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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aftersell.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Overview

When configuring a checkout upsell widget, you can fill the product slot in a few ways: hand-pick a specific product, let AI recommend one, or attach a Strategy. Each is a different tool for a different job. Strategies are for dynamic merchandising in real time - pairing the right accessory with a parent product, suggesting a complementary item, or surfacing a different product depending on what’s already in the cart. Where checkout triggers decide which widget appears for a given shopper, a Strategy decides what product goes inside it. Triggers are the gateway, Strategies are the brain behind the experience.

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Attaching a Strategy to a Checkout Widget

Strategies are attached per widget, not to the checkout as a whole. You can mix Strategy-driven widgets and static-product widgets in the same checkout.
  1. Open the checkout widget you want to edit.
  2. In the widget’s product source, choose Strategy.
  3. In the Strategy picker, search for and select the Strategy you want to use.
  4. Click Confirm, then save the widget.
Once attached, the widget displays the Strategy’s name in place of a specific product. Each time the checkout loads, the Strategy is evaluated and the returned product is rendered in the widget.
Give your Strategies clear, descriptive names. The Strategy name is what shows up in the widget editor once attached, and it’s the easiest way to know at a glance which Strategy is driving which widget.

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What the Strategy Sees

Checkout has a narrower context than post-purchase. The Strategy is evaluated as the checkout page loads, before the order is placed - so customer history and session attribution aren’t available yet. The following is what gets sent automatically:

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Product context

The line items currently in the cart are sent as the input products. Triggers like product tags, product collections, product type, vendor, selling plan, and product metafields all evaluate against these items.

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Cart context

  • Subtotal - the cart subtotal.
  • Item count - total quantity across all lines.
  • Line count - number of distinct line items.
Customer and session triggers won’t match in checkout. Customer tags, order count, country, locale, and UTM parameters are not part of the checkout payload. If a Strategy used in a checkout widget relies on these triggers, those rules will never fire, and only product- or cart-scoped rules (or the Catch all) will be able to return a product.

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What Happens When the Strategy Returns

The product(s) returned by the Strategy replace the placeholder in the widget - they don’t add to it. The shopper sees the widget as if you had hand-picked that product yourself. If the Strategy is configured to return more than one product, the first product is used to populate the slot.

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When No Product Is Returned

If no rules match and the Strategy returns no products, the widget is not shown to the shopper - the slot disappears entirely from the checkout. To keep your widget firing, configure a Catch all in the Strategy so there is always a fallback product to return. See the Building Strategies page for how to set up a Catch all.

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Evaluation Timing

A Strategy on a checkout widget is evaluated once, when the checkout page loads. It is not re-evaluated if the shopper adds or removes items during checkout - the product chosen at page load remains the product shown. Plan your rules around the cart state at checkout load. If you need a widget that reacts to mid-checkout cart changes, that flow isn’t supported by Strategies in checkout today.

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Tips for Checkout Strategies

  • Design around products and cart only. Customer- and session-scoped triggers will never match in checkout, so build Strategies around product attributes (tags, collections, metafields) and cart shape (subtotal, item count, line count).
  • Use Catch all as a safety net. A Strategy without a Catch all will hide the widget if nothing matches. A simple Catch all keeps the slot showing something.
  • Mix dynamic and static widgets. Not every widget has to be Strategy-driven. A common pattern is a Strategy on the primary upsell widget (most personalized) and a static product on a secondary widget (proven seller).