Upgrade, Checkout
Upgrade, Checkout in Salesforce B2B Commerce is the cart-contextual upsell pattern that offers a buyer a higher-tier product, bundle, or service option during the checkout step.
Definition
Upgrade, Checkout in Salesforce B2B Commerce is the cart-contextual upsell pattern that offers a buyer a higher-tier product, bundle, or service option during the checkout step. The buyer sees the upgrade prompt after they have decided to buy and before they confirm payment, which is the highest-intent moment in the purchase flow.
The pattern is a configuration on the B2B Commerce storefront, not a standalone Salesforce product. Admins define which upgrade offers trigger for which cart contents, and the checkout page renders the offer between the cart review and the payment confirmation. The term carries a legacy label because Salesforce B2B Commerce has rebranded the feature several times across its CloudCraze acquisition and its integration into Commerce Cloud. The underlying pattern is alive in the current platform under newer names like Checkout Upsell Offer and Cart Promotion.
How the checkout-stage upgrade pattern works in B2B Commerce
Why upgrade prompts work better at checkout than on the product page
Buyer intent is highest at the moment of checkout. The user has already chosen the product, sized their order, and committed to spending; the only remaining variable is the exact configuration. Showing an upgrade offer on the product page competes with the original decision and risks losing the buyer to overthinking. Showing it at checkout adds a small marginal decision to a buyer who has already crossed the bigger threshold. B2B commerce data consistently shows checkout-stage upgrade acceptance rates two to three times higher than upgrade prompts placed on the product detail or category pages, where the buyer is still in evaluation mode.
How the upgrade rule is configured in B2B Commerce
An Upgrade, Checkout rule has three parts: a trigger condition based on cart contents, a target product or option the buyer can swap into, and a presentation rule that decides how the upgrade is rendered (inline alert, modal, or item-level toggle). The admin builds the rule in the storefront's promotion or upgrade-offer module. Triggers can be cart-level (total order value above a threshold) or item-level (specific SKUs in the cart). Targets can be substitutes (premium grade replaces standard grade) or additions (free shipping if the order exceeds a threshold).
What the buyer experience looks like end to end
The buyer reaches the checkout page after adding items to the cart. Above the payment step, the page surfaces the upgrade offer as a clearly labelled prompt with the price differential, the benefit, and a single action button to accept. The buyer can accept, dismiss, or ignore the prompt. If accepted, the cart updates: the line item swaps to the upgraded SKU, the totals recalculate, and the buyer proceeds to payment with the new configuration. If dismissed, the offer disappears for the rest of that checkout session and the buyer continues unchanged.
Data attribution and reporting on accepted upgrades
Each accepted upgrade is recorded against the order with a flag or related field that identifies it as the result of a checkout-stage prompt rather than the buyer's original product choice. Sales operations dashboards aggregate these flags to measure the program's lift: how many orders saw a prompt, how many accepted, average uplift per accepted upgrade, and which upgrade rules produced the most revenue. The same reporting feeds back into the rule design; rules with low acceptance get reworked, rules with high acceptance get expanded to similar product lines.
Why B2B upgrades differ from B2C upsells
B2C upsells often play on emotion: a snack at the grocery checkout, an extended warranty on a TV. B2B upgrade prompts at checkout play on procurement efficiency: a marginal price difference for a meaningfully better outcome, framed in operational terms like uptime, durability, or support level. The B2B buyer is buying on behalf of a budget and reports to a stakeholder; the upgrade prompt has to make a defensible business case in a single line of copy. This is why effective B2B upgrade rules are tightly scoped to product pairs where the upgrade has a clear ROI story.
Implementation pattern in Commerce Cloud B2B today
In current Salesforce Commerce Cloud B2B, the Upgrade, Checkout pattern is implemented through the Promotions feature combined with custom checkout components on the LWC-based storefront. The Promotion engine evaluates cart contents on each cart update; matching rules surface upgrade-offer records that the LWC component renders above the payment step. The promotion criteria, the upgrade target SKUs, and the rendering template are admin-configurable through the storefront Setup; developers only get involved when the rendering needs to break out of the default upgrade-offer template.
Why the term is marked legacy and where it fits today
Salesforce B2B Commerce went through several rebrands: the CloudCraze acquisition in 2018, the Salesforce B2B Commerce naming, and the current Commerce Cloud B2B unification. Each rebrand changed feature names. Upgrade, Checkout was the original CloudCraze-era term; current documentation prefers Checkout Upsell Offer or Cart Promotion depending on the specific feature. The pattern itself is alive and well in the platform; only the label has changed. Treat this entry as a glossary mapping from the legacy term to its modern equivalents inside Commerce Cloud B2B.
Configure an Upgrade, Checkout offer in B2B Commerce
An Upgrade, Checkout offer is configured in the B2B Commerce storefront's promotions or offer-management module. The exact UI varies by platform generation; the steps below describe the modern Commerce Cloud B2B pattern.
- Identify the product pair
Pick the standard SKU and its upgraded variant. The upgrade pair should have a clear value differential the buyer can recognise in a single sentence: premium grade for $4 more, extended warranty for $20, expedited delivery for $15.
- Define the trigger condition
Build the trigger as a cart contents rule: standard SKU is in the cart, quantity is above the threshold you care about, and the buyer's account type is in scope for the offer. Tighter triggers produce higher acceptance rates because the offer is more relevant.
- Build the offer record
Create the offer with the upgraded SKU as the target, the price differential as the calculated difference, and the benefit copy as the one-line description the buyer will see. Keep the copy under 15 words for readability on mobile checkout.
- Add the rendering template
Pick the rendering template that fits the storefront design: a banner above the payment step, an inline card on the cart review, or a modal. Banners get the highest visibility; modals get the highest acceptance but can be perceived as intrusive.
- Activate and monitor lift
Activate the offer for a small buyer segment first if possible. Monitor acceptance rate, average uplift, and any drop in cart completion. Expand the offer to the full audience once metrics confirm net positive performance.
Renders the upgrade offer as a banner above the payment step. Highest visibility, lowest perceived intrusion.
Renders the offer as a modal that the buyer must dismiss or accept. Highest acceptance but can hurt cart completion if used too often.
Renders the offer next to the relevant line item in the cart review. Lowest visibility, best for niche upgrades that should not interrupt the checkout flow.
- Upgrade prompts hurt cart completion if used too aggressively. One well-placed prompt per checkout is the rule; stacked prompts produce decision fatigue and abandonment.
- Pricing logic must reflect any account-specific discounts. An upgrade target SKU that is more expensive than the original at list price might be cheaper after the buyer's contract discount; the rendered price differential needs to use the buyer's effective pricing.
- Legacy CloudCraze-era upgrade rules do not always migrate cleanly into the new Commerce Cloud B2B promotion engine. Audit upgrade rules during platform upgrades to confirm they still trigger as designed.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Salesforce B2B Commerce OverviewSalesforce Help
- Checkout in B2B CommerceSalesforce Help
- B2B Commerce PromotionsSalesforce Help
- Commerce on the Salesforce PlatformSalesforce Architects
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Upgrade, Checkout.
- B2B CommerceSalesforce Help
- CheckoutSalesforce Help
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Upgrade, Checkout.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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