How to Create a Substitution Upsell Rule in Rule Manager

Pontus Ridderström
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Overview

A Substitution Upsell rule makes Future Ordering suggest alternative products when a customer selects a product in the menu, guiding them toward higher-value or more suitable items without interrupting ordering. This guide creates one Substitution Upsell rule end to end. The whole configuration is done in one place — the Rule Manager app in Navigator — by a single operator, so there are no separate phases.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure the following are in place.

  • Navigator access — you need access to the Rule Manager app in Navigator; see Managing access to Navigator applications.
  • Rule Manager — this rule is created in the Rule Manager app. For what each rule field does, see the Rule Manager article.
  • Substitution Upsell feature — for what the feature does and how it appears to the customer, see the Substitution Upsell article.
  • Products published and in a category — both the trigger products and the products you want to suggest must already exist and belong to a category (the category may be hidden). A Substitution Upsell rule does not publish products; create separate enable rules for that if needed.

Steps

This procedure creates a Substitution Upsell rule so that, when a customer selects a configured product, up to two substitute products are suggested. For full definitions of each rule field, allowed values, and examples, see the Rule Manager article.

  1. In Navigator, open the Rule Manager app.
  2. Click Add Rule +.
  3. Click Select Rule Type and choose Substitution Upsell from the drop-down list.
  4. Click Continue to open the rule editor.
  5. In Name, enter a descriptive name for the rule so it can be identified later (for example, "Substitute large drinks for medium").
  6. In Index, set the read order for the rule. Use a higher value when this rule should override another Substitution Upsell rule that targets the same products.
  7. Set Publish start and Publish stop to the date-and-time window during which the rule is active.
  8. Set Schedule Start, Schedule Stop, and Schedule Days to control the time of day and the days the rule runs. Leave Schedule Days on All to run every day.
  9. Set Countries, Order Classes, and Stores to define where the rule applies. Leave each on All to apply everywhere, or choose Specific (or Include / Exclude for Stores) to narrow the scope.
  10. Set Categories to the categories the rule applies to, or leave it on All.
  11. Under Products, select Specific and search for and select the products that should trigger the substitution suggestions when a customer selects them.
  12. Under Substitution Upsell Products, select Specific and search for and select the products to suggest as substitutions.
  13. Drag the selected items into the order you want under Substitution Upsell Products — only the first two products in this order are shown to the customer.
  14. Click Save.

[SCREENSHOT: the Rule Manager Substitution Upsell rule editor with Products set to Specific and Substitution Upsell Products set to Specific, showing the selected suggestion products in sorted order]

Additional Options

These are optional and not required for the rule to work.

  • Limit the rule to a campaign window — use Publish start / Publish stop to switch the suggestions on and off for a promotion.
  • Target specific order types or stores — use Order Classes and Stores to run the rule only on, for example, kiosk orders or a single location.
  • Override with Index — create a more specific Substitution Upsell rule at a higher Index to take precedence over a broad rule for selected products. See the Rule Manager article.

Expected Outcome

The Substitution Upsell rule is saved and active for its configured window, stores, and order types. When a customer selects one of the trigger products, the first two configured substitution products are presented as suggestions.

Verify the Configuration

Confirm the rule works by triggering it the way a customer would.

  1. Open the Frontend for a store and order type covered by the rule.
  2. Select one of the products configured under Products.
  3. Confirm that the first two products configured under Substitution Upsell Products appear as substitution suggestions.

[SCREENSHOT: the Frontend showing the two substitution suggestions after the trigger product is selected]

If the suggestions do not appear, see the Troubleshooting section below.

Known Limitations

  • A maximum of two substitution products is shown at a time. If more than two are configured under Substitution Upsell Products, only the first two in the sorted order are displayed.
  • Both the trigger products and the suggested products must belong to a category to work. The category can be hidden, but products with no category are not eligible.
  • No category is activated when Categories is set to All and combined with specific products; scope the rule with Products in that case.
  • A Substitution Upsell rule does not publish or enable products. Products that are not already enabled by a separate enable rule will not appear.

Note: This list reflects the limitations identified as of 30 June 2026. Additional limitations may exist that have not yet been identified.

Troubleshooting

Substitution suggestions do not appear after selecting the product. The most common cause is that the trigger product or a suggested product is not part of a category. Confirm that every product used in Products and Substitution Upsell Products belongs to a category (it may be hidden), then save the rule again and re-test.

  • Substitution Upsell — what the feature does and how it appears to the customer (parent feature).
  • Rule Manager — the app where this rule is created, including every rule field and best practices for Index.

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