Articles on: Auto recommendations

What is ShopBrain? Automatic product recommendations in UpsellPlus

ShopBrain is UpsellPlus's automatic recommendation engine. You don't pick products for the offer: ShopBrain chooses them for each shopper based on their cart, the product they're viewing, your catalog and your store data. You choose a goal (for example Complementary Products or Clearance), and ShopBrain does the rest.

Where: open any offer → Offers tab → How should products be selected? → Automatic
9 offer types: Similar Products, Complementary Products, Dynamic Subscription, Dynamic Size Upgrade, Same Product, Complete the Set, Clearance, Get to the next reward, Recently viewed
Optional: narrow results with filters (collections, tags, product types)

The four ways to choose products in UpsellPlus and the nine ShopBrain automatic offer types

The four ways to choose products for an offer

On the offer's Offers tab, under How should products be selected?, choose one of these:

Option	What it does	Best for
Specific Products	You pick the exact products	Hand-picked bundles, hero products, free gifts
From Collections or Tags	Shows random products from the collections or tags you choose	Rotating a curated set without editing the offer (previously called Autopilot)
Automatic (ShopBrain)	ShopBrain picks products for each shopper	Personalized recommendations at scale
From a Bundle	Offers one of your UpsellPlus bundles	Upselling a bundle

Free Gift offers always use Specific Products.

ShopBrain offer types

Type	What the shopper sees	Setup needed
Similar Products	Products similar to what they're viewing or have in the cart	None. Shopify generates these from your sales history and product data.
Complementary Products	Products that pair well with what they're buying	Choose complementary products per product in Shopify's free Search & Discovery app. Until you do, Similar Products are shown instead.
Dynamic Subscription	An offer to switch a cart item to a subscription	Products need a subscription selling plan with a discount.
Dynamic Size Upgrade	The next size up of a cart item, as a swap (for example 6-pack → 12-pack)	Products need size variants with different prices.
Same Product	One more unit of a product already in the cart, at a discount	None
Complete the Set	Swap the items they have from a set for the full set	A bundle or gift set product. Cart and checkout only.
Clearance	Low-stock variants, with a discount that steps up until they sell	See How to sell out slow-moving inventory with Clearance offers
Get to the next reward	A product priced to close the gap to the next rewards tier	A Rewards program that tracks cart subtotal
Recently viewed	Products they viewed this visit but didn't add	The Traffic & Browsing Data app embed. Cart and checkout only.

Set up a ShopBrain offer

In Shopify admin, open Apps → UpsellPlus.
Go to Offers → Create Offer. On the Funnel tab, under Where should this offer appear?, choose where the offer shows.
On the Offers tab, under How should products be selected?, choose Automatic.
Pick an offer type. Some types show extra settings or a setup check (for example, whether your store has subscription plans or complementary products set up).
Optional: click Narrow results with filters to only recommend (include) or never recommend (exclude) certain collections, tags or product types. Filters are optional; ShopBrain finds relevant products without them.
Set Max Products (how many products to show) and an optional discount.
Save the offer.

Personalize the offer text with tokens

ShopBrain filters including products tagged 18mm and excluding products tagged Watches in the same automatic offer

Several types fill in the offer text for each shopper. Use these tokens in the subtitle:

Type	Tokens
Dynamic Subscription	`{product_name}`, `{first_order_discount}`, `{delivery_interval}`
Dynamic Size Upgrade	`{product_name}`, `{current_size}`, `{upgrade_size}`, `{price_difference}`
Same Product	`{product_name}`, `{discount}`
Complete the Set	`{set_items_in_cart}`, `{set_items_added}`, `{set_extra_cost}`, `{set_saving}`
Clearance	`{product_name}`, `{discount}`, `{scarcity_label}`, `{units_left}`
Get to the next reward	`{product_name}`, `{amount_remaining}`, `{next_reward}`
Recently viewed	`{product_name}`

How the subscription and size types choose a cart item

When several cart items qualify, choose an Item selection strategy:

Highest value item: offer the upgrade on the most expensive eligible item
First eligible item: offer it on the first eligible item in the cart

Dynamic Subscription details: each cart item is offered the plan from its own subscription group, preferring the plan with the best discount. Plans with 0% off are skipped, and the offer stays hidden if none of your plans discount the price. On post-purchase offers, only one-time items can be upgraded, and the offer is skipped if the order already contains a subscription (a Shopify limitation).

Same Product details: the extra unit is added as its own line, so only that unit is discounted. The discount is removed if the shopper removes the original product, and the offer doesn't show again once accepted.

FAQ

Is ShopBrain the same as Autopilot?
No. From Collections or Tags (previously called Autopilot) shows random products from collections or tags you choose. Automatic (ShopBrain) picks the most relevant products for each shopper.

Do I need to set up anything for ShopBrain to work?
Similar Products, Same Product and Clearance work right away. Complementary Products needs Shopify Search & Discovery, Dynamic Subscription needs discounted selling plans, Get to the next reward needs a Rewards program, and Recently viewed needs the Traffic & Browsing Data app embed.

Can I stop ShopBrain from recommending certain products?
Yes. Use filters to exclude collections, tags or product types.

What if ShopBrain has nothing to recommend?
The offer doesn't show, and the next offer in priority for that placement is used instead.

Updated on: 14/10/2026

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