Pro Frequently Bought Together

The Frequently Bought Together module lets you create product bundles for items that are frequently purchased together.

This module allows you to:

• offer Frequently Bought Together bundles at a discounted price (percentage or fixed) or full price
• create multiple bundles for each product
• include both simple and variable products in a bundle
• add a bundle offer to all products on your store, specific product categories, or individual products
• exclude specific products from bundle offers
• customize the design of each bundle to suit your preferences
• …and more

Merchant Pro displays your Frequently Bought Together bundles on the relevant WooCommerce product pages:

As you can see above, Merchant Pro automatically calculates the monetary value of the percentage discount (i.e. the widget shows $9.40 instead of 20% as the discount value).

Merchant Pro also automatically applies the bundle discount on the Cart page and displays a short note below each bundled product and in the Cart totals box that the discount has been applied:

You also have the option to add upsells to the Cart, Checkout, and Thank You pages for a Frequently Bought Together offer.

The upsell will only appear if your customer is eligible for the offer (see below how bundle upsells work in Merchant).

For example, here’s an example of a cart upsell on the Cart page:

In this tutorial, we’ll see how to set up Merchant Pro’s Frequently Bought Together module.

1. Open the Frequently Bought Together Module

Open your Merchant dashboard by clicking the Merchant menu in the left sidebar of your WordPress admin area.

Find the Boost Revenue section, then click the Frequently Bought Together module to open its settings page:

2. Create Your First Frequently Bought Together Bundle

You can create your bundles one by one on the admin page of the Frequently Bought Together module. This is also where you can later review, change, or delete your Frequently Bought Together bundles.

To create your first bundle, click the Add New Bundle button in the Bundle Offers section:

When the settings of the new Campaign show up on the page, configure them one by one:

• Offer name – This is the name of the offer. It will show on your website after a customer adds the bundle to their cart, for example “Summer Essentials” has been added to your cart’.
• Trigger – Here, you can define the product pages where you want to show this Frequently Bought Together campaign. The available options are:
  • All products – The bundle will show up on all of your product pages; specific products can be excluded.
  • Specific product – Start typing the product name you want to create the offer for, and Merchant Pro’s real-time search function will find it for you.
  • Specific categories – You can select one or more product categories from a dropdown list; specific products can be excluded.
• Offer products based on – Choose between Manual Selection and AI Recommendations:
  • Manual Selection: You directly select which products appear as “frequently bought together” recommendations for each base product.
  • AI Recommendations: Our machine learning algorithm analyzes your store’s order history to automatically identify and suggest frequently bought together products.
• Products to offer – Here, you can add the product(s) you want to offer in this Frequently Bought Together campaign.
• Offer a discount on this bundle – Check the box if you want to offer a discount on the bundle. You can choose between a Percentage and a Fixed discount and define the value of the discount in either percentage or the currency of your store (e.g. $; you can change the currency by going to WooCommerce > Settings > General > Currency options > Currency in your WordPress admin area).
• User Condition – Here, you can select the users or user groups for which you want to show this offer. The available options are All Users, Selected Users, and Selected Roles.
• Product Single Page – This panel includes multiple options. They allow you to configure how this offer will appear on the single product pages. We’ll detail each option of the panel below.
• Cart Page – This panel includes four options. They allow you to enable and configure a cart upsell for this offer. We’ll detail each option of the panel below.
• Checkout Page – This panel includes five options. They allow you to enable and configure a checkout upsell for this offer. We’ll detail each option of the panel below.
• Thank You Page – This panel includes six options. They allow you to enable and configure a post-purchase upsell for this offer. We’ll detail each option of the panel below.

If you’ve changed any of the default settings, click the Save button at the top of the page.

i. Configure the Product Single Page Settings

The Product Single Page feature is activated by default, which means that Merchant Pro will automatically display this Frequently Bought Together offer on the relevant WooCommerce product pages.

