
Owning an e-commerce store is not just about having good products, but indeed showing them to the customers. The one method that helps to increase engagement and sales in BigCommerce most of all is the implementation of the grid of related products instead of the slider.
While most sliders appear eye-catching and appealing, grids are more effective in this. They offer customers a clean and unobstructed, more specifically, a compartmentalized vision of related products that, while still stimulating, are not going to require much work to scan. Grid of related products helps to provide a clear vision of the positioning of certain products and makes navigation to the products easy.
A related products grid is a more structured offering of similar items placed below or to the side of a product page. While the sliders minimize content and only require scrolling to navigate most of the content is out of sight, unlike the grids that display many options at once, making it more fun to browse.
What is a Related Products Grid in BigCommerce?
A related products grid in BigCommerce is a smart and efficient way to showcase products that complement the item a customer is currently viewing. Unlike sliders, which only show a few products at a time in a scrollable format, a grid presents several related items all at once in a static layout.
The advantage here is simple: better visibility and easier navigation. With a grid, your customers don’t need to scroll through a single line of items—they can immediately see all the relevant products in one clear view. This layout makes it easy for customers to browse and discover more without any extra clicks or distractions. It’s all about making their shopping experience smoother, which, in turn, can help drive higher conversions.
Key Elements of a Related Products Grid
But what separates a regular related products grid? Here are the key features that set it apart:
Static Display: One of the best things about a related products grid is that all the items are visible at once. No more endless scrolling or clicking through a slider. It’s all right there for your customers to see immediately.
Rows and Columns: The products are arranged in 412 small rectangular sections that are grouped in rows and columns and tend to display two to three pieces in each of the rectangular sections. It creates a somewhat minimalistic and not very cluttered look which professionally guides the viewer but does not leave them no room to get lost.
Customizable Content: The appearance of the products can be also controlled. It can be done by the people involving their personnel knowledge and experience or using specific formulas and rules depending on such factors as users’ actions, sales indicators, or tags assigned to various products. This means that you can present a recommendation that is unique to a customer and will benefit them.
Responsive Design: Most customer screens range from desktops, tablets, and mobiles and retail modern grids are created in a way that is compatible with any customer screen. This guaranteeing a seamless, interrupt-free journey across devices, and reducing shopping carts’ abandonment rates, keeping the shoppers keen across devices.
Comparison to Sliders
Sliders are a more dynamic approach but have key disadvantages:
Number of Items Visible: Gridded lists provide the customer with the option to compare several items and have all of the choices in one sight. Others like the sliders only provide one page (or at most two) to display at a time, which restricts the amount of products a customer can easily glance at.
Navigation: A grid, on the other hand, provides a simple, static view—the products for customers are right there, no need for another level of drill-down. In sliders, users can only follow through by adopting the click or swipe feature to view other products which may take time.
Speed and Performance: Grids tend to be lighter and more efficient, which helps your page load faster. Sliders, being dynamic elements, can be heavier and may negatively affect your site’s performance, slowing it down and potentially frustrating visitors.
UX Impact: A grid layout increases activity rate because when the customer sees many options offered to him, shopping becomes convenient. With sliders used for navigation, the annoying issue is that target products are hidden and users have to make several moves to see other products.
Benefits of Using a Related Products Grid
Switching to a related products grid comes with some pretty awesome perks for your store. Here’s how it can make a big difference:
Better Visibility: A grid allows the customer to view more than one product at a time all at a glance. In contrast to having to scroll or swipe, which essentially requires the consumer to consciously look for it, they are more likely to browse, and possibly find other items related to their purchase of the dress.
Improved Usability: The beauty of a grid is how easy it is to use. Everything’s right there in front of the customer, meaning they won’t have to click through multiple items or navigate through complicated options. It makes shopping feel smooth and effortless.
Higher Conversion Rates: Straight row arrangement also benefits in visibility and besides that makes it easier for customers to search for whatever catch their interest. This enhanced form of browsing increases the number of products that get added to the cart and hence improves the conversion rate.
Faster Page Loading: Grids typically use less bandwidth and load quicker than sliders, giving your page the speed boost it needs. Speed matters—it keeps customers happy and reduces bounce rates, which is great for both UX and SEO.
SEO-Friendly: As compared to the dynamic slider method, grids make the content of these products easily crawl and indexed by search engines on the page. It also assists with SEO, making your store more visible and receiving better traffic.
