A guide to the most effective product recommendation strategies for e-commerce
A lot of people shop online and one of the most important ways to keep them coming back is by giving them a better shopping experience. Websites like Amazon and Jet.com allow customers to anonymously review the products they purchase and their online system then recommends similar or new items based on that data.
Recommendation systems can lead to better conversion rates and it drives up customer engagement. That being said, there are many strategies that can help you with your online store’s product recommendations.
What is Product Recommendations?
Product recommendations are a powerful way to increase sales and grow a customer’s loyalty. It is a part of ecommerce personalization strategy wherein products are automatically populated to a users webpage based on data such as their attributes, preferences, and previous purchase. In other words, this is the logic behind which item is selected and presented in all digital recommendation widgets, providing a personalized shopping experience to anyone who visits the page.
What kind of products are recommended?
Offering customers the opportunity to purchase your product is a vital component of any successful business. However, before you initiate product sale, it is essential that you offer customers the opportunity to learn more about the features and benefits of the product. With so many options to choose from, consumers may be overwhelmed about which choice best suits their needs. To help facilitate the decision-making process, it is beneficial for you to provide customers with recommendations. Ensuring that your recommendations are tailored to specific consumer needs is an essential part of the process. There are many approaches that you can take when recommending products, but these techniques are considered to be among the most effective.
Top three ways to successfully implement a product recommendations strategy for your company.
A) Targeted Recommendations – .This is based on the behavior of the individual user, which is used to create personalized item recommendations, filtered category lists, and personalized advertising. This strategy is compatible with low-involvement purchases where customers are less likely to be willing to provide personal information.
B) Collaborative Filtering Recommendations – This are built around the preferences of the individual user. It is matching customer’s interest algorithms that are able to match people with similar interests. And for this to happen, the customer has to be willing to share any information that will help personalize their experience.
C) Hybrid Recommendations – Some of the research shows that this is one of the best effective product recommendation. It is a combination of two or more strategies to generate and provide suggestions for items.
Spotify is a good example of the use of hybrid recommender systems. The widget makes recommendations by comparing the listening and searching habits of similar users (i.e., collaborative filtering) as well as by offering songs that share the same genre with the music that a user liked. (Targeted Recommendations).
The goal for any online retailer is to make a customer feel like they are getting the perfect item for them. Although all three of these methods can be effective, we think that the best way to evaluate which will work best for your business is to look at how each of these strategies will affect your company’s bottom line. Choosing the proper strategy for the desired objective is essential to success, and the misapplication of strategies can have serious repercussions.
