Pet store upsell ideas: accessories, treats, subscriptions
Pet store upsells after checkout: treats after a harness, litter by the 2 or 3 bags, a refill subscription, a second collar size. Exact settings in the app.
2026-11-08 — Abakira, updated 2026-11-10
The pet store upsell that fits most orders follows one path: accessory first, then the consumable that goes with it (treats, litter, food), then a subscription for that consumable. A buyer who just paid for a harness gets training treats; a buyer of a litter box gets litter by the two or three bags; whoever declines both gets a refill plan.
Take a $34 harness and a $12 bag of treats offered at 20% off: one tap adds $9.60 and the order comes to $43.60, in the same parcel. This page walks through each offer with the exact settings in Post Purchase Upsell Abakira, the screens of our demo store, and how to keep dog, cat and aquarium buyers on the right offer.
What should a pet store upsell after checkout?
A pet store should upsell, after checkout, the item that the paid product needs next: a consumable for an accessory buyer, a larger quantity for a consumable buyer, and a subscription for a buyer who will reorder. On the one-click post-purchase page, each offer joins the order already paid, with no new form to fill in.
That gives three moves, in this order:
| What the buyer paid for | First offer | If they say no |
|---|---|---|
| An accessory (harness, leash, bowl, litter box, scratching post) | The consumable it uses (treats, poop bags, food, litter, catnip) | A smaller quantity of the same consumable |
| A consumable (treats, litter, food) | More of the same, at a lower price per unit | A subscription to that consumable |
| A consumable they already subscribe to | Another flavor or a matching accessory | Nothing more |
The accessory is bought once, the consumable runs out. That difference is the whole reason the ladder works: the accessory opens the order, and the consumable is what brings the next one. Our chapter on what to offer after checkout has the price rule we use for the first offer, a quarter to half of what the buyer just spent. $9.60 against a $34 harness is 28%.
Which consumable goes with which accessory?
A consumable goes with an accessory when the accessory can’t do its job without it or uses it up: treats for a training harness, poop bags for a leash, litter for a litter box, catnip for a scratching post, water conditioner for an aquarium. Each pair becomes its own offer, shown only to buyers of that accessory.
The pairs we would start with, with a price that stays inside the quarter-to-half rule:
| Accessory paid for | Consumable to offer | Example prices | Offer as a share of the order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training harness, $34 | Training treats, $12 at 20% off | $9.60 | 28% |
| Leash, $22 | Poop bags, 8 rolls, $9 at 15% off | $7.65 | 35% |
| Covered litter box, $45 | Clumping litter, $19 at 20% off | $15.20 | 34% |
| Scratching post, $39 | Catnip toy set, $14 at 20% off | $11.20 | 29% |
| Starter aquarium, $79 | Water conditioner, $11 at 10% off | $9.90 | 13% |
| Grooming brush, $18 | Pet shampoo, $13 at 30% off | $9.10 | 51% |
Two lines in that table fall outside the rule, and both are easy to fix. The water conditioner is cheap next to a $79 tank, so it can carry a second item (see the bundle section below). The shampoo after an $18 brush is above half the order at 30% off; at 40% off it is $7.80, or 43%.
Keep the pairs within one animal. A cat litter offer shown to someone who just bought a dog leash is wasted space, which is why the next section is about targeting.
How do I show a different offer to dog and cat buyers?
Dog and cat buyers see different offers when each animal has its own funnel, triggered by what the paid order contains. In Post Purchase Upsell Abakira, the condition is Order contains, under Who sees this offer. It takes a list of products, and the funnel opens when at least one of them is in the order.
The app checks funnels from top to bottom and shows the first one whose condition the order meets. A pet store with three animals could run:
- Dog walk: Order contains your harnesses and leashes. First offer: training treats.
- Cat litter: Order contains your litter boxes. First offer: litter.
- Cat play: Order contains your scratching posts and cat trees. First offer: catnip toys.
- Everyone else: set to Everyone, last in the list, with a One more, same variant offer.
A funnel set to Everyone matches every order, so it always goes last. The condition list holds up to 300 products, so a whole range of harnesses fits in one funnel.
