Magento 2 Guide: How To Choose Product Recommendations

One way many of the big ecommerce websites are increasing their order value and sales through cross-sells, up-sells and related products. They usually have AI or learning algorithm that can review all the data it has collected to pair the most appropriate products together.

But not everyone has the tools, data or funds to be able to automate this process. So we are looking at Magento 2 and how to decide which products you should focus on adding these to first, some best practices on what should be used as an up-sell, cross-sell and related product, and how to add them.

What they are

Before we go through which products you should add the different related product types to, is to understand what they are, where you can expect to see them and how they differ.

What is an up-sell?

An up-sell is offering a similar product to the one the customer is looking at, but that has a higher price. Up-sells are typically seen on the product page, this is because they are still in the decision phase of the purchase and you are more likely to successfully up-sell the product if they add it to their cart, before the item they are looking at.

This is based on knowing that the customer is interested in the product as they are viewing the product page, and you are offering similar products to increase the order value. For example, someone buying a 32” television, would likely be interested in a bigger 42” television.

What is a cross-sell?

A cross-sell product is more of a last minute or impulse buy, you will typically find these in the cart, before the customer starts the checkout process. For example, someone buying a hammer will more than likely be using it to hammer nails, so showing a box of nails is a cheap cross-sell they may want to get at the same time.

What is a related product?

A related product is one that compliments the item being viewed and would normally be purchased alongside. Typically found on the product page and shown as ‘normally bought together’. For example, someone buying a dining table, will likely want chairs to go with it.

These may have some overlap with cross sell products, however, where as cross sell products are shown at the checkout as an ‘impulse buy’, related products are shown on the page and more of a get the complete collection of items you need.

Finding products to start adding to

Now we understand what cross, up and related products are, we will want to start boosting sales by adding these added to our products. The first step is, choosing which products to prioritise.

With sites that have a large product range, the best thing to help you get started is to work on the most popular products, in Magento 2, there are a couple of reports that can be utilised to help you with the choice.

Most ordered product

The most ordered products will show you, for the defined time period, it will show the products Name, SKU and Quantity ordered.

Here is how to get this report in Magento 2.

• From the Dashboard, go to Reports > Bestsellers
• In the From and To fields out the data range
• From the Show By select how the data will be split
• Click the Refresh button
• You can export the data as a CSV or Excel XML from the right

Best sellers

The best sellers report will show you the top 5 items for the given time, giving you the name of the product, quantity of the item sold and the price per unit.

Here is how to get this report in Magento 2.

• From the Dashboard, go to Reports > Ordered
• In the From and To fields out the data range
• From the Show By select how the data will be split
• Leave the Empty Rows dropdown as No
• Click the Show Report button
• You can export the data as a CSV or Excel XML from the right

Choosing the related products to add

Now that we have our list of products we want to start adding up sells, cross sells and related products to, we now want to associate products with them.

The below ideas may work better for some of the related product types than others, but all will have some value.

Top selling products

When choosing products to pair up together, why not use your best selling products?

It stands to reason that adding the top selling products to other top selling products may help increase order value. Best of all, we can use the list of products we found earlier.

For better results, it would be best to check choose from the list, the ones that suitable based on the product it’s being applied to.

Products in same category

It stands to reason, based on your category structure, that other products that are in the same category may be of interest to shoppers.

There may also be other categories that contain related products: For example, if you sell pizza ovens, you may have a separate category, where you list pizza oven accessories, which would be ideal to pair up together.

Often purchased together

If you know products that are often purchased together, this can be a powerful tool to help pair up together.

This is a little trickier to get a list of and not something that is natively part of Magento. You may need the help of a developer to get an export of the order data, so you can see which items are often bought together.

Best practices

Now we have a list of products we are going to add up sell, cross sell and related products to, there are a few tips that may help deciding which are the best ones to be associated with to help maximise sales and order value.

Up-sell product best practices

For best results, try to keep your up-sell products to 25% or less of the current item value. Studies have shown that aiming too high above the price of the current product, results in fewer people taking your up-sells.

Cross-sell product best practices

At this point, the customer is committing to start the checkout process. They may be persuaded to add inexpensive add on items, where the additional cost will not impact the final sale e.g. adding an extra item for £3 to order of £100 will make little difference. To increase the likelihood, make the items related to what they are buying.

This should be items directly related to the product that would normally be purchased alongside that can be seen as a small ‘add on’. Alternatively, around gift giving occasions such as Christmas, you could suggest items that are unrelated to the product purchase, that could be used as a gift. If you go this route, try offering something universal that they could give to anyone.

Related product best practices

Related products, in many ways, you want to show products that will be purchased alongside the item they are viewing. However, unlike cross-sells, you do not need to be limited by price and show low cost add on products.

For related products, you want to use your order data or your own knowledge of what items should be purchased together, there are no specific best practices, so much as understanding what should be a related product and why it is one.

How to apply in Magento 2

Applying up-sells, cross-sells and related products in Magento 2.

To start with, if you want to show cross-sell items in the checkout, you will need to go to Stores > Configuration.

Then head to Sales > Checkout and under Shopping Basket.

Make sure that the Show Cross-sell Items in the Shopping Cart to Yes.

Then, to add the up-sell, cross-sell and related products, from the left menu go to Catalog > Products. Filter the table to find a product you want, then go to edit it.

From the product edit page, scroll down and expand the Related Products, Up-Sells, and Cross-Sells section. Here, you will be able to add the products by clicking on the appropriate button.

Filter the table to find the products you want, click the checkbox to select them. Once you are finished, click Add Selected Products.

Once you have finished, hit Save.

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