rate, and upsells give you fewer but larger wins. Neither replaces the other. The stores that get the most out of both are the ones that assign each offer to the right moment, using the framework above, rather than forcing everything into one place.
Recommend upsells, cross-sells, bought together products, and more with UpsellWP’s customizable upsell and cross-sell campaigns and increase your store’s AOV.
Now that you know what order bumps and upsells are, how they perform, and how to set them up, the path forward is simple. Use order bumps for the easy, low-cost add-ons at checkout, use upsells for the higher-value upgrades that need a little room to convince, and let the offer itself decide which bucket it belongs in. Implemented at the right touchpoints, these two strategies drive real revenue and improve the shopping experience at the same time.
To run both from one place, we recommend UpsellWP — a single WooCommerce plugin to create order bumps, upsells, cross-sell products , frequently bought together offers, and more.
The free version covers checkout order bumps and frequently bought together, and PRO adds cart upsells, post-purchase one-click offers, and thank-you-page upsells.
Now read this blog on the difference between WooCommerce and Shopify to know which is the better platform to use.
Related Reading:
An order bump is a low-cost add-on shown at checkout before payment, accepted in one click. An upsell is a higher-value offer shown in the cart or after purchase. Bumps add small amounts often; upsells add larger amounts less often.
Order bumps usually convert at a higher rate because they are cheap and need no thought, with take rates often around 20% to 60%. Upsells convert less often, roughly 10% to 20%, but each acceptance adds more revenue.
A common guideline is to price the order bump at about 33% to 66% of the primary product’s price, low enough to be an impulse buy but high enough to add real value. Judge success by total revenue, not just take rate.
The four stages are identifying the upsell opportunity, displaying the upsell offer, highlighting the added value, and converting with a clear call to action.
A down-sell is a lower-priced alternative offered to retain a customer who declined the main offer, while an upsell is a higher-priced alternative offered to boost average order value.
Order bumps work better for first-time customers because they are low-cost, relevant, and build trust without overwhelming them, while a big upsell can feel like too much before the customer trusts your store.
Yes, but keep it minimal to avoid overwhelming the customer. One or two well-placed offers keep the checkout smooth while still lifting order value.
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