Increase Average Order Value on Autopilot
Your menu knows which items go together. Show customers what others add to similar orders. No staff effort. No guessing.
What Are Smart Suggestions?
Every time a customer adds an item to their cart, the system checks what other customers ordered alongside it. If people who order a burger usually add fries and a drink, those items appear as suggestions. The data comes from your own order history — not assumptions.
Suggestions show up in two places: a popup right after adding an item, and a section on the cart page before checkout. Customers see relevant extras and can add them in one tap. The suggestion engine rebuilds daily from your latest orders, so it stays current as your menu and customer habits change.
What This Does for Your Business
Higher Average Order Value
Customers see extras that match what they already chose. A well-timed suggestion turns a single main into a full meal. The increase adds up across every order.
Zero Staff Effort
No training staff to upsell. No scripts. The system handles it automatically on every order, every shift, every day.
Based on Real Orders
Suggestions come from what your actual customers buy together — not from generic rules or manual configuration. The patterns are specific to your venue.
Keeps Up With Your Menu
The engine rebuilds daily. When you add new items or seasonal dishes, the system picks up new buying patterns automatically.
How It Works
Order Data Collection
The system tracks which products appear together in completed orders. Every order contributes to a co-occurrence map of your menu items.
Daily Pattern Rebuild
Once a day, the engine recalculates which items are most frequently ordered together. New dishes start generating suggestions as soon as enough orders include them.
Post-Add-to-Cart Popup
When a customer adds a product, a suggestion popup shows the top items other customers added with that same product. One tap to add, one tap to dismiss.
Cart Page Recommendations
Before checkout, the cart page shows a suggestions section based on the full cart contents. Last chance to add a drink, a dessert, or a side.
How Suggestions Work
Co-Occurrence Engine
The system uses collaborative filtering on your completed orders. It finds items that appear together more often than chance and ranks them by frequency.
- Built from your own order data, not generic rules
- Weighted by frequency — popular combos rank higher
- Excludes items already in the cart
- Respects product availability and schedule visibility
Post-Add Popup
A suggestion popup appears after each add-to-cart action. Shows up to 3 related items with photos and prices. Customers add extras without leaving the menu.
- Appears immediately after adding an item
- Shows product image, name, and price
- One-tap add to cart
- Dismissible — no forced interaction
Cart Page Section
A dedicated suggestions row on the cart page, based on all items currently in the cart. Catches last-minute additions before the customer hits checkout.
- Aggregated suggestions from the full cart
- Visible right above the checkout button
- Horizontal scroll on mobile for easy browsing
- Updates when cart contents change
Daily Automatic Rebuild
The suggestion index rebuilds every night from your latest completed orders. No manual maintenance. New products earn suggestions as soon as enough order data exists.
- Runs automatically — no admin action needed
- Adapts to seasonal menu changes
- Picks up new product combinations organically
- Uses a configurable lookback window for data freshness
Where Suggestions Make a Difference
Burger + Sides + Drink
A customer orders a burger. The popup shows fries and a soda — the two items most commonly ordered with burgers at your venue. A single item becomes a combo.
Pizza + Dessert
People who order pizza at your place often add a tiramisu. The cart page shows it before checkout. A suggestion the customer did not think of but is happy to add.
Coffee Shop Morning Rush
Espresso orders almost always come with a pastry. The popup shows your top-selling croissant right after the coffee is added to cart.
Lunch Set Completion
A customer adds a soup. Your data shows most soup orders also include bread and a salad. The suggestion fills out the meal without staff involvement.
Seasonal Dish Discovery
You add a new summer cocktail. Within a week, the engine picks up that grilled dishes pair well with it. The cocktail starts appearing as a suggestion on grill orders.
Delivery Orders
Delivery customers cannot be upsold by a waiter. Suggestions fill that gap. The popup and cart section do the work that staff would do in a dine-in setting.
Why Automated Suggestions Outperform Manual Upselling
Manual upselling depends on staff memory, training, and motivation. On a busy Friday night, suggesting extras drops to the bottom of the priority list. An automated system runs on every order regardless of how busy the kitchen is. It never forgets, never feels awkward, and never skips a table.
Data From Your Own Customers
Generic recommendation engines use broad industry data. Your customers are not generic. A steakhouse and a sushi bar have completely different pairing patterns. The Ordering.Tools suggestion engine uses only your venue's order history. The recommendations reflect what your specific customers actually buy together.
The Right Moment Matters
A suggestion shown at the wrong time is noise. Shown at the right time, it is helpful. The post-add popup catches the customer while they are still browsing and in buying mode. The cart page section catches them during the final review. Both moments are natural decision points where an extra item feels like a good idea, not a pushy pitch.
Measurable Impact
Every suggestion click is tracked. You can see which products generate the most add-ons, which suggestions convert, and how average order value changes over time. The analytics dashboard ties directly into the suggestion engine so you can measure the return without guesswork.
Let Your Menu Do the Upselling
Smart suggestions run on every order. No setup, no training, no scripts.