---
title: "How to Set Up Related Product Recommendations in WooCommerce"
description: "Learn to set up Related Products Recommendations for your WooCommerce store with Related Products Recommendations for WooCommerce."
author: "Arjun"
published_date: 2024-11-05
modified_date: 2026-07-12
canonical_url: "https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/setup-related-products-recommendations-woocommerce/"
source: "https://www.webtoffee.com"
reading_time: 6 min
word_count: 1077
categories:
  - "Documentation"
  - "Getting Started"
  - "Related Products"
---

## Summary

Learn to set up Related Products Recommendations for your WooCommerce store with Related Products Recommendations for WooCommerce.

## Breadcrumb

[Home](https://www.webtoffee.com/) > [Documentation](https://www.webtoffee.com/category/documentation/) > [Related Products](https://www.webtoffee.com/category/documentation/related-products/) > How to Set Up Related Product Recommendations in WooCommerce

# How to Set Up Related Product Recommendations in WooCommerce

*Last updated on July 12, 2026*

The [WebToffee Related Products for WooCommerce](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wt-woocommerce-related-products/) plugin allows you to create highly personalized product suggestions to boost your store’s cross-sell strategy. To get started, navigate to WooCommerce > Related Products in your WordPress dashboard. You can choose the ‘Custom Related Products’ mode to gain full control over how suggestions are sorted, such as by popularity, price, or ‘Relevance’ (which prioritizes items from the same subcategory). These recommendations can be displayed in a sleek slider or a traditional grid, matching your store’s design.

Follow these steps to optimize your Related Products Recommendations for WooCommerce and enhance your cross-sell strategy.

![Recommendation slider](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Recommendation-slider.gif)
*caption: Recommendation slider*

## Step 1: Install and Access the Plugin

- Install the Related Products – Product Recommendations plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to WooCommerce > Related Products to access the plugin settings.

![Plugin navigation](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2024-10-23_10-12-30.png)
*caption: Plugin navigation*

## Step 2: Choose the Best Working Mode

When setting up product recommendations, it’s important to select the right mode that matches your business needs:

- Custom Related Products (Recommended): Gives you full control over which products to recommend and how they appear.
- Default WooCommerce Mode: Suitable if you’re looking for basic recommendations with minimal setup.
- Disable Recommendations: If related products aren’t relevant to your strategy, you can turn them off entirely.

Pro Tip: We recommend starting with the Custom Related Products mode for the most flexibility.

![Working mode - related products](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Working-mode-related-products-1024x312.png)
*caption: Working mode – related products*

## Step 3: Select a recommendation title

A catchy title is always a plus point for a recommendation. Under the Related products title, set a title for your recommendation, such as “You may also like“ or “Have a look at this. “

![Set recommendation title](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Set-recommendation-title-1024x80.png)
*caption: Set recommendation title*

![Recommendation title](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Recommendation-title-1024x389.png)
*caption: Recommendation title*

## Step 4: Define Your Product Recommendation Strategy

Effective recommendations depend on how products are grouped and sorted. In the plugin’s General Settings, you’ll find key options to fine-tune recommendations:

- Source of Recommendations: You can choose to show products from the same category, tag, or both. For example, a T-shirt might show other T-shirts or related apparel items.
- Sorting Options: Decide whether to prioritize recommendations by popularity, price, created date, updated date, and more. For cross-sells, sorting by price can encourage customers to explore affordable add-ons.
- Once the sort condition is selected, choose an order for the products to display, ascending or descending. For example, Products are sorted based on price from low to high.

The plugin now offers a “Relevance” sorting option, designed to improve the product recommendations by prioritizing products from the same subcategory as the currently viewed item.

### What it does:

When Relevance is selected from the Sort by dropdown:

- Related products will be pulled first from the same subcategory.
- If the subcategory doesn’t have enough products to fill the widget, items from the parent category will be used as a fallback.
- For the Relevance sorting logic to work properly, the “Same category” option under “Display related products from” must be enabled.

This ensures customers see the most contextually relevant suggestions based on their current viewing behavior.

Example:
Imagine you have this category structure:

- Men → Shirt (subcategories: Polo, Formal)
- Men → Pants

By default, if a customer is viewing a product from the Polo category, WooCommerce might also recommend items from Formal shirts (Both are in the Shirts category).

However, when Relevance is selected, the plugin will first prioritize Polo shirts. Products from the parent category (Shirt) will only be displayed if there aren’t enough items in the Polo subcategory to fill the recommendation section.

![Define Your Product Recommendation Strategy](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Define-Your-Product-Recommendation-Strategy-1024x637.png)
*caption: Define Your Product Recommendation Strategy*

Use Case: If your goal is to promote high-margin products, sort recommendations by popularity or price (descending).

