Tracking post-purchase upsells in the Shopify checkout

Updated on 2024-01-12

Littledata tracks post-purchase upsells for Shopify stores and sends the data to destinations such as Google Analytics (GA4), Segment and Facebook Conversions API (CAPI). This automatic integration extends our Shopify checkout tracking to include upsell events for more accurate reporting and better retargeting.

What are post-purchase upsells?

A post-purchase upsell happens when the customer accepts an additional product immediately after completing the checkout. If the upsell offer is accepted, then the order is updated to include the additional product and thereafter considered one order in Shopify.

Post-purchase upsells can be a great way to increase Average Order Value (AOV), but they can also cause a lot of data headaches. Littledata automatically fixes issues with tracking post-purchase upsells and unifies the data.

Which upsell apps does Littledata track?

Littledata tracks post-purchase upsells for any app in the Shopify checkout. We have tested the upsell tracking with these apps:

  • Rebuy
  • Zipify
  • CartHook
  • ReConvert
  • Bold
  • Honeycomb

How do upsells work in the Shopify checkout?

A post-purchase upsell happens when the customer accepts an additional product immediately after completing the checkout. If the upsell offer is accepted, then the order is updated to include the additional product and thereafter considered one order in Shopify.

Upsell journey:


Immediately after a customer pays for their order, they'll see the upsell page. If the customer accepts the upsell, Littledata’s servers will receive a ping from Shopify notifying us about an update to the order. The upsell event will then be sent to the connected destinations.

If the customer declines the upsell, they will be shown the Thank You page.

The timeframe in which an update of the order is processed as a post-purchase upsell is maximum 3 days since the order is placed.

Default checkout steps

When the customer starts and progresses through the checkout on your ecommerce site, Littledata sends a Checkout Step event to your tracking destination for the following three checkout steps. These steps cover the default configuration for most popular checkout flows, such as Shopify checkout and Recharge checkout.

Step 1: Contact information /  begin_checkout

Step 2: Shipping information / add_shipping_info

Step 3: Payment method / add_payment_info

Transaction (Order complete)/ Purchase

For more information on checkout tracking, see how you can track Shopify checkout funnel events with Littledata.

What triggers an upsell?

The main trigger for this event is the order/updated webhook that comes from Shopify.

By default an upsell is tracked when the order is tagged as upsell or printly. If your upsell app doesn't not use these tags, please ask our customer support.

How to see upsell events in Google Analytics

Merchants using Littledata’s Shopify to Google Analytics connection can see upsells directly in Google Analytics.

Here’s how it works and where to see the data:

  • When the order is first processed, before the upsell, a purchase event is sent to Google Analytics.
  • After the upsell is accepted, we send another purchase event with the same order ID and including the additional product.

This will not double the number of Purchases (Transactions), it will only append new products to that first purchase.

In the real-time reporting view, you will see two purchases with the same ID: one being the original order and the other one being the upsell.

In the ecommerce reports in Google Analytics, you will see only one transaction.

* both of these transactions contain an upsell product.

tip:

See what reports you can view in GA4.

How to see upsell events in Segment

Merchants using Littledata’s Shopify to Segment connection can see upsell events in a variety of Segment destinations.

Here is how it works:

  • When the order is first processed, before the upsell, an Order Completed event is sent to Segment.
  • Once an upsell is accepted, Littledata sends a separate event called Post purchase upsell (server-side) containing only the newly added products.

Here is how the checkout and upsell events should appear in the Segment debugger:

How to see upsell events in Facebook CAPI

Merchants using Littledata’s Shopify to Facebook Conversions API connection can use the data directly in Meta (Facebook) Ads. This enables more accurate reporting on conversions and can also help to improve ROI on audience building and retargeting campaigns.

Here’s how it works:

  • When the order is first processed, before the upsell, a Purchase event is sent to Facebook.
  • Once an upsell is accepted, Littledata sends a separate event called Post purchase upsell (server-side) containing only the newly added products.

Learn more about how Shopify to Facebook Conversions API (CAPI) works.

Here is how it should appear in the Facebook Events Manager:

tip:

For a complete list of events tracked, see Littledata's Facebook CAPI Tracking Schema.

Miscellaneous parameters:

All the miscellaneous parameters, such as tax, shipping etc. , are calculated as follows:

totalCurrent - totalPrevious

This way, we do not double the shipping costs, tax costs etc.

Edge cases

If a store owner goes to the Shopify Admin and edits an order manually, we will handle it as an upsell.

If a product is added to the order, the upsell mechanism is triggered. If a product is removed from the order, the upsell will not trigger.

Learn more

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