Why Grids Are Better Than Sliders
Both grids and sliders aim to help users find products more easily, but when it comes to boosting conversions and providing a smooth shopping experience, grids take the lead. After looking at usability tests and sales data, it’s clear that grids offer some key advantages over sliders. Let me explain why related product grids are the better choice for your BigCommerce store.
Improved User Experience
Grids excel when it comes to enhancing the relationships customers have with your store. By using the grid style, the customer can see different products at once, and without having to click or swipe through something or avoid annoying pop-ups. Here's why that makes such a difference:
Ease of Navigation: The beauty of grids is that everything is in your face right from the customer's view. Instead of dealing with switching between various slides or with pictures taking time to switch. All we have is organized there for them to come, spend as much time as they desire, and look through.
Reduces User Frustration: Sliders may look like an intuitive interface element, but they can turn into quite an annoyance if used on, for example, touch devices. To make customers view more options, they have to swipe at the bottom part to the next slide, which may not be very fluent and most of the time not very effective if not all the images have been optimized for use.
Better Accessibility: Grids are also much more accessible depending on which grid or network we are discussing. This kind of an uncluttered and straightforward design benefits the page accessibility for the customers with impaired vision by functioning efficiently with screen-reading software. This means that the interface you are improving does not only benefit those that are normally going to use the software but all potential customers.
Enhanced Engagement and Conversion Rates
It must be stressed that grids do not only help you find things more conveniently but they also contribute to increased activity and improved conversion rates. Here’s the data that supports why grids are such a powerful tool for e-commerce:
A 2022 survey by the Baymard Institute shows that the use of a grid layout leads to an increase of 21% by shoppers compared to a slider. That’s a big step up in interaction, and suggesting that if customer can distinguish one option from another to a greater extent, they will.
Big brands like Walmart have already experienced the benefits. After switching to a grid layout for related products, they reported a 15% increase in their click-through rate (CTR). This boost means more customers are finding products they want to buy, which directly translates to more conversions.
SEO Advantages
If you care about getting your store to the upper echelons of the search engine rankings, you should switch to grids. Here’s why grids have clear SEO advantages over sliders:
Visible Content: Search engines are much better at indexing visible content. Since grids display product information right on the page, search engines can crawl and index that content more effectively compared to the hidden content in sliders. With sliders, some of the information is hidden until the user interacts, making it harder for search engines to capture it.
Image Optimization: Grids is the loading of images for example, dynamically while it generally tends to be lightweight. This means they provide better exposure while at the same time not making the page take longer to load. It appears that a fast-loading page is a big win for SEO as Google continues to focus on user experience.
Responsive Design: In the mobile-first world of today’s Web, BigCommerce grids are ideal for this need. They are responsive that makes your layout change smoothly according to the screen of the device being used. This is important for mobile-first indexing, which Google now employs for evaluating web page rank—thus making your desired site rank well for the search.
How to Set Up a Related Products Grid in BigCommerce

The use of related products in BigCommerce can do a lot to help you change the course of the value that your customers get from your product pages. A grid is much simpler since rather than moving through sliders or searching for similar products themselves, it provides everything in one view. If you are a newcomer to BigCommerce or have been working with it and just did not have time to delve into this topic, then detailed instructions on how to configure this useful element in your store will be useful to you.
Using bigcommerce's Built-in Tools
We should know that using the plethora of tools offered by BigCommerce, it is easy to add a related products grid. It is not complicated at all and does not need any additional applications or coding, I will explain all step by step.
Here’s how to set it up:
Log in to Your BigCommerce Store Admin Panel: Firstly, using your admin profile, access the admin of your store. Once you’re inside the site you will then proceed with the setup.
Navigate to the "Products" Tab: On the left hand sidebar, locate and click the “Products” link. This is where all your products and settings of the game are kept.
Select a Product: Choose a product in this case you wish to set up products that are related. If you wish, you can also choose to do this for multiple products if you prefer.
Scroll Down to the Related Products Section: Scroll down after getting into the product detail page and you will find the “Customers also bought” option. This is where you find all the options associated with products.
Choose Whether to Let BigCommerce Auto-Select Related Products: BigCommerce also has a convenience where based on your sales history and tags the related products are populated. You can use this feature if you do not want the complicated steps for setting up the program.
