What Are Product Recommendations? Types on Shopify

What Counts as a Product Recommendation

Any block that says "You may also like" or "Customers also bought" is a recommendation. It puts a second product in front of someone already looking at a first one. Most of them land in one of four groups:

Similar items. Other options like the one on screen, such as another lamp in the same style. These are often called related products.
Items that go with it. Things that complete the purchase, like a carry strap for a yoga mat. For one common version, see how to set up Frequently Bought Together on Shopify.
Popular items. Best sellers or trending products.
Personal picks. Items chosen from this shopper's own views or past orders. Think "Recently viewed."

Where Shoppers Meet Them on Shopify

On the product page, many Shopify themes, including the free Dawn theme, have a related products section lower down. Shopify fills it for you. With Shopify's free Search & Discovery app, you can change those picks and choose complementary items by hand.

Apps add more places: the cart drawer or cart page, the page after payment, and emails. On the product page, the shopper is still choosing. Once they're in the cart, they've already picked.

Example: A Snake Plant and a Ceramic Pot

A plant shop sells a $30 snake plant that ships in a plain plastic pot. Right under Add to cart, it shows a $15 ceramic pot in the right size. It's a natural next item, not a rival to the plant.

A shopper adds both. The order goes from $30 to $45. That's $15 more on a $30 order, or 50% ($15 ÷ $30 = 0.50). If the pot costs the shop $6, the add-on brings in $9 of gross profit.

Now picture the same spot showing a second plant for $28. The shopper has two near-twin choices. Some may stop to compare and leave without either.

When Recommendations Help, and When They Backfire

They tend to help when:

The product needs something else to work or last, like refills, spare parts or a stand.
Your catalog is big, and shoppers can't easily find what fits them.
The shopper has already decided, so a small add-on can be an easy yes.

And they tend to backfire when:

A cheaper look-alike pulls the shopper away from the item they came for.
Rows of product cards can push the price and Add to cart button out of view. Each extra widget can also slow the page.
The picks make no sense, like sold-out items, something already in the cart, or a winter coat next to swimwear.

What Our Offer Data Shows by Placement

Many recommendations work as cross-sell offers. Our offer data covers 66M upsell and cross-sell offers in 250 Shopify stores from January to June 2026. It's shared on our list of the best Shopify upsell and cross-sell apps. Shoppers accepted 7% of offers on product pages and 12% in the cart drawer.

The stores and offers in each place were different, and this was not a controlled test. So rates differ by place, but that doesn't prove the drawer itself gets more people to say yes. For the full picture, including Frequently Bought Together, see our guide to product recommendations on Shopify.

Why "Revenue From Recommendations" Can Fool You

If your app shows a number like "revenue from recommendations," read it with care. It gives the widget credit for orders that include a recommended item. But some of those shoppers would have found and bought that item anyway. So not all of it is new money.

To see what a widget really adds, run an A/B test. Show it to half your visitors, hide it from the other half, and compare revenue per visitor.

Product Recommendations in Growth Suite

Growth Suite, our Shopify app, has a few tools for this. Its Intelligent Product Recommendations include a Trending Products widget, Frequently Bought Together and one-click add to cart. Our cart drawer can also suggest items based on what's already in the cart.

Our add-ons widget works on the product page. For each product, you choose the items to offer with it. The shopper ticks a checkbox or flips a toggle, then taps Add to cart. Everything goes into the cart together.