You can customize its appearance and behavior (or deactivate it) by opening the panel and configuring its settings:

• Status – Here, you can activate or deactivate the offer on single product pages. The available options are Inactive and Active.
• Placement on product page – Here, you can choose between three locations where your Frequently Bought Together offer will be displayed on the relevant product pages. The available options are After Product Summary, After Product Tabs, and At the Bottom.
• Bundle title – This is the title of your offer that your customers will see on the product pages (default value: ‘Frequently Bought Together’).
• Price label – This is the text shown above the bundle price (default value: ‘Bundle price’).
• You save label – This is the text shown below the bundle price if a discount was applied (default value: ‘You save: {amount}’). You can use the {amount} variable, which automatically calculates the amount that your customers will save with this Frequently Bought Together offer.
• No variation selected text – This is the text shown in place of the price label if there’s a variable product in a discounted bundle with no variation selected (default value: ‘Please select an option to see your savings.’).
• No variation selected text (no discount) – This is the text shown in place of the price label if there’s a variable product in a full-price bundle with no variation selected (default value: ‘Please select an option to see the total price.’).
• Button text – This is the label on the add-to-cart button that is shown next to the bundle (default value: ‘Add to cart’).
• Plus sign background color – Here, you can customize the background color of the plus sign that shows up between the products in the bundle (default value: #212121).
• Plus sign text color – Here, you can customize the text color of the plus sign that shows up between the products in the bundle (default value: #fff).
• Bundle border color – Here, you can customize the border color of the bundle (default value: #f9f9f9).
• Bundle border radius – This option allows you to change the border radius of the bundle (default value: 5px).

If you’ve changed any of the default settings, click the Save button at the top of the page.

ii. Add a Cart Upsell to the Cart Page

The cart upsell feature allows you to show this Frequently Bought Together bundle on the Cart page so that your customers have the option to add it to the cart before proceeding to the Checkout page.

You can activate and customize it by opening the Cart page panel and configuring the following settings:

• Status – Here, you can activate or deactivate the cart upsell feature for this bundle. The available options are Inactive and Active (it’s deactivated by default).
• Bundle title – This is the first part of the call-to-action message. It shows up above the product name and thumbnail image (default value: ‘Add’).
• And save label – This is the second part of the call-to-action message. It shows up below the product name (default value: ‘and save: {amount}’).
• Button text – This is the label on the Add to Cart button (default value: ‘Add to cart’).

Once the settings are configured, click the Save button in the top-right corner of the page.

iii. Show a Checkout Upsell on the Checkout Page

You can show the Frequently Bought Together module on the Checkout page, too, which creates a checkout upsell that your customers can take leverage of before completing the checkout process. You can activate the feature and configure its settings in the Checkout Page section.

You have access to the following options:

• Status – Here, you can activate or deactivate the checkout upsell feature for this bundle. The available options are Inactive and Active (it’s deactivated by default).
• Placement – This option lets you define the placement of the module on the Checkout page. The available options are Before Billing Details (this is the default option), After Billing Details, Before Order Details, Before Payment Gateways, Before Order Placement Button, and After Order Placement Button.
• Offer title – This is the call to action that appears at the top of the module on the Checkout page (default value: ‘Add {quantity} more to get {discount} off’). You can use the {quantity} and {discount} variables to dynamically show the number of products your customers need to purchase and the discount amount.
• Discount text – This is the text string that appears inside the checkout upsell box below the name of the offered product. You can use the {product price} and {discount} variables to dynamically show the price of the offered product and the discount amount (default value: ‘{product_price}’).
• Button text – Here, you can change the label on the button inside the Frequently Bought Together box (default value: ‘Add To Cart’).

If you’ve activated the checkout upsell, click the Save button in the top-right corner of the page.

iv. Display a Post-Purchase Upsell on the Thank You Page

If your customers didn’t purchase your bundle before completing the checkout process, you can still show them a post-purchase upsell on the Thank You page. The post-purchase upsell displays the Frequently Bought Together bundle on the Thank You page together with a customized message.

You can enable and configure the post-purchase upsell in the Thank You Page section on the module’s admin page.