Alternatively, you can enter those products manually where you have implemented a drop-down list from your catalog line.
Using BigCommerce Apps and Plugins
If you’re looking for more flexibility or advanced customization beyond BigCommerce’s built-in tools, you can take advantage of third-party apps and plugins. Apps like Recom.ai or Cross Sell and Upsell by Beeketing can give you a lot of added functionality to make your related products grid even more powerful.
Here’s why using these apps can level up your store:
Dynamic Grids: Some of these apps can create product recommendations from the customer’s way of positioning your store. They employ the AI to present products which are closely related to the products being chosen by a user or to similar products that the user has previously bought. This means that at any time the grid will display products that are closer to be sold than others, thus enhancing the possibility of a sale.
Custom Styling: While BigCommerce gives you basic control over the grid display, third-party apps let you go further. Many of these plugins offer easy-to-use visual builders that let you style your grid without any coding knowledge. So you can personalize the layout to fit your brand’s unique aesthetic, making the grid blend seamlessly with your store.
Analytics and Tracking: Most of these tools come with built-in analytics so you can track how well your related products grid is performing. They allow you to monitor user engagement and sales generated by the grid, so you can see how well it's working and make data-driven decisions to further optimize the experience.
Manual Setup with Custom Code
If you're looking for ultimate control over the design and functionality of your related products grid, you can set it up manually using custom code. This gives you full flexibility to match your store’s branding and specific needs. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started:
Access the Theme Editor
From your BigCommerce admin panel, go to: Storefront > My Themes. At this place, there is a link saying “Customize” on top of each theme, which leads to the theme editing page.
Edit the Product Page Template
When you’ve entered the theme editor, what you need to look at is the product.html among the theme files. This is where the creation of this work of art happens!
Insert the Code for the Related Products Grid
You’ll need to create custom HTML and CSS for your grid layout. In the product page template, you can use BigCommerce APIs to dynamically pull product recommendations and display them in a grid. If you're comfortable with coding, this will allow you to fully customize the look and feel of the grid, as well as how the related products are shown.
Styling with CSS
Following the insertion of the basic grid plan, it is possible to use CSS to style the related products grid for a consistent site appearance. You can then modify the width, spacing, and general look of the grid, as well as guarantee total cross-device compatibility.
Save and Preview.
After creation, check for responsiveness and design of the grid that you would implement.
Best Practices for Optimizing Bigcommerce Related Products Grids
It’s a very good move to ensure that you have the big commerce related products grid on your BigCommerce store, it is however a very basic step to take. That’s why the usability, relevance, and effectiveness of your store should be worked out and fine-tuned to the max to unleash the full potential of the created site. Here are some practical strategies I recommend to get the most out of your big bigcommerce-related products grid:
Strategic Product Selection
However, it is critically important to make the right product selections for your bigcommerce-related products grid to optimize its potential. Not only interesting, but the carefully selected grid also increases conversion. Here are some ways of ensuring that the products you present to the audience hit home as much as possible.
Relevance is Key
One must offer other products that are similar to the one a user is currently checking. This makes the shopping experience convenient rendering a higher probability of complementary products purchasing. For example, if the customer is navegating in a store that is focused on a particular category, such as studying just one product, for instance, the Smartphone, then related products, which go well with the Smartphone, must be preferably shown. These are obviously complimentary additions which add further value to the already existing primary product.
Highlight Popular and Bestselling Items
It is known that bestsellers are completely reliable which is why placing the link to those items in your bigcommerce-related products grid might be a good idea. People like to buy things that they see other people have benefited from. It keeps customers confident and they are most likely to click on them hence buy them since they imply the best products.
Complementary Items vs. Substitutes
It is also important not to distract the customer by showing compacting products, that might bring confusion in the decision making process. For instance, suggesting a different smartphone while one of yours is being used by a client will ensure that he does not make a purchase.
However, pay much attention to accessories and other products that would be relevant to the core product. Something simple, such as a phone case, a screen protector, or a pair of wireless headphones upsells the item they initially made and opens the door to opportunities to drive AOV.
Placement on Product Pages
Cases of positioning can lead to the variations in awareness and interaction. Here are a few considerations:
Below Product Details
Pros:
This is a perfect place for similar products because customers usually scroll down the page to read more information. If clients type in the name of the product, they will see other related products below the description as well.
