Product recommendations and complementary products
The product recommendation documentation here is related specifically to the Product page. If you are looking for information on the product recommendations on articles, visit the Product recommendations on articles documentation.
There are two types of product recommendations by Shopify: "Related recommendations" and "Complementary recommendations". Both can be managed by Shopify's free Search & Discovery app. Here is the Shopify Help documentation for Product recommendations.
Related recommendations
"Related recommendations" are auto-generated by Shopify based on their own algorithm, but you can add your own as well through the Search & Discovery app. They are meant to be a mix of products that are similar or complementary to the main product on the page. For more details about how Shopify chooses products for this section, visit their developer documentation for Product recommendations.
Here's what the section looks like:
This section is automatically added to the Default product template. These products will show a quick add button if that is configured in the Product theme settings. These are the options offered by the theme in this section:
Heading
By default the heading copy is "You may also like" but you can change this here to anything you'd like.
Heading size
Adjust the size of the heading for the section.
Maximum products to show
Use the range slider to choose between 2 - 4 products. This adjusts the layout to accommodate for that many products to show. If the recommendation algorithm doesn't have as many products as you select here to show, there will be empty spaces.
Product card
Show vendor
Check this box to display the product vendor for each recommended product
Show product subtitle
Check this box to display the product subtitle for each recommended product. For more information, see the documentation for Product subtitle.
Section spacing
(Whisk 5.0.0 and above)
Adjust top and bottom padding within the section.
Add space above or below
(Whisk 4.3.1 and below)
Depending on the sections that are above or below this section, you may want to add some extra space for a more pleasing layout.
Complementary products
"Complementary products" are not auto-generated and you choose them yourself with the Search & Discovery app. These are meant to be complementary add ons with the main product. They are a block in the Main product section of both product templates. In the default product template, they will always display underneath the buttons on the product form. In the secondary Two column template, you can set their order amongst all the other blocks like normal. Their styles can be managed within their block. Here's an example of what the main product section looks like with a complementary product:
Here's a screencast where we walk through where to find all the settings for complementary products within the theme editor and in the Search and Discovery app.
Below are the options offered for Complementary products in the Whisk theme. Note that a product needs to have complementary products assigned to it in order for them to display, so make sure when you are working in the theme editor to configure this section, that you are viewing a product that has complementary products.
Number of products to show
Choose a number on the range slider between 1 - 8 products to show here. If not showing the complementary products in a slider, we recommend keeping this number on the lower end to not clutter the page.
Show products in a slider
When this checkbox is selected, only one product will display at a time and a visitor can use the arrow buttons to navigate through the different products.
Custom heading
By default the heading copy is "Pairs well with" but you can change this here to anything you'd like.
Show vendor
Check this box to display the product vendor for each recommended product
Show product subtitle
Check this box to display the product subtitle for each recommended product. For more information, see the documentation for Product subtitle.