You have access to the following options:

• Status – Here, you can activate or deactivate the post-purchase upsell feature for this bundle. The available options are Inactive and Active (it’s deactivated by default).
• Bundle title – This is the call to action that appears at the top of the post-purchase upsell box. You can use the {discount} variable to dynamically pull the discount value from the database (default value: ‘Last chance to get {discount} off your bundle!’).
• Placement – This option lets you define the placement of the Frequently Bought Together module on the Thank You page. The available options are On Top, Before Order Details (this is the default value), and After Order Details.
• Discount text – This is the text string that appears inside the post-purchase upsell box. You can use the {fbt_products} variable to dynamically show the names of the products in the bundle (default value: ‘Add now to complete your bundle ({fbt_products}) and save’).
• Bonus tip text – Here, you can add a short message that explains to your customers how a post-purchase upsell works. You can use the {discount} and {fbt_products} variables within the text.
  • Default message: “Note: When you click ‘Add to Cart’, the item will be added to your cart and you’ll be taken to the cart page where you’ll see that a bundle discount has been applied to it. This is shown under ‘Your Savings’, and reflects a {discount} discount based on the original prices of the {fbt_products}. You can then proceed to checkout as usual.”
• Button text – Here, you can change the label on the button inside the Frequently Bought Together box (default value: ‘Add To Cart’).

If you’ve changed any of the default values, click the Save button in the top-right corner of the page.

3. Enable the Frequently Bought Together Module

Now, it’s time to activate the module. To do so, click the Enable button at the top of the page:

4. Create More Frequently Bought Together Bundles (Optional)

To add another Frequently Bought Together offer to your WooCommerce store, click the Add New Bundle button, configure the settings of the new campaign, and then click the Save button at the top of the page.

Your Frequently Bought Together bundles will show up in a list view in the Bundle Offers section. You can rearrange your bundles using drag and drop, which will also change:

• the order in which they are shown on the relevant product pages
• their priority in the bundle upsell queue

If you want to duplicate an existing bundle, click the Duplicate icon that shows up right to the offer’s name (between the ‘x’ and down arrow icons):

5. Use the Module Shortcode (for Developers)

The module is also available as a shortcode so that you can add your Frequently Bought Together bundles to any location on your product pages.

Note that toggling the shortcode on automatically deactivates the ‘Placement on product page’ option, so if you have already added Frequently Bought Together bundles to your store, they will disappear from the product pages. This is a security measure to prevent duplicate content when the shortcode is used.

The shortcode is [merchant_module_frequently_bought_together].

You can activate it by toggling the Use shortcode option on and clicking the Save button in the top-right corner of the page:

Troubleshooting Tip: What to Do If You Can’t Save a Bundle?

Above a certain number of bundles (around ~50), it may happen that WordPress won’t let you save additional campaigns. This issue is not caused by Merchant but by your server configuration.

To solve it, you’ll need to increase the value of the max_input_vars variable by editing one of the following files (normally, all of these files can be found in the root directory of your WordPress install, however note that some hosting providers don’t give you access to the php.ini file):

File name	Code to add/edit
.htaccess	php_value max_input_vars 5000
wp-config.php	@ini_set('max_input_vars', 5000);
php.ini	max_input_vars = 5000

The max_input_vars variable limits the maximum number of POST variables on your site. The default value is 1000; the code snippets above increase it to 5000 (but you can use another limit as well, e.g. 3000).

Some web hosts also let you change the value of max_input_vars directly from your hosting panel.

If you don’t want to edit code files directly or you’re not sure how to do it, we recommend that you contact the customer support of your web hosting provider and ask them to increase the value of your max_input_vars variable.

How Do Bundle Upsells Work in Merchant?

Merchant Pro offers bundle upsells through three modules: Bulk Discounts, Buy X Get Y, and Frequently Bought Together.

When multiple upsell offers apply to a product, only one upsell will be displayed based on the following priority order:

1. Bulk Discounts
2. Buy X, Get Y
3. Frequently Bought Together

Within each module, you can rearrange the priority of individual offers using drag and drop.

A bundle upsell for a Frequently Bought Together bundle includes:

• The name of the product that your customer needs to purchase to qualify for the offer.
• A thumbnail image of that product.
• A call-to-action message that reminds your customer about the offer (the first part of the message is shown above the product name while the second part is shown below it).
• An add-to-cart button that automatically adds the remaining product to the cart and updates the cart.

Here’s an example of a Frequently Bought Together cart upsell in Merchant:

Note that if multiple offers apply to the products in the cart, only one upsell will appear on the Cart page according to the priority order shown in the table above (within a module, you can change the priority by changing the order of the offers using drag and drop).