CartClimb

Installation guide

Last updated: 2026-05-29

Get CartClimb running on your Shopify store. Step 1 takes about a minute and applies to everyone. After that, jump to the feature you're setting up — you don't need to read the others.

Step 1 — Install from the Shopify App Store (everyone)

  1. Search for CartClimb in the Shopify App Store, or use this direct link: apps.shopify.com.
  2. Click Add app and approve the requested permissions.
  3. Pick a plan. The first 7 days are free on Lite and Pro.
Plan Price What it unlocks
Free $0 Static promotional banner only. No progress bar.
Lite $4.99/mo Single-tier progress bar + all banner modes (static, marquee, rotating) + countdown + scheduling.
Pro $7.99/mo Everything in Lite + multi-tier progress bar + free-gift auto-add + geo-targeting + cart upsells + Plus checkout extensions.

Once installed, you'll land in the CartClimb admin panel inside Shopify admin. Use the left nav to reach each feature.

Step 2 — What are you setting up?

Pick one (you can come back for the others later):

  • 🟢 Progress Bar — show shoppers how close they are to free shipping, a discount, or a free gift.
  • 🟠 Promotional Banner — site-wide announcement bar for promos, sales, or shipping notices.
  • 🟣 Cart Upsell — recommend products inside the cart drawer / cart page. Pro plan.
  • 🔵 Checkout Plus Extensions — show the progress bar + upsells inside Shopify checkout. Shopify Plus + Pro plan.

🟢 Progress Bar setup

A. Add the block to your theme

  1. In Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes.
  2. Next to your live theme, click Customize.
  3. In any template (Home, Product, Cart, etc.), click Add section or Add block, then Apps.
  4. Pick Shipping Progress Bar and drag it to where you want it (usually directly under the header).
  5. Click Save in the top right.

Heads up: Don't test inside the theme customizer's preview — cart monitoring is disabled there. Open your live store in a separate tab instead.

B. Configure tiers in the CartClimb admin

  1. In Shopify admin, go to Apps → CartClimb → Progress Bar.
  2. Toggle Enable progress bar on.
  3. Use the Tiers section to set up to 3 reward thresholds. For each tier, choose:
    • Free shipping at $X — most common.
    • Percentage off at $X — % discount unlocked at the threshold.
    • Free gift at $X — auto-adds a gift product to the cart (Pro only).
    • Custom — display-only message; you handle the reward off-platform.
  4. Customize colors, position, and messages in the same page. Live Preview on the right shows changes in real time.

Lite plan note: Lite shops get a single tier. Multi-tier cascade (showing 2 or 3 rewards simultaneously) is a Pro feature.

C. Match the reward in Shopify

The progress bar shows progress visually. The actual reward (a real shipping rate, a real discount, a real gift line) has to exist in Shopify too — otherwise the bar promises something checkout doesn't deliver.

Free shipping:

  1. Go to Settings → Shipping and delivery → Manage rates.
  2. Add a free shipping rate with a minimum order condition matching your CartClimb threshold (e.g. $50).
  3. Save.

CartClimb only counts items that physically ship toward this threshold (gift cards, digital downloads, and gift wrap configured as non-shipping items are excluded by default). You can flip this off in Progress Bar → Advanced → Only count shippable items toward free-shipping reward.

Percentage off:

  1. Go to Discounts → Create discount → Amount off products.
  2. Set a percentage matching the CartClimb tier and a minimum purchase amount matching the threshold.
  3. Either make it automatic (applies at checkout without a code) or generate a code and tell shoppers it's there.

Free gift (Pro):

  1. In CartClimb, pick the gift product variant in the free-gift tier.
  2. Go to Discounts → Create discount → Buy X get Y and configure 0% off matching the gift variant — or let CartClimb handle this automatically: its Free-Gift Discount Function ships out-of-the-box and applies the discount whenever the auto-added gift line carries the CartClimb tag.
  3. From Discounts, activate CartClimb Free Gift (the function appears in your discounts list after install).

D. Test on your live store

  1. Open your live store URL in a private/incognito window.
  2. Add items to the cart and watch the bar update.
  3. Cross each threshold and confirm the message changes.
  4. Open checkout and confirm the reward actually applies.

🟠 Promotional Banner setup

A. Add the block to your theme

  1. In Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes → Customize.
  2. Click Add section or Add block, then Apps.
  3. Pick Promotional Banner and place it where you want (typically the very top of the page above the header, or as an announcement strip).
  4. Save.

B. Configure the message in the CartClimb admin

  1. Go to Apps → CartClimb → Promotional Banner.
  2. Toggle Enable banner on.
  3. Pick a mode:
    • Static — fixed message (the only mode on Free).
    • Marquee — scrolling text (Lite + Pro).
    • Rotating — cycles through multiple messages (Lite + Pro).
  4. Enter your messages, choose colors, set a CTA link if you want.

