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Imagine you’re checking out a brand‑new digital camera in an online store. As you’re about to complete the purchase, the checkout page suggests adding a pack of batteries and a high‑speed memory card.
Those small extras make sure your new gadget works right out of the box, and you don’t have to go hunting for accessories later. These “complementary products” – also known as upsells and cross‑sells – are items that naturally go with what a shopper is already buying.
When offered at the perfect moment, they not only help your customer but also boost your store’s bottom line. In WooCommerce, offering complementary products at checkout turns the final step of the buying journey into an opportunity to increase average order value (AOV) and delight your customers.
In this article, we will show you how to suggest complementary products on the checkout page in WooCommerce.
Let’s get started.
Key Takeaways
- Offering complementary products at checkout can significantly increase your store’s average order value by encouraging customers to add helpful accessories at the last minute.
- By presenting relevant add-ons (like batteries for a camera) right when customers are about to pay, you create a seamless, thoughtful buying experience that feels like a helpful reminder rather than a hard sell.
- With a plugin like WebToffee’s Product Recommendations, setting up these suggestions is simple and doesn’t require additional advertising spend, making it an easy way to boost revenue and customer satisfaction.
By the time shoppers reach the checkout, they’re in a buying mindset. They’ve decided they want the main item and are ready to pay. A gentle nudge to add a related product feels helpful rather than pushy because it completes their experience.
There’s a psychological principle at play here: once someone has committed to a purchase, adding a small extra doesn’t feel like starting a new buying decision.
Now, let us look at some reasons why you should suggest complementary products during checkout:
- Increase average order value: Cross‑selling can significantly increase revenue; some studies show that cross‑selling can boost revenue by up to 30%. Large companies like Amazon attribute around 35 % of their sales to cross‑selling and upselling efforts, demonstrating how powerful well‑timed recommendations can be.
- Improve customer experience: Suggesting complementary products helps customers remember items they might need (like batteries for a camera or conditioner to go with shampoo) and makes checkout feel more like a concierge service.
- Encourage product discovery: Many customers aren’t aware of all the accessories or add‑ons your store sells. Showing product recommendations at checkout exposes shoppers to products they might have missed, sparking new ideas and increasing order size.
- Requires no additional ad spend: Unlike paid advertising, checkout cross‑sells work with the traffic you already have. You’re leveraging the attention of customers who are ready to buy, so any additional revenue comes without extra marketing costs.
WooCommerce does include basic upsell and cross‑sell options in the product settings, but they’re designed to appear on product pages or the cart page. The native setup doesn’t display complementary product recommendations on the actual checkout page, which is where the final buying decision happens.
As a result, many store owners miss out on last‑minute add‑on opportunities. Even WooCommerce’s documentation acknowledges that the default cross‑sells show up only in the cart, meaning shoppers may never see them during checkout.
To truly harness the power of complementary products at the moment of purchase, you’ll need a more flexible solution. In the next section, we’ll walk through how the WebToffee WooCommerce Product Recommendations plugin makes it easy to display related products on the checkout page.
Step 1: Install and Activate WebToffee WooCommerce Product Recommendations
- After purchasing the WooCommerce Recommendations plugin by WebToffee, you can download the plugin zip file from the My account page.
- Then, upload the plugin zip file in the Add New section in the WordPress Plugins page.
- Install and activate the plugin on your website.
Step 2: Create New Recommendation Widget
- Navigate to WooCommerce → Product Recommendations in your WordPress dashboard. By default, you land on the Manage recommendations tab, which lists existing widgets (if any) and provides options to create new ones.
- If you haven’t generated any recommendations yet, you’ll see a friendly message and a blue Create recommendation button inviting you to get started. Click this button to set up your first recommendation widget.
Step 3: Select a Page & Choose a Template
- On the “Create a recommendation” screen, there’s a dropdown labelled Select a page. This lets you decide which part of your store should display the recommendation widget.
- Select Checkout page from the dropdown to ensure that your complementary products show up right before the customer confirms their purchase.
Under “Popular products recommendations,” you’ll see a set of pre-built templates designed to maximise conversions. Options include:
- Frequently bought together – ideal for highlighting complementary items that pair naturally with the customer’s main purchase.
- Similar products – showcases alternatives or upgrades.
- Related products – suggest items that complement the customer’s needs.
- Did you forget these? – reminds shoppers of items they might have browsed but didn’t add to the cart.
- Create your own product recommendation – gives you full control to build a custom recommendation set.
For complementary products on the checkout page, Frequently bought together is a perfect starting point. Click this template to continue.
Step 4: Configure Your Recommendation Settings
- At the top of the settings page, give your recommendation a descriptive title. This label will display above the products in your checkout—for example, “Frequently bought together”.
- If you want recommendations to show only under specific circumstances (e.g., when certain products are in the cart or the order total exceeds a set amount), add filters under Display conditions. If no conditions are set, the widget will show on every checkout.
- Under Choose a sorting method, pick how the products should be ordered in the recommendation section. You might sort by Price (high-to-low or low-to-high) or by popularity, and you can add additional sorting filters if needed. This ensures your most compelling add-ons appear first.
Step 5: Adjust Visual Preferences
Customise how and where the recommendation block appears on the checkout page:
- Position of recommendation: Choose where to place the widget (e.g., below the checkout form, above the order review, etc.).
- Total number of products to show: Set how many items should display. Keeping it to three or four suggestions helps avoid overwhelming your customers.
- Visual guides: Click the link to preview how the widget will look across different checkout layouts.
Once you’re satisfied with the title, conditions, sorting, and appearance, click the blue Create recommendation button at the bottom of the page to save your settings.
Your complementary product widget is now live, and customers on the checkout page will see relevant add-on suggestions to increase their order value.
Choose products that naturally pair with items in the customer’s cart. Review your past order data and product categories to identify items often bought together, and think about accessories that add value, like batteries with electronics or coffee filters with a coffee machine.
Not at all. WebToffee WooCommerce product recommendations plugin is lightweight and designed to load quickly. It doesn’t affect the performance of your checkout page.
Yes. You can choose where the recommendation block appears, above or below the checkout form, within the order review section, or wherever it fits your design, so upsells feel seamless and natural.
By using WebToffee’s WooCommerce Product Recommendations plugin, you’re turning the last step of the purchase journey into an opportunity to delight customers and boost revenue. With just a few clicks, you can create a recommendation widget tailored for the checkout page, select a high-converting template like “Frequently bought together,” and configure when, how, and where these complementary products appear.
The beauty of this approach is that it’s both helpful and unobtrusive. You’re reminding shoppers of accessories they might need, exposing them to new items they didn’t know you carried, and doing so at precisely the moment they’re ready to say yes. As a result, your average order value goes up, your customers leave happier, and your checkout page becomes a subtle yet effective sales tool.
