Why Ecommerce Product Recommendations Matter for Sales Growth

Learn the fundamental must-knows about the ecommerce product recommendation – including growth benefits and some of the ways they can be used across the ecommerce experience.

(Intro)

Ecommerce Product Recommendations, Defined

Product recommendations are suggestions of items based on what a customer has previously browsed, purchased or shown interest in. From your best-selling products down to more granular items appropriate to a shopper’s location, product recommendations shape the way consumers interact with your brand, can foster longtime loyalty and make each individual shopper feel like they’re shopping on a website tailored entirely to them.

An integral part of any successful retailer’s ecommerce strategy, recommendations also help customers discover products that are most relevant to their interests and reduce barriers to purchase. They improve the way shoppers navigate your website – helping drive more sales, increase order value and yield more revenue for the brand.

The Growth Benefits of Ecommerce Product Recommendations

Ecommerce product recommendations do more than foster a positive and personal shopping experience – they also have an incredible impact on your business KPIs, including:

Increased conversion rate: Brands like Woodhouse Clothing have increased conversion by as much as 44% with product recommendations that inspire their shoppers.

Decreased bounce rate: If a shopper is about to exit your website, engage them with an exit intent pop-up that displays your most popular items and products related to what they’ve browsed and may not have discovered.

Higher average order value: From cross-selling and up-selling during the checkout process to showcasing product bundles that are typically purchased alongside a product a shopper is viewing.

Increased time on site/ on pages: Similar to falling into the dreaded Youtube rabbit hole (which many of us have experienced at one point or another), serving products that are in line with a shopper’s interests (whether brand, style or geographical) encourages them to continue engaging with your products, discover new ones and eventually make a purchase.

Lower cart abandonment rate: Re-introduce products that a shopper has left behind in their cart through an exit intent pop-ups and in your email communication.

Examples of Personalized Ecommerce Recommendations

When used efficiently, ecommerce product recommendations can completely transform customer interactions and create a more consistent experience. While they should cater to what makes the most sense for your customers and business, there are a number of pages on your site (and even outside of your site) where you can plug them in to automatically enhance the experience on that page.

Here are a few examples of personalized product recommendations and where you can use them:

Product Recommendations on the Homepage

The homepage, while not always the first page a new visitor lands on, is still an important place to set the stage for those who know little about your brand. While you may not have enough behavioral data to personalize the experience for new visitors, you can still use this page to display your best selling products – the ones that are statistically most likely to increase conversion.

Pop-up Recommendations

What was once considered a nuisance for shoppers is now an opportunity to decrease bounce rate and re-engage indecisive shoppers. In addition to using pop-ups to offer time-limited discounts and collect new visitor email addresses you can also display recommendations based on browsing history, items a shopper may have added to their cart but did not purchase, or items similar to the ones already added to the shopping cart.

Shopping Cart Page Recommendations

The cart page is a common place to activate up-selling and cross-selling tactics. Add in some product recommendations on this page to remind your customer about the most relevant items browsed. Up to 25% of customers who click on the cart page recommendations actually go on to make a purchase.

404 Page Recommendations

What is considered by some as a dead-end in the customer journey is actually an opportunity to steer shoppers back towards checkout and strengthen your product recommendation strategy. Using ‘previously viewed’ and ‘popular items’ recommendations on your 404 page turns a negative experience into one that increases product discovery.

Recommendations in Email Marketing

59% of retailers say that marketing emails influence their decision to make a purchase, which makes a product recommendation email strategy a no-brainer to increase conversion.

There are a number of clever ways to insert product recommendations into your email strategy, including:

Personalized newsletters: Boost the relevancy of your email marketing by adding a personalized recommendation to your newsletters – from your top sellers, to trending products, to items that your shopper browsed during their last visit to your site.

Re-engagement email efforts: If a customer has not visited a store for a while, a natural way to re-engage them is to reach out with a ‘We Miss You’ email. This email aims to re-activate customers who haven’t purchased from you in a long time, and also promotes new products they’ve likely not discovered yet based on their previous shopping affinities. This is especially important tactic when planning your holiday marketing strategy and other competitive sales seasons.

Post-purchase emails: Improve your ‘thank you’ email after a shopper makes a purchase by featuring personalized recommendations within that email that encourages greater product discovery. Additionally, you can set a reminder a few days or weeks after the previous purchase to remind the shopper of new products, trending items or items related to their last purchase.

Learn How Ecommerce Product Recommendations Can Impact Your Specific Business Goals

Personalized product recommendations are not only an expectation among consumers, but they’re also just one of the many layers of an unforgettable shopping experience.

And remember: recommendations are not a one-size-fits all approach. Each brand has their own business goals to achieve, and these recommendations should be implemented according to those goals.

Eager to learn how product recommendations can help you achieve your business goals? Reach out to Nosto for a deeper look at how to make the most of this strategy.