A customer comes to your Shopify store looking for one product.
They find it, they like it, they click Add to Cart.
Most stores consider that a successful product page. But there is another question worth asking:
What else would naturally make this purchase more useful?
Someone buying shampoo may also need conditioner.
Someone buying a coffee blend may want another flavour.
Someone buying a T-shirt may want matching shorts.
That is the idea behind Frequently Bought Together Shopify recommendations.
Instead of making customers search through your entire catalogue for complementary products, Frequently Bought Together or FBT puts relevant products in front of them while purchase intent is already high.
What Is Frequently Bought Together on Shopify?
Frequently Bought Together is a cross-selling strategy that recommends products commonly or logically purchased alongside the product a shopper is currently viewing.
For example:
Running shoes → Sports socks + shoe care kit
Cleanser → Serum + moisturizer
Coffee → Coffee filter + mug
Kids T-shirt → Shorts + accessories
The purpose is not simply to show more products.
It is to show the right next products.
Shopify itself supports complementary and related product recommendations through Search & Discovery. Related recommendations can be influenced by previous purchase behaviour, similar product descriptions and related collections.
Why Does Frequently Bought Together Work?
FBT works because it reduces one of the biggest problems in ecommerce:
Customers do not always know what else to buy.
A shopper interested in one product might happily purchase another relevant product, but only if they discover it.
Frequently Bought Together removes some of that discovery effort.
Instead of:
Buy product → browse collections → search → open another product → add
the journey becomes:
Buy product → see relevant addition → add
That shorter path can make cross-selling easier.
1. FBT Turns Single-Product Intent into Multi-Product Discovery
Consider a Shopify store selling skincare.
A shopper arrives through an advertisement for a face cleanser.
If the product page focuses only on the cleanser, that shopper may checkout with one item.
But the customer may actually need a complete routine:
Cleanser + serum + moisturizer
An FBT recommendation makes that relationship visible.
The customer does not have to understand the entire catalog.
The store does part of the merchandising for them.
That is one reason Shopify recommends complementary products that are genuinely useful alongside the original product and preferably similar or lower in price.
2. Frequently Bought Together Can Increase Cart Size
The simplest path to increasing AOV is often increasing the number or value of products inside each completed order.
Imagine:
Current order: ₹1,000 product
Now suppose a relevant ₹300 product is added.
New order value: ₹1,300
You did not need another visitor to generate that additional ₹300.
This is why FBT can become part of a wider Shopify AOV strategy.
But the recommendation has to make sense.
Showing an expensive unrelated item simply because you want to increase AOV is not good cross-selling.
3. FBT Reduces Product Discovery Friction
Customers do not always browse like store owners expect them to.
A merchant understands:
- Collections
- Categories
- Product families
- Add-ons
- Best combinations
A first-time customer does not.
Frequently Bought Together can act almost like a small shopping assistant.
It answers:
"What normally goes with this?"
Shopify's own recommendation system uses signals such as products commonly purchased together when generating certain related-product recommendations.
4. FBT Can Make Shopping Decisions Easier
Choice can become a problem when a store has dozens or hundreds of products.
A shopper looking for one moisturizer may see 20 other skincare products.
Which one belongs with it?
Rather than asking the customer to solve the problem, you can show a small, relevant combination.
For example:
Complete your routine with these two.
The recommendation becomes guidance rather than another catalogue.
This difference matters.
A good FBT section should feel helpful.
Not pushy.
5. You Do Not Always Need a Huge Discount
Some merchants assume FBT means:
Buy these three products and get 30% OFF.
Not necessarily.
A Frequently Bought Together recommendation can work simply because the products belong together.
There are three broad approaches:
No discount: Focus on convenience and relevance.
Small bundle incentive: Encourage customers to purchase the combination.
Structured combo: Present the products as a complete solution.
The right option depends on your margins and customer behaviour.
Do not sacrifice profit simply to make your AOV chart look better.
FBT vs Upselling: What Is the Difference?
These strategies are related but different.
Upselling generally encourages a shopper to purchase a better, larger or higher-value option.
For example:
500g coffee → 1kg coffee
Cross-selling encourages a complementary purchase.
For example:
Coffee → coffee filter
Frequently Bought Together is usually a form of cross-selling because it introduces products that complement the customer's current choice.
A strong Shopify store can use both.
Where Should Frequently Bought Together Appear?
Placement depends on when the recommendation is most useful.