Two details from the admin matter on a pet store:
- Pick a size, not only a product. When you choose products for Order contains, you can tick only some variants. A funnel for large-dog harnesses can offer the big bag of chews, and the small-dog sizes can go to a funnel with the small bag.
- Use an empty funnel as a guard. A funnel with no offer catches the orders it matches and shows nothing. Put one above the dog funnel, set to Order contains your training treats, and a buyer who already has treats in the cart won’t be offered them again. The admin shows a yellow “No offer in this funnel yet. It will be skipped.” notice on such a funnel; for a guard, that’s the intended state.
Click Try a cart on the funnel list to see which funnel a given cart reaches before any buyer does. Order contains and several funnels come with the paid plans; the free plan runs one funnel for everyone. The full rule is in our guide chapter on running different offers for different carts.
How do I sell more litter, food or treats to a buyer who just bought some?
More litter, food or treats sell to a buyer who just bought some through a “one more” offer with quantity tiers. In Post Purchase Upsell Abakira, One more, same variant offers the exact item from the paid order, and Quantity tiers let the buyer take two or three more at a deeper discount on the same screen.
The offer type reads the item from the order, so a single offer covers every consumable in the shop: the cat litter buyer is offered cat litter, the treat buyer gets treats, in the size and flavor they picked. You don’t pick a product at all. The admin describes it this way: “The item is decided at checkout. No choice to make: they already picked it.”
Tiers on a $19 bag of litter could look like this:
| Quantity | Discount | Price | Price per bag |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 more | 15% | $16.15 | $16.15 |
| 2 more | 20% | $30.40 | $15.20 |
| 3 more | 25% | $42.75 | $14.25 |
On the one-click page, an offer takes up to 5 tiers, each from 2 to 20 units. Click Add a tier and set the quantity and the discount. If a tier with more units has a smaller discount than the one before, the admin stops you with: “A tier with more units has a smaller discount than the one before it. Buyers would pay more per unit for buying more.”
The other “one more” type, One more, any variant, keeps the product and lets the buyer switch variant. On food, that’s another flavor. On a collar, it’s another size: one more for the second dog. Our article on the same product upsell after payment covers the depth of discount and the wording, and quantity breaks after checkout works the tier math on a sale weekend.
How do I price litter offers that ship in the same parcel?
Litter offers are priced so the margin on the extra bags covers their weight, because they ship in the parcel already paid for. When a buyer accepts a one-time offer on the one-click page, Post Purchase Upsell Abakira adds the item to the order without a new shipping line, so the buyer is charged no extra shipping.
Here is what that looks like in the Shopify admin, on test order #1010 of our demo store: the main product at $49 and the accepted offer at $14.40, in one unfulfilled shipment. The shipping line still reads $0.00, and the shipment weight reads 3.31 lb.
On a pet store, that’s a pricing question before it’s a shipping one. A pouch of treats or a roll of bags weighs next to nothing. Three bags of clumping litter or a large sack of dry food can push the parcel into a higher rate. Price the litter tiers so the margin on the extra bags covers what the carrier will charge you for the weight, or keep the heavy consumables at one more unit and push larger quantities to the subscription, which carries its own shipping (next section).
For the thank-you and order status pages, the block setting Where the purchase goes decides whether the item joins the same order. The default is “Same order, unless it has fully shipped”.
Can I sell a pet food or litter subscription right after checkout?
A pet food or litter subscription can be sold right after checkout, on the one-click page, as an offer that carries a selling plan from your subscription app. In Post Purchase Upsell Abakira the setting is Sell as a subscription, available on every plan, and it lists the plans your subscription app already created for that product.
The admin is explicit about who does what: “These are the subscription plans your subscription app already created for this product. We never create plans, and we never bill a renewal.” The plan comes from Recharge, Loop or whichever app you use, and renewals stay there.
Three settings decide how a pet subscription offer behaves:
- Shipping on the first order and Shipping on every renewal. A subscription carries its own shipping, which is how a monthly litter delivery pays for its weight.
- Quantity tiers switch off. The admin says it: “Quantity tiers are off while a subscription plan is selected. The plan carries its own pricing.”
