What is 'recommendation intent' and how can I use it to enhance my Upsell.com offers? | Shopify

The Recommendation intent option exists as a subsection of Shopify Recommendations, within the Product block of all Upsell.com widgets.

The Recommendation intent is there to guide Shopify's understanding of the type of product that may be best to display to your customers.

When you load the Product block of any upselling widget within Upsell.com, you have the choice to select Shopify recommendations as the product to be displayed.

This can then be further defined by related recommendations (these are auto-generated by Shopify) or complementary recommendations (these require manual setup). These will be discussed later in this article.

Prerequisites

Before using recommendation intent, you need:

• A Shopify store on Online Store 2.0
• The free Shopify Search & Discovery app installed and configured for your products - you can add this app to your store here
• An Upselling widget - e.g. a Product Upsell, or a Bundle widget for example

To find the Recommendation intent

1. Go to the product block of any Upsell.com upselling widget (for example, a Product Upsell, a Product Recommendations, or a Bundle widget) and under product to display select Shopify recommendations

2. Under Recommendation intent, open the dropdown and choose one of the available options:

• Related recommendations
• Complementary recommendations (if enabled for your theme / store)

3. Click Save in the Shopify theme editor

4. Return to Flow Builder and publish your flow

How the Recommendation intent works from the 'back-end'

• Upsell.com sends the base product(s) selected by the customer at the previous stage (for example, the product(s) in the cart or the product that triggered the offer) to Shopify
• Shopify returns a list of recommended products based on the Recommendation intent you selected
• The Upsell.com widget displays the product Shopify returns as the best product to recommend, as an upsell according to your settings and design (titles, prices, buttons, etc.)

How recommendation intent works in Shopify

What is recommendation intent

Recommendation intent tells Shopify what type of recommendation strategy to use for the base product.

Shopify currently supports two intents:

• Related recommendations - products that Shopify suggests as similar or frequently bought together with the main product
• Complementary recommendations - products that Shopify suggests as add-ons or accessories to purchase together with the main product

Shopify uses these intents internally in the Storefront and Product Recommendations APIs to generate product lists for different placements, such as “You may also like” or “Pair it with” sections.

Related recommendations

Use Related recommendations when you want Shopify to surface products that are either:

• Similar to the current product
• Frequently bought together
• In closely-related collections

Key behavior:

• Shopify automatically generates related product lists using signals such as purchase history, product descriptions (for English storefronts), and collections
• You can optionally curate related products in the Search & Discovery app, but Shopify can still auto-generate recommendations when you do not set anything manually
• Generated related recommendations update over time as customer behavior and catalog data change

Practical use cases:

• “You may also like” sliders on product pages
• Post-purchase offers that show alternatives or similar items
• Cross-sell bundles when you are happy to let Shopify choose a mix of similar and often-bought-together products

Complementary recommendations

Use Complementary recommendations when you want to show add-on or accessory products that are meant to be purchased with the base product, not instead of it.

Key behavior:

• Complementary products are usually manually selected in the Search & Discovery app for each base product
• Shopify treats complementary items as “often bought in addition to” the main product, such as cases for phones or belts for trousers
• Complementary recommendations are not auto-generated by Shopify; if you do not configure them, Shopify may return no products for this intent
• Complementary products must be active, in stock, and meet Shopify’s general eligibility rules for recommendations

Practical use cases:

• “Pair it with” blocks on product pages
• Post-purchase upsells that offer accessories or add-ons to the just-purchased product
• Bundled offers where the main product is fixed and you want tight control over the add-on items

Choosing the right intent

Use this guide as a quick rule-of-thumb:

• Choose Related recommendations when:
• • You want Shopify to auto-generate suggestions
  • You have a broad catalog and enough order data for Shopify to learn from
  • You are building discovery experiences like “You may also like”

• Choose Complementary recommendations when:
• • You know exactly which products should be offered as add-ons
  • You are comfortable configuring complementary products per base product in Shopify's Search & Discovery app
  • You want tight control over upsell combinations

If you are unsure or just starting out, Related recommendations is usually the safest default.

Common issues and how to fix

"No products are displayed when I am using the complementary intent"

Possible causes:

• No complementary products configured for the base product in Search & Discovery
• Complementary products are out of stock or set to an inactive status
• Theme or section is not using a compatible recommendations block

Fix:

1. Open Apps > Search & Discovery > Product recommendations in Shopify
2. Select the base product and add up to 10 complementary products
3. Confirm that complementary items are active, published to the Online Store, and in stock
4. Save, then refresh your storefront widget preview

The Recommendations I am seeing look random or irrelevant with related intent

Possible causes:

• Store has limited order history, so Shopify has little data for purchase-based recommendations
• Product descriptions or collections are not set up clearly
• Custom recommendations in Search & Discovery conflict with expectations

Fix:

1. Ensure products have clear titles, descriptions, and are grouped in sensible collections
2. Check Search & Discovery > Product recommendations for any manual overrides that might be forcing certain items to appear
3. Allow some time and traffic for Shopify’s algorithms to update based on new purchasing behavior

"I changed the intent but see no difference to the products being recommended"

Reasons:

• Shopify may return overlapping sets of products for related and complementary intents if your catalog is small
• Cached previews in the theme editor might delay changes
• For complementary intent, no complementary products may be configured yet

Actions:

1. Test on a high-traffic, well-stocked product with clearly defined complementary products
2. Hard refresh the storefront page in a private browsing window
3. Confirm Search & Discovery configuration for that base product

FAQs

1. Does Upsell.com choose which products to recommend?

No. When you use Shopify recommendations, the product list comes directly from Shopify based on the selected Recommendation intent and any configuration in Search & Discovery

2. Do I need the Search & Discovery app for related recommendations?

Not strictly. Shopify can auto-generate related recommendations, but the app is strongly recommended to preview, refine, and override them when needed

3. Do I need the Search & Discovery app for complementary recommendations?

Yes in practice. Complementary recommendations rely on relationships you configure per product in Search & Discovery. Without those, Shopify may not return any complementary items

4. Can I filter recommendations by tags or collections inside Upsell.com?

Not when using Shopify recommendations. Filters and curation live in Shopify’s own Search & Discovery configuration. Upsell.com only displays what Shopify returns for the selected intent

5. Which intent should I use for post-purchase upsells?

• Use Complementary recommendations for accessories and add-ons to the just-purchased product
• Use Related recommendations when you want to suggest substitutes or alternatives (for example a more premium or similar item)

Well, that's a wrap!

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Updated on: 17/11/2025