Using Frequently Bought Together with Variable Products

Frequently Bought Together works with variable products on both sides of the offer. The product showing the section can be variable, and the companion products you offer can be variable too.

This guide covers what shoppers see when a companion has variations, what gets left out and why, and how to offer one specific variation instead of the whole product.

How It Works

A variable product has options the shopper must choose before it can be added to the cart, such as a size or a colour. Frequently Bought Together handles that by asking for the choice inside the section itself.

• Companion products with variations show a dropdown under the product name.
• Until a choice is made, the price shows as a From amount, based on the cheapest variation.
• The button stays unavailable until every ticked product has its options chosen.

Nothing is added to the cart until each selected product has enough information to be added properly.

Setting It Up on a Variable Product

The setup is the same as for a simple product. The Frequently Bought Together tab appears on both simple and variable products.

Step 1. Go to Products and open the variable product you want the section to appear on.

Step 2. Scroll to the Product data box and click the Frequently Bought Together tab, then turn on Enable Widget.

Step 3. Search for the companion products you want to offer, exactly as you would on a simple product.

Your shopper still chooses the main product’s own options using the normal selectors on the product page. The section doesn’t duplicate those, it only asks about the companions.

Offering One Specific Variation

Sometimes you don’t want to offer a whole product with all its choices. If you sell a coffee in three sizes and only want to offer the small one as an add-on, you can add that single variation as the companion.

The product search in the panel finds individual variations as well as whole products, so you can pick the exact one you want. Search for the product name and the matching variations appear alongside it in the results.

Choosing a specific variation means the shopper sees no dropdown for it. The product appears at its own fixed price and can be ticked straight away, which makes for a quicker decision.

What Shoppers See

When a companion has variations, its row shows a Choose an option dropdown listing every variation that can actually be bought, each with its own price.

Two things change as the shopper makes choices:

• The From price is replaced by the real price of the chosen variation.
• The total and the button label update to include it.

If a shopper ticks a variable product without choosing an option, the button tells them to select options before continuing, so nothing can be added half-configured.

Products That Are Left Out

Some variations and products are deliberately not offered, so shoppers never meet an option they cannot buy.

• Variations that are out of stock are not listed in the dropdown.
• Variations that need extra input from the shopper, such as an attribute set to “Any” rather than a specific value, are not listed, because the section has no way to collect that detail.
• A variable product with no purchasable variations left is dropped from the section entirely rather than shown as unavailable.

That last point is worth knowing when you’re setting things up. If a companion you added doesn’t appear on the product page at all, check whether its variations are in stock and purchasable.

Frequently Asked Questions