How to add upsells to WooCommerce: 4 proven methods

Upselling is one of the fastest ways to grow revenue from existing customers in your WooCommerce store. By prompting shoppers to add a better, bigger, or complementary product before they check out, you increase your average order value, put more of your catalog in front of buyers, and move stock that might otherwise sit on the shelf – without spending any more on acquiring new customers.

McKinsey found that 35% of what consumers buy on Amazon comes from product recommendations. You don’t need Amazon’s budget to get a share of that uplift – you just need the right offers in the right places.

This article covers four practical ways to upsell in WooCommerce, and the two plugins that make each one easy to set up. We’ll use WooCommerce Order Bump for pop-up upsells across the product, cart, and checkout pages, and WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate to present upsells as options inside a product.

After reading this article, as a store owner you’ll be able to:

• Lift your average order value by recommending higher-value products
• Increase product visibility across your store
• Move more stock by bundling complementary items into a sale
• Add upsells on the product page, the cart page, and the checkout page

As a bonus, we’ll also look at how to:

• Offer a discount to push conversions
• Target offers to specific products or categories

In this tutorial, we’ll assume that you already have WordPress and WooCommerce installed and ready to go.

What is a WooCommerce upsell? (and how is it different from a cross-sell?)

A WooCommerce upsell encourages a customer to buy a better or higher-priced version of the product they’re looking at. If a shopper is viewing an entry-level camera, an upsell points them toward the higher-spec model.

A cross-sell encourages them to add a complementary product. For the same camera, a cross-sell might suggest a memory card, a case, or a spare battery.

Both tactics raise the value of an order, and in practice they’re often used together. The four methods below cover both, so you can apply whichever fits each product best.

The main ways to upsell in WooCommerce

Each method targets a different point in the buyer’s journey, and each maps to one of our plugins:

• Recommended products on the product page – WooCommerce Order Bump
• Cart upsells – WooCommerce Order Bump
• Order bumps on the checkout page – WooCommerce Order Bump
• Product options inside a product – WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate

Let’s look at each one in turn.

Method #1: Recommended products

Recommending a higher-value alternative is the most direct way to lift your average order value. You show the customer a better version of what they’re already interested in, at the moment they’re weighing up the purchase.

WooCommerce has a basic version of this built in. Go to the ‘Linked Products’ tab when editing a product and you can assign up-sells, which display in a “Related products” row on the product page.

The problem with this is that it’s easy to miss, and you have to set it product by product. It’s passive, so it rarely does much for your order value on its own.

The WooCommerce Order Bump plugin solves this by showing your recommended products in a modal pop-up that appears at exactly the right moment. The pop-up is far harder to ignore than a row at the bottom of the page, and you can pull in products manually or automatically.

This could work well for pretty much any store, including:

• Electronics stores – recommend the higher-spec laptop or phone over the entry model
• Mattress and furniture stores – steer customers toward the premium range
• Camera stores – suggest a higher-end body to someone viewing a starter model

Installing WooCommerce Order Bump

Once you’ve purchased WooCommerce Order Bump:

• Download the plugin’s zip file by clicking on the link on your order confirmation screen or in your welcome email. You’ll receive the email automatically a few seconds after you’ve completed the purchase
• Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard
• Click on the ‘Upload Plugin’ button
• Drag and drop the plugin’s downloaded zip file into the ‘Choose File’ area and click ‘Install Now’
• When the plugin has uploaded, click the ‘Activate Now’ button

With the plugin activated, you’re ready to create your first upsell.

How to add an upsell in WooCommerce

There’s an Order Bump demo here so you can see how it looks on the front end.

Now let’s look at how to upsell further along the journey, on the cart page.

Method #2: Cart upsells

The cart page is the highest-intent moment before checkout, which makes it ideal for nudging your order value up. The customer has already decided to buy, so a well-timed suggestion can add complementary products to the order with very little friction.

WooCommerce Order Bump handles cart upsells using the same simple workflow, with the pop-up set to appear on the cart page.

This works well for all kinds of stores, including:

• Fashion stores – add socks, a belt, or accessories to a cart that already has shoes
• Coffee equipment stores – add beans, filters, or descaler alongside a machine
• Pet stores – add treats or a toy to a food order

How to add an upsell on the WooCommerce cart page

To trigger an automatic upsell order bump on the cart page:

Step #1: Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Order Bump and set the ‘Bump Location’ to the cart page.

Step #2: Go to WooCommerce > Order Bumps and click ‘Add New’. Give the bump a clear title.

Step #3: Set the ‘Bump Applies To’ settings to control which products trigger the offer – all products, specific products, attributes, or a category.

Step #4: Choose the products to feature in the pop-up and pick a layout, either the standard product archive style or the simpler checkbox style.