![Recommendation sorted based on price](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Recommendation-sorted-based-on-price-1024x389.png)
*caption: Recommendation sorted based on price*

## Step 5: Hide recommendations for selected products

If you want to hide the recommendation for a few selected products or categories, you can select those products and categories under respective options. For more info, refer to [Hide Related Products for Selected Products or Categories](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/hide-related-products-for-selected-products-or-categories/).

![Hide recommendations for selected products or categories](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Hide-recommendations-for-selected-products-or-categories-1024x191.png)
*caption: Hide related products recommendations for selected products or categories*

![Recommendation hidden](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Recommendation-hidden-1024x1001.png)
*caption: Recommendation hidden*

![Recommendation displayed](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Recommendation-displayed-855x1024.png)
*caption: Recommendation displayed*

## Step 6: Optimize the Layout for Better Engagement

How recommendations appear plays a significant role in customer engagement. You can configure the layout to suit your store’s design.

- Grid vs. Slider View: Choose between a traditional grid and a sleek slider. Sliders are great for mobile users and make the section feel less crowded. The grid is the default one; enable the slider to override.

![Related products as grid](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/related-products-as-grid-1024x665.png)
*caption: Related products in grid*

![Related products in grid](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Recommendation-slider.gif)
*caption: Related products in slider*

- Adjusting the Product Count: Set the number of products visible per row or slide. You can also define different counts for desktop, tablet, and mobile.
- You can adjust the width and slider arrow settings to fine-tune your recommendation.

Pro Tip: Using a slider with 4 products per slide works well for most desktop views, while 2-3 products fit better on mobile screens.

![Slider settings - Related Products](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Slider-settings-1024x495.png)
*caption: Slider settings – related products recommendations*

## Step 7: Exclude Irrelevant Products

Recommendations work best when they’re relevant. Use the exclusion settings to hide Out-of-stock or back-order products.

![Exclude out of stock products](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Exclude-out-of-stock-products-1024x142.png)
*caption: Exclude out-of-stock products*

![hide out of stock and back order produtcs](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/hide-out-of-stock-and-back-order-produtcs-804x1024.png)
*caption: Hide out-of-stock and back order products*

![show out of stock products](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/show-out-of-stock-products-808x1024.png)
*caption: Show out-of-stock products*

## Enhance Recommendations with Product-Level Customization

For more tailored recommendations, you can override global settings at the product level:

- Open any product from Products > All Products.
- Under Product Data > Linked Products, select any product from the store as recommended.
- Save the product to apply the changes.

![Set up custom related products](https://www.webtoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Set-up-custom-related-products-1024x563.png)
*caption: Set up custom related products recommendations*

Use Case: If a product has accessories or add-ons (like a camera with a case or tripod), adding specific cross-sells can increase the likelihood of bundle purchases.

## Add Recommendations Anywhere Using Shortcodes

The plugin also offers flexibility with shortcodes. You can insert recommendations in blogs, product descriptions, or any custom page with:

[wt-related-products product_id="XX"]

Replace XX with the product’s ID.

Idea: Use this shortcode to recommend related products in a product’s detailed description section or product-related blog for better visibility.

Also Read

- [Import Related Products Using WooCommerce Importer](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/import-woocommerce-related-products/)
- [Export Related Products Using WooCommerce Export](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/export-woocommerce-related-products/)
- [Import and Export Related Products in a WooCommerce Store](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/import-export-related-products-wp-all-import-export/)

- [Test for Theme Conflicts in Related Products for WooCommerce](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/test-theme-conflicts-related-products-recommendations/)
- [Display Related Products on the WooCommerce Checkout page](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/display-related-products-woocommerce-checkout/)
- [Hide Related Products for Selected Products or Categories](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/hide-related-products-for-selected-products-or-categories/)## Plugin Spotlight

Free plugin

Related Products for WooCommerce

[Download free version](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wt-woocommerce-related-products.zip)

## About the Author

[Arjun](https://www.webtoffee.com/author/arjun/)

Technical writer for WebToffee. When I'm not crafting words, you'll find me either exploring hidden trails on my bike or curled up with a good sci-fi movie on Netflix.

## Documentation Navigation

- [Getting Started](#getting-started-related-products)- [Setup Guide](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/setup-related-products-recommendations-woocommerce/)
- [Feature Walkthrough](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/related-products-woocommerce-feature-walkthrough/)
- [Display Settings](#display-settings-product-recommendation)- [Display Related Products on Checkout](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/display-related-products-woocommerce-checkout/)
- [Hide Related Products](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/hide-related-products-for-selected-products-or-categories/)
- [Hide Price Label](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/hide-price-label-woocommerce-related-products/)
- [Import & Export](#import-export-related-products)- [Import & Export Related Products](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/import-export-related-products-wp-all-import-export/)
- [Export Related Products Using WooCommerce Exporter](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/export-woocommerce-related-products/)
- [Import Related Products Using ID](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/import-woocommerce-related-products/)
- [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting-related-products)- [Test for Theme Conflicts](https://www.webtoffee.com/docs/related-products/test-theme-conflicts-related-products-recommendations/)