Frequently Bought Together: What is it and how to add on Shopify

If you’re a person who does a lot of online shopping, you have surely come across this concept at least once in your shopping experience. “frequently bought together’’ is an option provided by websites and online stores to make similar and related products visible to the customer, in order to suggest a purchase. This method is good for both online businesses and brick-and-mortar shops all over the world.

Now as a seller in Shopify,  the frequently bought together method can serve as a bundling solution. Making bundles of products that usually go together is great for sellers who need to sell more of their products and expand their business to new horizons. This article will be a complete guide to the meaning of Shopify frequently bought together, its examples and how to use it to your own benefit. 

What is frequently bought together?

When you think of frequently bought together products, the one concept that immediately comes to mind is “Bundling”. Bundling has a pretty similar meaning: when two or more products are combined and sold together. The shopify frequently bought together bundles are one of the more popular types of product bundling. But what exactly are these?

Look at this picture. In this part of the shopping experience in Waifair (a home decor and furniture store), you can see what people have bought alongside the items that you have just selected. Imagine you put an ottoman in your shopping cart, and then you see this widget on the page. What is this for? it’s to tell you what potential products you can add to buy the whole set for your living room. Things like a coffee table, dining tables, soft ottomans, sofas, etc.

Talking of bundles, many people might think that “frequently bought together” equals “bundle.”  That is not always the case. Not all frequently bought together items are bundles, sometimes, the customer might need to add each product to their cart individually.

Further Reading: 6 types of bundling in Fast bundle

What is the frequently bought together report on Shopify?

A “Shopify Frequently Bought Together Report”  refers to a data-driven report that provides insights into which products are commonly purchased together by customers. This report helps merchants understand customer purchasing behavior, showing patterns in product combinations that are often bought in a single transaction.

The report usually highlights:

1. Common product pairs or groups: It identifies specific products that are frequently added to the cart or purchased together.
2. Cross-sell opportunities: By analyzing the report, you can spot natural cross-sell opportunities where one product tends to lead to the purchase of another.
3. Optimizing bundles or promotions: Based on this data, you can create targeted bundles or promotional offers, leveraging the common product combinations to drive sales.

In short, the Shopify frequently bought together report helps you make data-backed decisions on which products to bundle together, suggesting products during checkout, or even developing marketing strategies for related products.

Need a frequently bought together Shopify app to download reports from? Keep reading!

How to add frequently bought together on Shopify 

Creating a Shopify frequently bought together bundle requires an app like Fast Bundle that provides you with this type of bundle (the Shopify website doesn’t do this on its own). After installing and opening the app:

• In your Shopify panel, click on “Create a bundle.”
• Now, you’ll be led to the product selection page. Here, choose the main products and offers.
• Below these sections, you’ll see the options for discounts. Set any discount you need for the bundle.
• Set a name for the bundle and select the appearance.

How does this method help sellers?

As we said before, combining related products can act as a bundling method. A Shopify frequently bought together bundle consists of two or more products that customers usually buy in one sitting. For example, when people buy a travel mug, they probably buy camping accessories, too. Or when a person buys baby clothes, they are more likely to buy some children’s books with them. Now, as a baby store, you probably have both these products, and by making them a bundle, you encourage the buyer to order both. This is considered a type of cross sell, too. What is cross sell?

It’s simple: when you sell related or supplementary products based on what your customer has already purchased, it increases sales and builds loyalty.

These are some of the ways that cross sell helps your business:

• Helps sell slow-selling products
• Increases AOV (Average Order Value)
• Builds loyalty 
• Helps customers buy all of their needs in one place (instead of going through different stores)
• Helps Manage Inventory

Note that frequently bought together bundles “may or may not” include a discount. Sometimes the offer is simply a package of what is really bought together, and sometimes it includes the package plus a discount. 

Best product bundles shopify app

3 frequently bought together examples

The frequently bought together method can be used in Shopify, Amazon, eBay, other marketplaces, or even physical stores (in an offline manner). Here, we mostly talk about frequently bought Shopify app bundles together. This is done through shops that are built with Shopify and use product bundling as a selling method.

The wording can be different. In any given store, you can read phrases like “Complete the look” or “Pair it with” or other ones. These all mean the same thing: the product you are about to buy can be good with the other ones, and this is backed up by previous sales to buyers like yourself.

Here are 3 frequently bought together examples in different contexts:

Pairs well with

This is from Skinfix- a Shopify store selling skin care products, creams, cleansers, etc. As you can see, the foaming oil cleanser is usually bought and used with triple lipid Peptide lotion and the xTriple Lipid-Peptide Cream with B-L3™ Complex.

Wear it with

look at this lipstick by Laura Mercier. It’s red, matt, and good for a semi-casual look for nights out. What completes this makeover? The shop has suggestions: the Longwear Lip Liner, Hydrating Lip Balm, and Rose Lip Glacé.

Frequently bought together

 One of the best frequently bought together examples is APM Monaco, which is a jewelry brand that makes luxury earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. The products are glamorous and relatively expensive. But even these kinds of products can include suggestions for buying related products. See for yourself.

Read More: Bundling at the Service of Upselling and Cross Selling

How does Fast Bundle help you make this kind of bundle?

Fast Bundle is a bundling app that is designed to make Frequently bought together shopify bundles (and many other bundle types) automatically for your business. But that’s not all! After designing tailor-made bundles based on your products and shop status, Fast Bundle will help you manage inventory, design the bundle and widget to the best of your ability (and in a way that attracts more customers) and customize “everything”. 

Fast Bundle is good for newbies and Shopify veterans. It’s simple enough to use that even new sellers can easily navigate it, and it is advanced enough to cover all the needs of a big shop with hundreds of daily sales. Have you heard about product bundling, but you’re not sure enough how to start? Install Fast Bundle now and start bundling your way to profit!