How “Frequently bought together” works

We look at past orders and find products that students often buy in the same order. If many people who buy a kettle also buy a plate set — more often than chance — we suggest the plate set next to the kettle.

What we use

• Which products appear together in orders.
• Nothing about you personally: no name, email, address, course or country.
• Your own basket, only to choose suggestions for this visit.

What we never do

• We never suggest items that are out of stock.
• Suggestions never change prices.
• Suggestions are always labelled “Smart suggestion”.

How well it works

We tested it on the most recent 20% of orders. When we hid one item from a basket, the hidden item was in our top 3 suggestions 55% of the time, compared with 22% for simply showing the most popular items. Last updated 9 October 2026.

Note: AstonBundle is a student project and the order history is synthetic test data, so these numbers show that the method works, not real shopper behaviour.