Cons:
The risk here is that on long product descriptions the grid might be overshadowed by the content if the customer does not scroll down to the bottom.
Next to the Add-to-Cart Button
Pros:
This place is exposed and helps to initiate the formation of a sense of the urgent. The idea here is that while customers are at the point of being convinced to make the buy you are directing them to products related to the original items by placing these add-ons in proximity to the ‘buy now’ button or add-to-cart button.
Cons:
Nevertheless, positioning the grid here may make the idea of the page looks cluttered to the customer. If there is too much information on the layout of the page, or if the layout is too complex, the beauty of the presentation is likely to be compromised and this is true surpassing even the original product to the related products.
At the Bottom of the Page
Pros:
The trick of placing the bigcommerce-related products grid at the bottom serves well as cross-selling as soon as the basic interest has been aroused. Once a customer has seen the product and decided on it, this spot can then let her see other new products she never knew existed.
Cons:
The flip side of this is that some customers may never be exposed to the grid at all. If, for instance, they are individuals who are quick to make some decision or always refuse to scroll to the lower part of the page, they will not even come across the related products.
Making the Grid Mobile-Friendly
If a good portion of your shoppers are interacting with your site using a mobile device for shopping online, your related product grid has to fit into the screen size of mobiles. If your grid isn’t optimized to be viewed on a smart phone, you may not be getting any sales at all. Here’s how to make your grid mobile-responsive and provide a seamless experience for mobile users:
Responsive Design
Responsive design insulates that you can move your grid fluidly across different screen sizes. Animation is done by using CSS grids, or frameworks, such as Bootstrap to accomplish this.
For instance, on the desk view, you can display four items for each row while on the mobile view, you can work 2 items per each row. This assists in managing the appearance of the page, organization, and structure of the different subjects along the grid, and overall user experience when interacting with the instrument.
Touch-Friendly Features
Any call to action (such as products, images, CTAs, etc .) should be large enough to tap based on the mobile users’ tendency to tap, thereby avoiding instances where mobile users will tap somewhere else on the site mistakenly. Make the images large enough so that mouse pointers don’t accidentally click, and offer at least 44×44 pixels buffer around links.
SEO Optimization for Bigcommerce Related Products Grids
An optimized bigcommerce-related products grid does not only enhance customer experience but it can also enhance the ranking of the store on search engines. Thus, steering focus on some important SEO factors lets a grid become beneficial for users and search engines at the same time.
Image Alt Text
It is very important to remember that we are working with details when dealing with SEO. When writing alt tags for your product images ensure that they are descriptive and include relevant keywords that would easily define the product in question. The former assists both search engines and users, especially people with visual deficits, the latter offers benefits for search engines and users.
For instance, instead of writing Image1.jpg, the identity should be more specific such as blue-leather-phone-case-bigcommerce.jpg. This way, you avoid products that cannot be found easily by the search engine, or those that are not easily understood and you will improve your chances of ranking up.
Page Speed
Sometimes that could lead to a slow-loading grid and this affects the user interface as well as the SEO standing. Compress the dimensions of your pictures and limit the size of your files and use lazy loading since a user may not have to wait for all images to load at once. This approach makes the sites load quicker, and thus visitors don’t have to wait; this leads to improved experience and reduced bounce rates.
Schema Markup
To provide more information for the search engines about the products and to optimize the Search snippets, the Schema markup is used. Utilizing product schema, particularly for big commerce related products grid, means that if customers want to isolate certain terms or keywords, then search engines will display additional rich results such as ratings, prices, availability, etc, all on the main results page. Adding this degree of detail can help enhance the odds of attracting a click and thus directing more people to your site.
Analytics: Measuring Success
To establish whether your bigcommerce-related products grid is effective for your store, then it’s important to analyze its effectiveness. So as you start implementing your grid, make sure you are measuring the correct metrics to make the adjustments that will give you even higher returns. Here are the key metrics to keep an eye on:
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Probably one of the most spectacular signs of success, is the number of times users engage with the grid. Know how many times users click on products displayed as opposed to how often they look at the actual grid. If your CTR is high, this suggests that the related products are increasing click-through rates and people are being enticed to look at them.
Conversion Rate
Finally, the primary objective of promotional strategies is to make sales. Make it your practice always to know how many of your grid interactions turn into sales. They say that impressions save sales; if the users are only going through the website but do not buy anything, then perhaps, it is time to revise the products displayed or the arrangement of the website to get the users hooked.