Common locations include:
Product page
Show complementary products while the shopper is considering the main item.
Cart drawer
Recommend another relevant item immediately after Add to Cart.
Full cart
Give customers one final opportunity to improve their order before checkout.
The placement should match the customer's buying journey.
Do not make shoppers hunt for the recommendation.
How Should You Choose FBT Products?
Start with your actual buying patterns.
Take one of your best-selling products and ask:
What usually goes with this?
Then look at:
- Products commonly ordered together
- Complementary use cases
- Price difference
- Margin
- Inventory availability
- Customer need
Shopify Search & Discovery can also provide product-recommendation analytics, including recommendation click rate, purchase rate and recommendations with low engagement.
This is much better than choosing FBT products only because you want to clear inventory.
Manual vs Automatic vs AI Frequently Bought Together
There is no single best method for every Shopify store.
Manual FBT
The merchant selects the exact products.
This works well when you know your product combinations clearly.
Automatic FBT
Recommendations are created from store and product signals.
This can become useful when your catalog gets larger.
AI-Assisted FBT
AI can analyze the shopping context and help merchants build or improve recommendations without manually creating every relationship.
For smaller catalogs, manual recommendations can be enough.
For larger catalogs, automation becomes more valuable.
What Makes a Good Frequently Bought Together Offer?
The strongest FBT recommendations usually share four characteristics:
Relevant
The relationship between products is immediately understandable.
Useful
The additional product improves the original purchase.
Easy to buy
The customer does not need to navigate through multiple pages.
Profitable
Additional revenue still produces healthy economics.
The number of products displayed matters less than the quality of the relationship.
When Does FBT Fail?
Frequently Bought Together will not magically increase sales just because you install a widget.
It can underperform when:
- Recommendations are unrelated
- Too many products are displayed
- The add-on is much more expensive than the main product
- The customer must leave the page to add products
- Discounts destroy margins
- Recommendations load slowly
- The same products are shown to everyone
Your goal is not to create more recommendations.
It is to create better recommendations.
Using BRIX for Frequently Bought Together
BRIX allows Shopify merchants to create Frequently Bought Together recommendations alongside other cart and AOV tools.
Depending on how much control you want, FBT can be handled through Manual, Automatic or AI-assisted recommendations.
You can then combine FBT with:
- Cart Upsells
- Combo Builder
- Rewards Progress Bar
- Coupon Slider
- Cart Editor
- BRIX Analytics
BRIX AI can also help merchants configure and adjust their cart experience using plain-English requests.
That means FBT does not have to exist as a separate strategy.
It can become part of the entire cart journey.
Conclusion
A customer buying one product is already showing intent.
Frequently Bought Together helps you make more of that intent by showing products that naturally belong with the original purchase.
The formula is simple:
Right product + right recommendation + right timing.
Not every shopper will add another product.
They do not need to.
Even a portion of customers choosing a relevant second item can improve overall basket size.
The strongest FBT strategy feels less like selling another product and more like helping the customer complete their purchase.
FAQs
1. What is Frequently Bought Together on Shopify?
Frequently Bought Together is a cross-selling strategy that recommends complementary products alongside the product a shopper is currently considering. Shopify also provides related and complementary recommendation functionality through its Search & Discovery tools.
2. Does Shopify have Frequently Bought Together built in?
Shopify supports related and complementary product recommendations through Search & Discovery, including automatically generated recommendations that can use purchase-history and product signals. More advanced FBT bundles, one-click additions, cart placement or offer logic may require additional functionality.
3. Does Frequently Bought Together increase AOV?
It can increase AOV when customers add relevant complementary products to an order they were already planning to make. The actual improvement depends on recommendation relevance, price, placement and conversion.
4. What is the difference between Frequently Bought Together and upselling?
FBT normally cross-sells complementary items, while upselling encourages customers toward a larger, upgraded or higher-value version of the product they already want.
5. Where should I place Frequently Bought Together on Shopify?
Common placements include the product page, cart drawer and cart. Test where customers interact with recommendations most without introducing unnecessary checkout friction.
6. How many products should I show in Frequently Bought Together?
There is no universal number. Start with a small number of highly relevant products. Shopify's complementary-products functionality technically supports multiple recommendations, but relevance is more important than filling every available slot.
7. How do I know if my Shopify product recommendations are working?
Measure recommendation clicks, purchases, attach rate, AOV and overall conversion. Shopify Search & Discovery also provides reporting around recommendation click and purchase performance.