Want to show relevant product suggestions without hand-picking every single item? 🛍️

That’s exactly what the AI Upsell (Frequently Bought Together) option in Hoppy Upsell & Cross Sell is designed for.

Instead of manually selecting products, the app uses Shopify’s built-in product recommendation engine to automatically display products that are commonly purchased or browsed together with what the customer is currently viewing ✨

This means:

• 🔄 Recommendations update automatically as your catalog and order history grow
• 🎯 Each customer sees suggestions relevant to the product or cart they’re looking at
• ⏱️ No ongoing maintenance — once enabled, it just works

🧠 How the Automatic Recommendations Work

When AI Upsell (Frequently Bought Together) is selected, the upsell widget fetches recommendations from Shopify’s own recommendation system in real time.

Depending on where the widget appears:

• Product Page → Recommendations are based on the product currently being viewed
• Cart Page / Cart Drawer → Recommendations are based on the products already inside the customer’s cart

You can choose between 2 recommendation modes:

• Upsell Related Products → Shows products Shopify’s algorithm considers similar or commonly bought together with the current product
• Upsell Complementary Products → Shows products that pair well with the current product (for example, a phone case for a phone) — these can be fine-tuned using Shopify’s free Search & Discovery app

💡 If Shopify can’t find enough recommendations to fill your widget, the app automatically fills the remaining slots with random products from your catalog — so the widget never appears empty.

✅ Before You Begin

Make sure the app embed is enabled in your theme so the upsell widget can appear on your storefront.

Go to:

Shopify Admin → Sales Channels → Online Store → Themes → Edit theme → App Embeds

Then:

• Find Upsell Cross-Sell Slider
• Toggle it ON
• Click Save

⚙️ Step 1 — Create a New Upsell

Open the Hoppy Upsell & Cross Sell app from your Shopify admin.

→ Click Create new upsell on the dashboard.

→ Choose where you want the widget to appear:

• Product page → Below the Add to Cart button
• Cart Page → Inside the cart page
• Cart Drawer → Inside the cart drawer
• Custom Position → Anywhere using app blocks in the theme editor

All 4 placements support automatic recommendations, so pick whichever fits your strategy.

Once selected, the setup page will open automatically.

🎯 Step 2 — Select AI Upsell (Frequently Bought Together)

You’ll land inside the Content tab.

First, give your upsell an Upsell Name.

This is only visible to you for internal reference — customers will never see it. Something like Product Page FBT or Cart Auto Recommendations works well.

Then, under Select upsell products, choose:

→ AI Upsell (Frequently Bought Together)

ℹ️ This is the default selection for every new upsell, so it’s already active when you open the setup page.

Once selected, 2 additional options appear:

🔗 Upsell Related Products

Recommendations come straight from Shopify’s algorithm, which analyzes purchase and browsing patterns across your store.

This is the best option if you want a fully hands-off setup.

➕ Upsell Complementary Products

Recommendations focus on products that complement the current item.

This option is ideal if you want more control over pairings, because complementary products can be manually assigned per product inside Shopify’s free Search & Discovery app.

When either mode is selected, the app shows a built-in reminder banner with a direct link to Open search and discovery, so you can customize recommendations anytime.

💡 You don’t need the Search & Discovery app for recommendations to work — Shopify generates them automatically. The app simply lets you override or fine-tune the suggestions per product.

🔢 Step 3 — Set the Maximum Number of Products

When AI Upsell is active, a Max No. of Products field appears below.

This controls how many recommended products are shown inside the widget at once.

• Default: 3
• Maximum: 10

If Shopify returns fewer recommendations than your limit, the app automatically tops up the widget with random products from your store so it never looks empty.

💡 3–5 products usually works best — enough variety without overwhelming the customer.

✍️ Step 4 — Customize the Widget Content

Still inside the Content tab, adjust how the widget speaks to your customers:

• Upsell Title → The heading above the recommendations (default: Frequently bought together)
• Call to Action Button → Choose between Add to Cart or View Product
• Button Text (Before adding to cart) → e.g. Add to Cart
• Button Text (After adding to cart) → e.g. Add Another

You can also use Auto Slide Upsell by Interval to automatically rotate through the recommended products, and set the Interval Duration in seconds. Auto Slide is Enabled by default for new upsells, with an interval of 5 seconds.

ℹ️ Auto-slide stops automatically whenever a customer interacts with the slider (arrows, swipes, or clicks) — so it never fights against the shopper.

A live Desktop / Mobile preview is available on the right side of the screen, using sample products from your store, so you can see exactly how the widget will look 🖥️📱

🎨 Step 5 — Design & Placement

→ Click Continue to Design to move through the remaining tabs.

• Design tab → Colors, fonts, spacing, and layout of the widget. See 🎨 Upsell & Cross Sell – Design & Styling for a full walkthrough.
• Placement tab → Control exactly where and when the widget appears (specific products, collections, countries, customer conditions, and more). See 🎯 Advanced Targeting Options for Upsell & Cross Sell for details.

For a simple setup, the default placement settings already work well — the widget will display on all relevant pages right away.

🚀 Step 6 — Save & Publish

Once everything looks good:

→ Click Save in the save bar at the top of the page.

→ Then click Publish in the top-right corner of the page.

Your AI-powered recommendations are now live on your storefront 🎉

⚠️ Important Notes

• 🧠 The recommendations are powered by Shopify’s recommendation engine, not by a custom algorithm inside the app. As your store collects more orders and browsing data, suggestions become smarter over time.
• 🔧 To customize which products are recommended for a specific product, install Shopify’s free Search & Discovery app — a shortcut link is shown directly inside the setup page.
• 🛒 On the Cart Page and Cart Drawer, recommendations are based on the items currently in the customer’s cart.
• 🎲 If there aren’t enough recommendations available, the widget fills empty slots with random products from your catalog.
• 🙅 Want to hand-pick exact products or collections instead? See 🎯 How to Manually Choose Which Products Get Recommended.
• 🔍 If the widget isn’t appearing on your storefront, check Upsell & Cross Sell is Not Showing on My Store [Fixed].

🎉 Final Result

Your store now automatically recommends products that customers frequently buy together — on the product page, cart page, cart drawer, or anywhere you placed the widget.

Every visitor sees suggestions tailored to what they’re viewing, with zero manual product selection required from you.

Set it once, and let the recommendations do the selling 💰✨

Updated on: 15/09/2026