Bounce Rate Impact
Improved bounce rates can also be achieved when a well-optimized grid is implemented. Since grids compel users to dwell on the products, you may realize that the visitors are spending quite much time on the website. If your grid is serving its purpose of keeping the users engaged on your site, then your bounce rates will come down and that’s a positive sign.
Common Issues and Challenges with BigCommerce-Related Products Grid

However, problems can occur despite a good setup. It’s completely typical for plans to get a little off-kilter now and then. Below you will find a list of the most frequent issues that can occur with the BigCommerce website when using the Bigcommerce-related products grid and the ways to solve them.
BigCommerce Related Products Not Showing
Problem: You enter a specific product page, yet they offer you no related products.
Solution: Make sure that the products in the BigCommerce settings section are correctly tagged. Finally, ensure that the option of the related products is active in your admin settings.
BigCommerce Grid Layout Not Working
Problem: The grid appears disorganized— objects are rotated or shifted.
Solution: This mostly comes as a result of compatibility issues with themes. Ensure the theme you choose provides support for the grid layouts. If not, probably it is high time you upgraded to a more friendly on-the-throat theme.
Slow Loading Grids
Problem: That grid is so slow that the actual page dedicated to it is practically unbearable to load.
Solution: It is wise to reduce the image size for minimize loading time, reducing the large quantities of JavaScript, and use of lazy loading so that images are only loaded when required.
Mobile Display Issues
Problem: There is something wrong with the grid layout or the site layout is not mobile friendly.
Solution: Responsive design is a must, so see how it works on various platforms. Change your media queries to make sure your grid layout extends to various other ranges of screen size.
Troubleshooting Solutions
On very rare occasions you may experience some difficulties while configuring or when using your BigCommerce-related products grid. Here's how to troubleshoot and get things back on track:
Grid Not Displaying at All
Fix: Sometimes, the reason why your grid does not appear is due to the settings. Go to BigCommerce admin panel can check all related product settings one more time to ensure everything was enabled correctly.
Poor Product Selection
Fix: When one feels that something is off on the grid in addressing the company’s product, this is the cue to take charge. Control the choice of the products in the grid manually to not show the products that are only somehow connected with the main item being viewed.
Visual Inconsistencies
Fix:
If things look odd, and for instance, products are not properly aligned, maybe your theme’s CSS styling needs tuning. If you can code then you can do this yourself, but if you cannot then you can get a developer to correct it for you.
Conclusion
Implementing a related products grid on your store can indeed make a big difference in the general experience on your BigCommerce site. Not only does it make it easier to browse, unlike single images, as it can display multiple products at a go, but it also boosts the likelihood of motivating the buyer to purchase related products are easily spotted.
When designed appropriately, a grid results in increased sales, higher levels of client satisfaction, and an efficient, business-like layout of a store that depicts the quality of the brand.
To effectively implement related products grids it is important to know the benefits that they have to offer. With the right products being selected and in association with the interests of the customer, the best results can be achieved. Besides, by constantly adjusting the grid for its performance and enhancing customers’ experience while using the service, you stimulate them to engage more and likely find other products they may not necessarily pay attention to.
To top that, BigCommerce also has the in-built, apps and some level of coding enablement which gives you a plethora of flexible solutions to adopt a related products grid to meet your requirements. When it comes to getting your hands dirty or wanting something easy and barely requires any coding, BigCommerce has got you.
FAQs
How do I fix my BigCommerce grid layout?
If you want to change your BigCommerce grid layout, be sure to consider theme compatibility and how related products are configured in the back end. In case of continued problems, a contact with BigCommerce support or a developer should be made.
Can I customize my related products grid?
Absolutely! On the product theme associated with related products, you can flexibly set the layout by CSS alone, with certain plugins, or with modifications to the theme’s code. It also allows you to match the grid design to your brand’s characteristics or identity.
What are the advantages of a grid over a slider?
The major benefits associated with grids approaches as compare to slider are; They offer clients fast access to several products, unlike scrolling through multiple sets of pages or tabs. In addition, grids take less time to load and can increase interaction as users get more content at once.
Are there any tools to automate product recommendations?
There are tools, like Recom.ai and Beeketing that will create those grids and populate them with product recommendations based on user interactions and history. This makes it easier to recommend to your customers what you think they would like and buy the most.
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