How to Add Frequently Bought Together Products on Shopify

The simplest way to add frequently bought together products on Shopify is to use the free Shopify Search & Discovery app to select complementary products, then display the complementary-products block in a compatible theme. Use Shopify Bundles when several items should be sold as one defined product, or consider a specialist app when you need offer-level discounts, automatic pairing rules or reporting beyond the native options.

These methods create different buying experiences. Decide what the customer should be able to do before installing a tool.

Frequently bought together, related products and bundles

“Frequently bought together” is often used as a general label for complementary recommendations. In Shopify’s native terminology, complementary products are manually selected add-ons, while related products can include automatically generated recommendations.

Choose the right setup method

Use Search & Discovery when you want a straightforward product-page recommendation and can choose the pairings manually. Use a bundle when the combined group is itself the offer. Consider an app when the store needs rules, discounts, experiments or analytics that the native method does not provide.

Verify the exact behaviour you need. “Frequently bought together” in an app name does not guarantee that it handles inventory, discounts, checkout or subscriptions in the way your store requires.

Method 1: Use Shopify Search & Discovery

Shopify’s Search & Discovery documentation describes complementary products as manually selected items often bought in addition to a chosen product. It currently allows up to ten complementary and ten custom related products per product.

Add complementary recommendations

1. Install or open Shopify Search & Discovery.
2. Go to Product recommendations.
3. Select Add recommendations.
4. Choose the product whose recommendations you want to edit.
5. Select up to ten complementary products.
6. Save the recommendations.

To display them, open Online Store > Themes, choose Edit theme, then open the relevant product template. Within the product information section, add or configure the Complementary products block and save the template.

The block is available only in compatible themes. Shopify also requires complementary products to be active, published to the Online Store, priced above zero and in stock. Gift cards and products already in the visitor’s cart do not qualify for display under the documented rules.

Configure the block for buying, not decoration

Use a descriptive heading such as “Complete the set” when it explains the relationship better than “You may also like”. Keep the number of products manageable, particularly on mobile.

Compatible themes can provide a quick-add option. If an item has variants, the shopper may need to choose options before adding it. Test that interaction rather than assuming every recommendation can be added with one tap.

Method 2: Create a bundle

A bundle is a better fit when the customer should buy a defined group, such as a camera with a selected starter kit or a three-pack of the same consumable. Shopify documents fixed bundles and multipacks through Shopify Bundles.

Before using a bundle, decide:

• Whether customers can choose variants for each component
• How component inventory should limit availability
• Whether the bundle has a separate price or discount
• How returns and exchanges are handled
• How the bundle appears in fulfilment and reporting

A recommendation block leaves each product as a separate choice. A bundle packages the relationship into the product being sold. That difference affects merchandising, inventory and customer expectations.

Method 3: Use a frequently-bought-together app

An app can be useful when native recommendations do not provide enough control. Evaluate apps against a written requirement list and current official Shopify App Store information.

Useful criteria include:

• Manual, automatic or rule-based product pairing
• Ability to select the correct variants before adding
• Discount behaviour and compatibility with existing promotions
• Inventory handling for each component
• Placement on different product templates
• Mobile layout and accessibility
• Subscription or selling-plan compatibility, if required
• Reporting for views, additions, accepted offers, revenue and refunds
• Script impact and clean removal
• Current pricing, usage limits and support arrangements

Do not select an app based only on its rating or an affiliate round-up. Read recent reviews for patterns, inspect the developer’s documentation and test the app on a duplicate theme.

How to choose useful product pairings

The strongest pairings solve one task together. A phone and the correct case have a clear relationship; two unrelated popular products do not.

Start with order data, but add commercial judgement. Check:

1. Compatibility: Does the add-on work with the exact product or variant?
2. Customer need: Does it complete setup, care, installation or use?
3. Price relationship: Is the extra cost proportionate to the main purchase?
4. Availability: Can both items remain reliably in stock?
5. Margin: Does the offer remain worthwhile after any discount and fulfilment cost?
6. Returns: Could the pairing create confusion or more complex returns?

For a new product without order history, begin with obvious functional complements and review performance once enough orders exist. Shopify’s automatically generated related recommendations can use purchase history, product descriptions and collection relationships, but manually chosen complementary products remain a merchandising decision.

When the suitable choice depends on a shopper’s stated need rather than a fixed product relationship, a Shopify product-recommendation chatbot can ask for that context before suggesting an item. It does not remove the need to maintain accurate native recommendations.

Design and placement guidelines

Place the offer close enough to the product form that the relationship is clear, but do not interrupt essential information such as price, variant selection or availability. Name the reason for the recommendation: “Add the compatible filter” is more useful than a vague label.

Show each item’s price and any discount terms before it is added. If the combined total changes with variants, update it visibly. On mobile, avoid a carousel that hides important choices or produces accidental additions.

The customer should be able to identify what will enter the cart, adjust variants where necessary and remove an unwanted item without rebuilding the whole order.

Recommendations can also appear earlier in discovery. An AI product assistant on Shopify collection pages can help a shopper narrow the initial choice, while the frequently-bought-together block presents useful additions after a product has been selected.

Test inventory, discounts and edge cases

Test the offer with:

• Every selectable variant combination
• One complementary item sold out
• A component that can continue selling at zero inventory
• Existing automatic and code-based discounts
• Different currencies or markets used by the store
• Subscription products, if applicable
• Cart drawer and cart-page edits
• Returns and partial cancellations in the admin workflow

Shopify currently filters out complementary products without positive inventory, even when a product is configured to continue selling when out of stock. That differs from some related-product behaviour and should be checked when stock becomes low.

Measure performance without misleading attribution

Track offer views, products added through the offer, completed orders containing the pairing, revenue, gross margin and return rate. An attach rate can be calculated as orders containing the add-on divided by eligible orders containing the main product.

Compare equivalent periods or run a controlled test where your setup permits. Seasonality, campaigns, product availability and discounts can change results. A higher average order value is not automatically a better outcome if discounts or returns reduce profit.

Keep native offer data separate from AOV generated through conversational upsells. The two experiences have different triggers, so combining their results can hide whether the frequently-bought-together block itself is useful.

Common frequently-bought-together mistakes

• Treating popular products as complementary when they do not work together
• Recommending an incompatible variant
• Hiding the combined price until the cart
• Offering a discount that conflicts with another promotion
• Showing too many choices on a small screen
• Ignoring component stock and fulfilment complexity
• Measuring additions but not completed, profitable orders
• Installing overlapping apps that compete for the same product-page area

How AeroChat adds conversational Shopify recommendations

A fixed pairing works well when the correct add-on is predictable. It is less useful when the recommendation depends on what the shopper is trying to achieve, their budget or a compatibility question not captured by the selected product.

After deciding that conversational recommendations fit the store, merchants can configure and test a Shopify chatbot. Those still choosing a provider can compare the best Shopify AI chatbot options against catalogue accuracy, channel support and human-handover needs.

AeroChat is an AI agent platform that helps Shopify merchants run customer service on autopilot. Its Shopify connection can synchronise store information for customer conversations. This can complement—not replace—a product-page recommendation by answering the question behind the choice and passing conversations to a person when necessary.

For most stores, the native route is the sensible starting point. Use complementary products for a small number of obvious add-ons, choose bundles when the group is the offer, and add a specialist app only when its additional control solves a measured requirement.