WooCommerce Related Products vs. Upsells and Cross-Sells

Understand the three recommendation types

WooCommerce has three ways to suggest more products. The important difference is which products you can select manually and where the suggestions appear.

Type	How products are chosen	Typical placement
Related products	Automatically from shared product categories or tags	Single-product page
Upsells	Manually selected alternatives, often upgrades	Single-product page, if supported by the theme
Cross-sells	Manually selected complementary products	Shopping cart, if the cart layout includes them

For example, a store selling coffee grinders might show other grinders as related products, recommend a premium grinder as an upsell, and suggest coffee beans as a cross-sell. These are separate recommendations; assigning an upsell does not automatically make it a related product.

Influence automatic related products

WooCommerce selects related products using categories and tags. You do not choose them individually in the Linked Products settings.

1. Go to Products → All Products in WP Admin and edit a product.
2. Check its Product categories and Product tags in the editor.
3. Assign meaningful categories or tags shared with products you want shoppers to discover.
4. Click Update, then visit the product page to check the related-products section.

Use accurate categories and tags that help customers browse your catalog. Do not add unrelated tags just to force a recommendation. WooCommerce chooses the displayed products automatically, so sharing a category or tag does not guarantee that a particular item appears or appears first.

The related-products section must also be present in the product template. In a block theme, that may be a Product Collection block using the Related Products collection. HoverCraft uses a classic-theme product layout, so its related-products grid is not configured through this block. See the official Product Collection block documentation for its options.

Assign upsells and cross-sells

Upsells and cross-sells are selected in the product editor. Create the products you want to recommend before linking them.

1. Go to Products → All Products and edit the product you want to promote from.
2. In the Product data panel, open Linked Products.
3. Under Upsells, search for alternative products, such as a higher-specification model, and select them.
4. Under Cross-sells, select complementary products, such as accessories or supplies.
5. Click Update to save the assignments.

To remove a recommendation, remove the selected product from its field and update the product again. These assignments work with the standard simple and variable product types. See WooCommerce's official related products, upsells, and cross-sells guide for the core settings.

Check where the products appear

Saving a product recommendation does not guarantee that the storefront displays it. Placement depends on the active theme, product template, or cart layout.

• Related products: Usually appear beneath the current product when the template includes a related-products section.
• Upsells: Can appear on single-product pages where the theme or template provides an upsell section.
• Cross-sells: Can appear in the cart when the cart layout includes a cross-sell section. A block-based cart may use a Product Collection block configured for Cross-Sells.

HoverCraft behaves differently from some other themes: it displays a compact related-products grid beneath the main product content but removes the upsell section from product pages. Its classic WooCommerce cart displays up to two cross-sell products beside the cart totals on desktop and below the cart on smaller screens. See the WooCommerce Product Pages and WooCommerce Cart documentation for those theme-specific details.

You can still assign upsells while using HoverCraft, but its standard product-page layout will not show them. The assignments remain available if you later change the theme or customize the display.

Test recommendations on your store

1. Open a product page and check that its related products share a relevant category or tag.
2. If your theme displays upsells, confirm that a manually selected alternative appears on the product page.
3. Add the original product to your cart and check whether its selected cross-sells appear.
4. Try a second product with different tags and linked products to make sure the recommendations are not identical everywhere.
5. Check the same screens on a narrow mobile viewport.

Do not assume that products will display in the same order you selected them. Theme settings, available catalog items, stock visibility, and collection filters can affect the result.

Troubleshoot missing recommendations

• No related products: Confirm other published, catalog-visible items share a meaningful category or tag, and check whether the product template includes the section.
• No upsells: Confirm your assignments were saved and that the theme actually displays upsells. HoverCraft intentionally does not show them in its normal product-page layout.
• No cross-sells: Check the product's Linked Products settings and whether your cart layout supports cross-sells. An item already in the cart is not offered again as a cross-sell.
• Unexpected selections: Check product categories and tags for automatic recommendations, or review the manually selected products for upsells and cross-sells.

If your goal is to display a fixed, hand-picked group of products rather than WooCommerce's automatic related items, use a Hand-Picked Products collection in a compatible block layout or a suitable customization. That is a different feature from the normal Related Products collection.