Save your bump. Customers will now see a pop-up on the cart page prompting them to add complementary products before they check out.

Now let’s look at the last step in the journey, the checkout page.

Method #3: Order bumps at checkout

An order bump at checkout captures incremental revenue from buyers who are already committed to purchasing. It’s a low-friction prompt that lets customers add an item with a single click, without interrupting the checkout flow.

WooCommerce Order Bump creates these the same way as the previous methods, with the location set to the checkout page. You can also run several bumps at once, so you might recommend a product, add a cart upsell, and show a checkout bump all in the same journey.

A checkout order bump is a good fit for low-cost, low-decision items a committed buyer will tack on without hesitation:

• Supplement stores – a shaker bottle next to a tub of protein
• Bookstores – gift wrap or a bookmark at checkout
• Cosmetics stores – a travel-size version of what they’re buying
• Digital product stores – extended support or a template add-on

How to add an upsell on the WooCommerce checkout page

To trigger an automatic upsell order bump on the WooCommerce checkout page:

Step #1: Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Order Bump and set the ‘Bump Location’ to the checkout page.

Step #2: Create a new bump under WooCommerce > Order Bumps and give it a title.

Step #3: Set which products trigger the bump using the ‘Bump Applies To’ settings.

Save your bump. Customers will now see a quick add-to-cart prompt at checkout, letting them increase their order without leaving the page. You can read more about optimizing this stage in our guide to the WooCommerce checkout page.

That’s how to use WooCommerce Order Bump to upsell across the product, cart, and checkout pages. Now let’s look at a different approach, building the upsell into the product itself.

Method #4: Product options as upsells

Turning complementary or premium products into product options grows your order size and helps move related stock, all without sending the customer to a separate pop-up. Instead of interrupting the journey, the upsell becomes part of the product the customer is already configuring.

WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate makes this possible with its ‘Products’ and ‘Product Categories’ field types. These let you present other products as selectable options on the product page, which are added to the cart alongside the main product.

This could work well for stores selling a core product that’s naturally configured or bundled:

• Bike shops – add a helmet, lock, and lights to a bike as selectable options
• Furniture stores – offer matching cushions and a care kit with a sofa
• Hamper and gift-box stores – let customers build the box from your catalog
• Takeaways and food stores – add sides and drinks to a main, as in our takeaway order form guide
• Photography stores – offer frames and albums alongside prints

You can read the full product fields documentation here, and there’s a demo product here with extra products as upsells.

How to add on-page upsells to WooCommerce products

To add products as additional options to an existing product in WooCommerce:

Step #1: Edit the product you want to upsell from, open the ‘Product Add-Ons’ tab, and add a new field. Choose ‘Products’ from the ‘Field Type’ dropdown (or ‘Product Categories’ if you want to feature every product in a category).

Step #2: Open the ‘Products’ tab and select the child products you want to feature as options.

Step #3: Choose a layout for the options – checkboxes, radio buttons, a select dropdown, or a column layout, each available with or without product images.

Step #4: Optionally open the ‘Pricing’ tab and offer a discount on the child products, either a fixed amount or a percentage, to encourage customers to add them.

Save and publish your product. Customers can now add your featured products as options directly from the product page, building a bigger order in a single step.

There’s a full tutorial on WooCommerce child products here if you’d like to explore the field type further.

Bonus #1: Offer a discount to boost conversions

A small discount lifts conversion on the upsell while still raising the overall order value. Both plugins let you do this, so you can sweeten an offer wherever it appears.

In WooCommerce Order Bump, configure the ‘Discount’ settings on any bump to offer a fixed or percentage discount on the products in the pop-up.

In Product Add-Ons Ultimate, use the ‘Pricing’ tab on a Products field to discount the child products in the same way.

A discounted upsell often converts far better than a full-price one, and you still come out ahead on the total order.

Bonus #2: Target the right customers

Showing the right offer to the right buyer increases take-up and protects your margins. WooCommerce Order Bump gives you fine control over who sees each offer.

You can trigger a bump based on specific products, attributes, or categories, exclude products you don’t want to upsell from, and limit offers to certain user roles. This lets you tailor different bumps to different customer segments and product types.

WooCommerce upsells – recap

In this article, we looked at four ways to upsell in WooCommerce to increase your average order value, raise product visibility, and move more stock. We covered recommended products, cart upsells, and order bumps using WooCommerce Order Bump, then product options as upsells using WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate. Between them, these two plugins let you upsell across the product page, the cart, and the checkout.

Both plugins are compatible with all themes and page builders, including Astra, Flatsome, and Woodmart, and page builders like Elementor and Divi. If you have any questions, our world-class support team is on hand to help. And all our plugins are backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee – so you can try them risk-free.