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Testing Post-Purchase Upsell: Pre-Conditions and Setup Options

Check the key requirements and explore two safe ways to test your campaign - in staging or in a live store.

Katharina Andres avatar
Written by Katharina Andres
Updated yesterday

Overview

Before you test whether your Post-Purchase Upsell campaign appears correctly, make sure your setup is fully valid - both on the technical side and based on your targeting rules.

There are two supported ways to test:

  • In a development or staging store using Shopify’s test payment method

  • In your live store, but limited to just you

This guide walks you through both.

General Pre-Conditions (Required for Both Options)

Before testing, make sure:

  • Your Post-Purchase campaign is live and enabled in the correct Nosto account

  • You’ve assigned an audience segment that your test customer actually matches

  • Your campaign logic isn’t too narrow (e.g. product availability, audience filters, recommendation fallback)

  • The checkout is completed using a supported payment method (no wallets, no 100% gift cards)

  • You’re testing in your store’s main currency

If these aren’t in place, the upsell step will be skipped automatically.

See: Requirements and Shopify Limitations

Testing in a Development or Staging Store

This is the best option if you’re working in a non-production environment and want to safely run test orders.

Steps:

  1. Enable Shopify's Bogus Gateway
    Shopify’s test payment method lets you simulate a real payment without charging anything.
    → Shopify's setup guide

  2. Make sure your Post-Purchase campaign is live

    • Log into Nosto for your dev or staging store

    • Ensure your campaign is set up, enabled, and assigned to the right audience

  3. Confirm that your test user fits the campaign criteria

    • Check that you’re browsing from a location, device, and profile that matches your campaign targeting

    • Example: If your campaign uses the "Personalized Algorithm", browse around first to give Nosto some behavior to work with

  4. Add a product to cart and complete checkout using test credentials

  5. Watch for the Upsell page

    • If it shows: you’re good

    • If it skips to the Thank You page: check your targeting, currency, payment method, and fallback settings

Testing in a Live Store (Only for You)

If you’re testing in production, use Nosto’s audience segmentation to limit visibility to just your own session.

Step 1 - Create a 1-Person Segment in Nosto

  1. Go to Nosto Admin → Experience.AI → Audience Insights & Builder

  2. Click Create Segment

  3. Set:

    • Name: e.g. Test Segment - 1 Person Only

    • Persistence: Single Session

    • Time period: All time

    • Targeting option:

      • External Signals → Customer Attribute

      • Attribute: email

      • Value: your email address

  4. Confirm you're assigned to the correct Segment

    • Go to your store

    • Open the Nosto Debug Toolbar by adding "?nostodebug=true" to your URL

    • Login into the toolbar

    • Open: Features → Segments

    • Look for your created Segment and confirm it's active for you

.

Step 2 - Apply the Segment to Your Campaign

Assign this test segment to your Post-Purchase campaign as its audience.

Step 3 - Complete a Real Checkout

  • Sign into your live store with the same email

  • Complete a real order (follow your internal testing process — e.g. omit street number, add a note, etc.)

  • Cancel the order in Shopify afterward if needed

Recap

Still not seeing the offer?

See: Troubleshooting: Why Isn’t My Upsell Showing?

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