What to recommend next: the products your customers buy together
Your order history already shows which products go together. Use those pairs in post-purchase emails, bundles and cross-sells that feel helpful.
The Wizel Team
Email marketing strategist · · 1 min read
On this page
“Customers who bought this also bought” works because it's usually true. Your own orders hold the same knowledge: which products end up with the same customers, and in what order. Finding those pairs turns a generic follow-up into a useful suggestion.
Two ways products go together
- In the same order. A pan and its lid, a dog bed and a blanket. These make good bundles and checkout add-ons.
- In a later order. Someone buys a coffee grinder, then a bag of beans two weeks later. These make good post-purchase emails, timed to when the second purchase usually happens.
2 checks
how often a pair is bought together, and whether that's more often than chance
Don't be fooled by your best seller
Your best seller will show up next to almost everything, simply because it's in so many orders. That doesn't make it the right recommendation for a particular product. The useful question is whether two products appear together more often than you'd expect by chance. Analysts call this lift. A lift above 1 means the pair is genuinely linked. A lift close to 1 means it's a coincidence.
Recommend the product that's linked to what they bought, not just your best seller.
Where to use the pairs
- Post-purchase flow: suggest the linked product around the time most customers buy it.
- Bundles: pair products often bought in the same order, at a price that rewards buying both.
- Product pages and cart: show the linked product where the first one is being bought.
- Campaigns to past buyers: tell owners of one product about its partner, instead of sending them a general newsletter.
Ask your own numbers in Wizel
With Klaviyo connected, the Wizel chat finds the pairs in your orders:
- “What products are frequently bought together?”
- “If a customer buys [product], what should I recommend next?”
- “Which product pairs have the highest lift scores?”
Frequently asked questions
What is product affinity?
How strongly two products are linked in your customers' orders. A strong affinity means people who buy one are more likely than average to buy the other.
Should I recommend products for the same order or a later one?
Both work. Same-order pairs suit bundles and checkout add-ons. Later-order pairs suit post-purchase emails, timed to when the second purchase usually happens.
How many orders do I need before this is useful?
Pairs need repeated evidence. If two products have only been bought together a few times, treat the link as a hint until more orders confirm it.
