How to Set Up Shopify Product Recommendations
Set up Shopify product recommendations in this order
Install Shopify Search & Discovery, add Related products and Complementary products to your product template, then assign up to 10 products of each type. Related items are similar substitutes Shopify can auto-generate. Complementary items are add-ons you choose by hand.
Shopify Search & Discovery is Shopify’s free app for this job. Recommendations only appear if your theme includes a related products section and a complementary products block, and you add those to the product page. Work the catalog after the theme is live, starting with your highest-revenue products.
Choose related vs complementary products
Use related products when the shopper might want a similar alternative. Use complementary products when they should add something that pairs with the item on the page. Shopify auto-generates related recommendations. Complementary recommendations must be set manually in Search & Discovery.
| Type | Who sets it | Shopper job | Typical on-page label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Related products | Shopify auto-generates; you can add or override | Find a similar substitute | You might also like |
| Complementary products | You assign them in Search & Discovery | Add a pairing or add-on | Pair it with |
Shopify’s related logic uses purchase history when a product has prior sales, product descriptions on English storefronts, and related collections when the first two are not available. You cannot edit the generated list itself. You can pin your own related products in front of it, or hide auto-generated related items on a product-by-product basis.
Create recommendations in Search & Discovery
Open the app from Shopify admin, then customize one product at a time (or bulk-edit after you know the pattern). Shopify documents this flow in Customize product recommendations with Shopify Search & Discovery.
- From Shopify admin, go to Apps, then Search & Discovery. Install it from the Shopify App Store if it is not already on the store.
- Click Product recommendations, then Add recommendations.
- Select the product you want to customize.
- Select up to 10 complementary products.
- Select up to 10 related products. Choose whether the page shows only your picks, or your picks plus Shopify’s auto-generated related items.
- Click Save. Repeat for your next revenue-critical SKU.
Keep auto-generated related products on with your custom list. Shopify fills the slot when a pinned item sells out or is unpublished, and the generated set updates as catalog and order data change.
What must be true for a recommended product to show
A recommendation is skipped on the storefront unless it meets Shopify’s display rules. Fix these before you blame the theme.
- The product is Active, published to the Online Store channel, and not Unlisted.
- Price is higher than $0.00, and the product is not a gift card.
- The product is not already in the visitor’s cart.
- Related products: it is in stock, or Continue selling when out of stock is on.
- Complementary products: inventory quantity must be above 0. Continue selling when out of stock does not put a sold-out complementary item on the page.
Edit recommendations in bulk
On the Recommendations page in Search & Discovery, select multiple products, then click Bulk edit. Assign related and complementary products, then Save. Those values live in Shopify’s standard metafields for related products, related products settings, and complementary products, so later edits stay in sync with the app.
Place recommendations on the product page
Search & Discovery only decides which products to suggest. The theme decides whether shoppers see them. You can have one related products section and one complementary products block on a product page. Complementary products is a block inside the product information section, and it is only available on compatible themes.
Add the related products section
Shopify’s steps for the related products section are in Adding a related products section.
Go to Online Store, then Themes, and click Edit theme. Open Products, then Default product (or the template that product uses). If Related products is already on the template, click it. If not, click Add section and select Related products. Set heading, product card details (title, price, vendor, short description), and how many items to show. Save. Use the eye icon to hide the section without deleting it.
Add the complementary products block
In the same product template, open the product information section. If Complementary products is already there, click it. If not, click Add block and select Complementary products. Set the heading (Pair it with is the usual shopper cue). Choose maximum products to show (1 to 10), products per slider page (1 to 4), pagination style, and image ratio. Turn on the quick add button if you want shoppers to add from the card without opening another page. Variant products show Choose options instead. Save.
Put complementary products near the buy box, next to the main image and add-to-cart button. Shopify’s theme guidance is to show 2 or 3 complementary items by default and paginate the rest. Keep related products lower on the page as a You might also like row, and limit that row to about four products so the most relevant substitutes stay visible.
Pick products using conversion data, not guesswork
Shopify’s own complementary guidance is simple: recommend items shoppers will find useful, that work as add-ons, and that cost less than or the same as the product on the page. Related picks should be real substitutes, not random bestsellers from another category.
Run this pass on your top products before you touch the long tail. Use product-level conversion so you do not pin items that get clicks and no orders.
- Sort the catalog by revenue, then by conversion rate. Customize recommendations on the top 20 product pages first.
- For complementary slots, pick 2 or 3 in-stock add-ons at equal or lower price (a case, refill, strap, or care kit, not a second hero SKU).
- For related slots, pick in-stock substitutes from the same collection and price band. Leave auto-generated related products enabled so the row still fills if a pinned SKU sells out.
- Skip gift cards, $0 products, unlisted products, and any complementary SKU at quantity 0.
- If a collection’s mix is burying high converters, fix merchandising there as well. Recommendations cannot rescue a product page that already sends shoppers to weak alternatives.
Treat recommendation pins the same way you treat collection order: high-converting, in-stock products deserve the slot. Collection optimization and product analytics show which SKUs help conversion and which ones waste the click.
Measure clicks, add-to-carts, and purchases
After the theme blocks are live, use Shopify’s Behavior reports. Go to Analytics, then Reports, open the Category filter, and choose Behavior. Two reports matter for this setup.
Product recommendation conversions over time
This report covers sessions where shoppers saw product recommendations on a product page. Shopify documents the columns in Behavior reports.
- Sessions: product-page visits that showed recommendations.
- Sessions with clicks: the shopper opened a recommended product.
- Sessions with add-to-carts: they added that recommended product after the click.
- Sessions with purchases: they bought it in the same session after the add-to-cart.
- Click rate, add-to-cart rate, and purchase rate: each step as a share of sessions that saw recommendations.
Read it as a funnel. Sessions are always at least as large as clicks, clicks at least as large as add-to-carts, add-to-carts at least as large as purchases. Group by day, week, or month. The report does not include Buy Button or third-party-app add-to-carts, and the last 24 hours may be incomplete because of how recommendation clicks are tracked.
Product recommendations with low engagement
This report lists top-selling products from the last 30 days whose recommendation click rate sits below the store average. Open those SKUs in Search & Discovery first. Swap weak related substitutes, replace sold-out complementary add-ons, and confirm the complementary block is still on the template those products use.
Revisit the low-engagement list after each catalog or inventory change. If click rate is fine but add-to-cart and purchase rates are not, the wrong products are in the slot. Change the pins. Do not add more widgets.