- Existing subscribers are skipped. On the one-click page, “Buyers who already have a subscription in their order will not see this offer.”
Where to put it: under If declined, after the quantity offer. A buyer who says no to three bags of litter now gets a second, different question: one bag every month. A buyer who said yes to the tiers already has a stock and can be left alone. Our article on selling a subscription after checkout with Recharge or Loop covers the setup on the subscription app’s side, and the guide chapter on subscriptions lists every setting.
How do I chain the accessory, consumable and subscription offers?
The accessory, consumable and subscription offers chain in one funnel through its branches. In the funnel editor of Post Purchase Upsell Abakira, every offer on the one-click page has an If accepted slot and an If declined slot, and each slot takes its own next offer.
For the dog walk funnel, the tree we would build:
- First offer: training treats as A product, 20% off, with tiers at 2 and 3 units.
- If accepted: poop bags at 15% off.
- If declined: the same treats under Sell as a subscription.
A funnel holds up to 7 offers on 3 levels. Shopify lets a buyer accept at most three offers after one checkout, so a buyer who says yes three times has reached the end of the run. Branches after the first offer come with the paid plans; the free plan has one level. The way the branches play out, yes after yes and no after no, is drawn in our guide chapter on the accept and decline tree.
Can I bundle several pet supplies in one offer?
Several pet supplies can be bundled in one offer on the one-click page with A bundle: the main product plus one or two others, at a single Bundle discount (%) from 0 to 90. The buyer adds all of them with one tap, charged to the card already used.
Bundles fit the pairs where one consumable is too cheap on its own. After a $79 starter aquarium, the $11 water conditioner is 13% of the order. Bundle it with a $15 tub of fish food at 15% off and the offer is $22.10, or 28% of the tank.
Two other ways to show several items on the one-click page:
- Grid, a section of the offer: “Up to 6 extra products shown under the main offer, each with its own discount and its own button.” Treats on top, then bags, a toy and a bowl underneath, each with its own button.
- One more, any variant when the “several” is the same product in other variants, such as a second collar in another size.
Several-item offers also exist on the thank-you page, with the Bundle block (next section). Our Black Friday bundle ideas work the margin of a set with a free item, and the reasoning holds all year.
What can a pet store show on the thank-you page?
A pet store can show product blocks on the thank-you page, which every buyer reaches whatever they paid with. Post Purchase Upsell Abakira offers a Single product, Carousel, Bundle or Sequence block there, alongside Text and Banner blocks, each product with its own Discount (%).
What to put there on a pet store:
- A Bundle block of 2 to 4 products, each with its own discount from 0 to 100, so one item can be free. A litter box buyer gets litter, a scoop and liners, with the scoop at 100%.
- A Single product block with quantity tiers. On the thank-you page, a product takes up to 3 tiers, each from 2 to 9 units: treats by the 2, 3 or 5 pouches.
- A Sequence block, where “The customer sees one offer at a time, and Add or No thanks decides which one comes next.” Treats, then bags, then a toy, paid once at the end.
The thank-you page also reaches the buyers the one-click page never sees. The block setting Show it to has a “Buyers who did not see the one-click page” rule, and the admin explains why: “Your safety net: iDEAL, PayPal and wallet payments never get the one-click page.” That rule comes with the paid plans; on the free plan, a block shows to every buyer. The full list of payments the one-click page skips tells you how many of your orders this covers, and our guide chapter on the thank-you page has every block setting.
How do I word a pet store upsell?
A pet store upsell is worded around the product just bought and the animal it’s for, in one plain line. In Post Purchase Upsell Abakira, the text sits under Your words on this page: a Selling headline and a few lines under Your argument, next to the product’s real name, which stays visible.
Lines that follow that pattern, for the offers above:
- Treats after a harness: “Treats for the first walks in the new harness.”
- Litter after a litter box: “Fill the new box. Two bags ship with this order at 20% off.”
- One more collar, any variant: “Another collar, in another size, for the other dog.”
- Litter subscription after a no: “Or one bag a month, delivered to your door.”
Shopify sets two rules on the one-click page. The editor refuses exclamation marks with “Shopify does not allow exclamation marks on this page.”, and the product’s real name stays visible next to your headline. Keep the copy to what the product does for the buyer; claims about an animal’s health stay out of an upsell. More patterns are in our upsell copywriting examples.