C. Optional — targeting + scheduling

  • Targeting tab (combined device + page rules) — show only on the home page, hide on the cart, exclude tablet, etc.
  • Scheduling (Lite + Pro) — set a start and end time so the banner auto-shows/auto-hides for a sale window.
  • Geo-targeting (Pro) — show different messages or threshold currencies per country.

D. Test

Same drill — open your live store in incognito and confirm the banner renders where you placed it and shows the message you configured.

🟣 Cart Upsell setup (Pro plan)

Cart upsells recommend related products inside the cart drawer or cart page. Useful for raising AOV after the shopper has already committed to buying something.

A. Confirm you're on Pro

In Apps → CartClimb → Billing, make sure your subscription says Pro. Cart Upsell groups don't appear on Free or Lite.

B. Create an Upsell Group

  1. Go to Apps → CartClimb → Upsells.
  2. Click Create upsell group.
  3. Give it a key (e.g. cart-drawer-recs) — this is what the theme block references.
  4. Choose a name shown to shoppers (e.g. "You might also like").
  5. Pick the source:
    • Manual — pick specific products / variants to recommend.
    • Automatic — let CartClimb pick based on cart contents.
  6. Set the maximum number of products shown (default 4).
  7. Save.

C. Add the Upsell block to your theme

  1. In Online Store → Themes → Customize, open the page where you want the upsell (usually the Cart page or the cart drawer).
  2. Click Add block → Apps → CartClimb Upsell.
  3. In the block settings, enter the Recommendation group key you used in step B (e.g. cart-drawer-recs).
  4. Save.

D. Test

  1. Open your live store, add a product to the cart, and open the cart drawer.
  2. Confirm the upsell carousel shows the products you expect.
  3. Click Add on a recommendation and confirm it lands in the cart with the right variant + price.
  4. If you configured tier-aware behavior, cross a progress-bar threshold and confirm the upsell reflects the new tier state.

🔵 Checkout Plus Extensions (Shopify Plus + Pro plan)

Two checkout UI extensions are bundled with CartClimb. They only work on Shopify Plus because Shopify restricts checkout UI customization to Plus merchants. On non-Plus stores, the buttons are visible in the checkout editor but won't activate.

Available extensions

  • CartClimb Checkout Progress Bar — same progress bar your storefront shows, inside one-page checkout.
  • CartClimb Checkout Upsell — recommended-product cards on the checkout, with one-click add.

A. Confirm Plus + Pro

  • Plus: check your Shopify plan in admin (top-left store name → plan).
  • Pro: verify your CartClimb subscription on Apps → CartClimb → Billing.

B. Add the extensions in the Checkout & Accounts editor

  1. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Checkout → Customize (this opens the Plus-only Checkout editor).
  2. In the editor, click the section where you want to add the extension (the order summary sidebar for the progress bar, or above the order summary for the upsell).
  3. Click Add app block and pick:
    • CartClimb Checkout Progress Bar — for the bar.
    • CartClimb Checkout Upsell — for the upsell card.
  4. Configure each from the block's settings panel.
  5. Save.

C. Test on a real checkout

  1. Open your live store in incognito.
  2. Add a product, proceed to checkout.
  3. Confirm the progress bar / upsell appears in the right place.
  4. For upsells, click Add and confirm the new line item is added to the order summary without leaving checkout.

Known limitation: Express checkout buttons (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal) bypass the cart drawer entirely, so a free-gift auto-add or a cart upsell can be skipped. The Checkout Progress Bar still shows inside the express-checkout summary; the Checkout Upsell renders on the standard checkout view. We're tracking a longer-term fix for the express-checkout gap.

Step 3 — Next steps

  • 📊 Performance dashboard — open Apps → CartClimb → Performance to see AOV trend, order attribution, and the storefront funnel.
  • 📖 Full documentation — admin features, geo-targeting, theme compatibility, troubleshooting.
  • ❓ FAQ — quick answers to the most common questions.
  • 🎬 Live demo — see every feature working.
  • 📧 Need help? Email hello@verdash.io.

Common gotchas

  • The bar doesn't appear on the storefront. Verify the Shipping Progress Bar block is added in your live theme (not just an unpublished theme), and that Enable progress bar is on in the CartClimb admin.
  • The bar appears but doesn't update. Most often the cart drawer is being re-rendered by the theme and stripping our wrappers. Open Apps → CartClimb → Help for the theme-compatibility report.
  • Free gift adds twice or doesn't add. Pro plan only. Make sure you've activated the CartClimb Free Gift discount in Discounts.
  • Bar shows progress past the threshold but checkout charges shipping. This is exactly the "non-shippable items inflating the cart total" case. Make sure Only count shippable items toward free-shipping reward is on in Progress Bar → Advanced (it is by default).
  • Setting up on Shopify Plus checkout but the block doesn't activate. The block has to be enabled in the Checkout editor (Settings → Checkout → Customize) — adding it to the Theme customizer does NOT enable it inside checkout. Different editor.