Woocommerce How To Set Up Related Products

WooCommerce: Mastering the Art of Related Products to Boost Sales

Introduction:

In the bustling world of e-commerce, capturing and retaining customer attention is paramount. One proven strategy is leveraging related products within your online store. WooCommerce, the leading e-commerce platform for WordPress, offers powerful features to showcase these products, enticing customers to explore more, increase their average order value, and ultimately boost your sales. This article will guide you through the process of effectively setting up related products in WooCommerce, ensuring a seamless and profitable shopping experience for your customers. We’ll cover everything from the basics of related product logic to advanced customization techniques.

Understanding the Power of Related Products

Related products are strategically placed items displayed on a product page that are similar to the product the customer is currently viewing. Their purpose is threefold:

• Encourage Cross-Selling: Suggest complementary items that enhance the user experience.
• Increase Average Order Value: Persuade customers to add more items to their cart.
• Improve Website Engagement: Keep customers browsing and discovering new products.

By skillfully implementing related products, you can transform passive browsers into active buyers.

Setting Up Related Products in WooCommerce

WooCommerce automatically displays related products based on shared tags and categories. While this automatic feature can be helpful, understanding how it works and customizing it is essential for optimal results.

The Automatic Related Product Feature

By default, WooCommerce selects related products based on:

• Shared Categories: Products within the same category as the currently viewed item.
• Shared Tags: Products that share the same tags as the currently viewed item.

This automatic selection is a good starting point, but it may not always provide the most relevant or appealing suggestions.

Enhancing Related Products Through Product Attributes

To exert more control over which products are displayed as related, you can leverage product attributes. While technically not *related products* in WooCommerce’s core functionality, attributes can strongly influence the *upsells* and *cross-sells* functionality which achieves a similar (and arguably more effective) result.

Setting Up Upsells and Cross-Sells

WooCommerce provides dedicated fields for “Upsells” and “Cross-sells” within each product’s edit page. These features allow you to manually select specific products to be displayed.

• Upsells: These are products you recommend on the product page itself as an upgrade or premium version of the current item. The goal is to encourage customers to purchase a more expensive or feature-rich alternative.
• Cross-sells: These products are displayed on the cart page and are intended to complement the items already in the cart. Think of them as “frequently bought together” suggestions.

Here’s how to set them up:

1. Navigate to Products: Go to “Products” in your WordPress admin menu.

2. Edit a Product: Select the product you want to configure related items for and click “Edit.”

3. Go to Linked Products: In the “Product data” meta box, click on the “Linked Products” tab.

4. Add Upsells: Start typing the name of a product in the “Upsells” field. WooCommerce will display suggestions as you type. Select the desired product. You can add multiple upsells.

5. Add Cross-sells: Similarly, start typing the name of a product in the “Cross-sells” field and select the desired product(s).

6. Update the Product: Click the “Update” button to save your changes.

Code Snippets for Customizing Related Products (Advanced)

For more advanced customization, you can use code snippets in your `functions.php` file or a custom plugin. Always back up your site before making code changes!

1. Modifying the Number of Related Products Displayed:

<?php
/**
Change the number of related products output
*/
function woocommerce_output_related_products_args( $args ) {
$args['posts_per_page'] = 4; // Number of related products
$args['columns'] = 4; // Number of columns displayed
return $args;
}
add_filter( 'woocommerce_output_related_products_args', 'woocommerce_output_related_products_args' );
?>

This code snippet changes the number of related products displayed to 4 and sets the number of columns to 4. Adjust the values to suit your needs.

2. Removing Related Products Entirely:

This snippet completely removes the related products section from the product page. Use this carefully, as related products can be beneficial.

3. Displaying Related Products Based on Custom Fields:

This is a more advanced topic, and requires more in-depth knowledge of WooCommerce’s API and WordPress custom fields. However, it’s possible to create custom fields (using plugins like Advanced Custom Fields) and use those values to determine related products. This allows for highly specific and tailored product recommendations. This requires more complex code and is beyond the scope of this introductory article.

Considerations and Best Practices

• Relevance is Key: Ensure related products are genuinely relevant to the viewed item. Irrelevant suggestions can frustrate customers.
• Avoid Cannibalization: Don’t suggest products that directly compete with the viewed item at a lower price. Upselling is okay, but avoid downselling within related product sections.
• High-Quality Images: Use compelling and visually appealing product images to attract attention.
• Mobile Optimization: Ensure related products display correctly and are easy to interact with on mobile devices.
• Monitor Performance: Track which related products are driving sales and adjust your strategy accordingly. Use analytics to measure the effectiveness of your related product recommendations.
• A/B Testing: Experiment with different related product strategies to find what works best for your audience. Test different combinations of products, layouts, and messaging.

Conclusion

Setting up related products in WooCommerce is a powerful strategy for enhancing the shopping experience and boosting sales. By understanding the automatic features, leveraging upsells and cross-sells, and potentially diving into custom code, you can create a highly effective related product strategy. Remember to prioritize relevance, optimize for mobile, and continuously monitor performance to maximize your results. By mastering the art of related products, you can transform your WooCommerce store into a revenue-generating machine.