How do I know which pet upsell earns the most?
The pet upsell that earns the most is the one with the highest revenue per buyer who saw it, not the one with the most yeses. Three bags of litter taken by fewer buyers can beat one pouch of treats taken by many. The By product table in Results shows each product’s numbers side by side.
Its columns are Saw it, Orders, Units, Revenue, Share and Clicks. Divide Revenue by Saw it and you have the figure to compare: what each display of that product brought in. Units tells you whether the quantity tiers are being used, or whether everyone stops at one more.
On the Scale plan, you can A/B test up to 4 versions of an offer in the same slot: treats at 15% against treats at 25%, or a quantity offer against a subscription. The app waits for 100 views of each version before it names a first leader, and ranks versions by revenue per view by default. The method is in how to price an upsell, per order and not per yes and our guide chapter on A/B testing an offer.
Which other stores run the same ladder?
Other stores that sell an item plus something that runs out use the same ladder, accessory then consumable then subscription. Coffee stores move from a brewer to beans; supplement stores from one bottle to a three-month supply. The settings in Post Purchase Upsell Abakira are the same; only the products change.
The coffee store upsell ideas show the accessory-to-consumable move on our demo store’s real screens, with the guard funnel at work. The supplement upsell ideas build the stock-up ladder with a downsell after a no. For upsells before checkout as well, on the product page and in the cart, see what raises average order value on Shopify. The other store situations are on our situations page.
Post Purchase Upsell Abakira has a free plan that shows 100 offers a month on a live store. The listing has the current plans and what each one includes.
Offer treats to buyers of a harness right after payment
- Create a funnel for harness buyers In Post Purchase Upsell Abakira, click Create a funnel. Under Who sees this offer, choose Order contains and pick your harnesses. This condition comes with the paid plans.
- Add the treats as the first offer Open the One-click post-purchase tab. Under What this offer proposes, choose A product and pick the training treats.
- Add quantity tiers Under Quantity tiers, click Add a tier and set 2 units at 20% and 3 units at 25%, so the buyer can stock up on one screen.
- Write the offer Under Your words on this page, write a Selling headline that names the harness, for example Treats for the first walks in the new harness.
- Add the subscription after a no Under If declined, click Add an offer here, choose the same treats as A product and pick a plan under Sell as a subscription.
- Check the funnel order and test Click Save, then use Try a cart on the funnel list to see which funnel a cart reaches. Place a test order with a card and check that the treats join the same order.
Frequently asked questions
Can I run pet store upsells on the free plan?
Yes. The free plan of Post Purchase Upsell Abakira runs one funnel with one offer on the one-click page and shows up to 100 offers a month. Every buyer who reaches that page sees the same offer, because the Order contains condition comes with the paid plans. A single offer set to One more, same variant with quantity tiers is a good fit for a free-plan pet store.
Do buyers who pay with PayPal or Apple Pay see the treats offer?
Not on the one-click page. The app's own help line reads: iDEAL, PayPal and wallet payments never get the one-click page. Those buyers still reach the thank-you page and the order status page, where blocks can show them an offer of their own.
Does a heavy bag of litter added after checkout cost the buyer extra shipping?
No. When the buyer accepts a one-time offer on the one-click page, Post Purchase Upsell Abakira adds the item to the paid order without a new shipping line. The buyer is not charged extra shipping; the carrier rate for the added weight is yours to cover.
Can one funnel cover dog buyers and cat buyers?
It can, with a One more, same variant offer, because the item comes from the paid order: dog treats for the treat buyer, cat litter for the litter buyer. For a different product per animal, such as treats after a harness and catnip after a scratching post, give each animal its own funnel with Order contains.
Can the buyer pick a different size on the second collar?
Yes. Set What this offer proposes to One more, any variant. The offer keeps the product they just bought and lets them choose another of its variants, so a buyer with two dogs of different sizes can take a second collar in the other size.
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Written by Abakira. We make small software: Shopify apps, web tools and iPhone apps. This article is about Post Purchase Upsell Abakira.