Imagine you are in a clothing store trying out denim trousers and the sales person comes to you and shows you some tops that match with the denim trousers in your hand. Or imagine you are at the cash counter of a tech store waiting to checkout for a mobile phone purchase and the clerk strategically asks if you have checked their brand new mobile phone covers which gives greater security for your device and are an absolute necessity today!
If you can relate to these scenarios then there is no doubt that you have experienced personalized product recommendations.
When you’re running an online store, physically assisting your customers and recommending products isn’t possible. But you can do the same using a powerful product recommendation engine!
If you’re someone who makes purchases online, we’re sure you have experienced product recommendations on Amazon. From recently viewed products to those inspired by your previous browsing and some related to the product you’re viewing at that moment, online shoppers have experienced and interacted with product recommendations in one way or another.
In fact, Amazon states 33% of their revenue comes from these product recommendations.
But just installing a product recommendation app on your Shopify store isn’t going to get you the same results. That’s where strategizing comes into play and we’re here to share some conversion hacks.
Personalized product recommendations hacks to get more conversions
A recent study by Monetate shows that online retail browsers who were involved with a recommended product had a 70% higher conversion rate. Suggesting the right products to the right audience at the right time is the only way to turn visitors into customers.
But that’s easier said than done. So here are some of our tried and tested conversion hacks to make your personalized product recommendations work!
PS. For these to work, you need to install the WISER app for Shopify product recommendations.
1. Add product recommendations “above the fold”
As per the article on Mixpanel, “above the fold” is a term that describes the area at the top of a web page; the section that is visible without a visitor having to scroll. What’s above the fold influences the visitor’s experience on the website and hence the conversions.
That’s why we recommend displaying the product recommendation widget above the fold. As per our A/B testing, we found that the widgets placed above the fold saw twice as many conversions as compared to those placed below it. The simple reason being that the recommendations were being made when the visitor was still interested in the product being viewed.
2. “What Customers Ultimately Buy” widgets are the highest performing
We found that generic recommendations are being outperformed by personalized product recommendations. In accordance with the research conducted by Epsilon Marketing, it is found that 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized shopping experiences.
In a study by Barilliance, out of the 20+ product recommendation types that were reviewed, the most engaging recommendation type was ‘what customers ultimately buy’. This particular product recommendation widget basically leverages online shopper behaviour, segmenting visitors based on their purchases to recommend items that were actually bought. In a way, it uses social proof to sell more.
3. Use “Best Selling” recommendations for new visitors
A first-time visitor isn’t sure about the products you sell or the collections your store has to offer. Similarly, you’re not aware of their tastes and obviously can’t make a product recommendation to them – yet.
The best practice here is to display your best selling or top-selling products on the home page. This is a product recommendation strategy that leverages social proof and previous visitor behaviour to guide a new visitor’s journey with your brand. It uses what you’ve learned about consumers and their preferences to get first-time visitors to buy from you.
You can also display other product recommendation widgets like “new products”, “latest collections” or similar items to bring certain products to attention and capture a new visitor’s interest.
Now as a visitor engages with these product recommendations, you can learn more about their preferences and use other types of recommendation widgets to convert them.
4. Personalized product recommendations based on web behavior
Think about your last interaction with Amazon for a minute. Their homepage is always tailored to your preferences and last interaction, making your entire buying journey ‘exclusively’ yours – personalized. That’s why we recommend displaying product recommendations that are based on the web behaviour of a visitor.
Personalized product recommendations are created using three major sources of data. These include aggregate data, user specific data and static product data, which enable you to display products that let a visitor start their buying journey from where they left off last.
Imagine walking into a store where you were able to reserve a product you wanted to purchase. You’d walk straight up to the counter, take the product for billing and purchase it in just a few minutes. This particular conversion hack works in the same way.
Also read: 10+ Product Recommendation Examples to Improve Online Shopping Journeys
5. Inject personalized product recommendations into your email communication
Emails still offer the highest ROI on campaigns as compared to other communication channels for eCommerce marketing. No amount of personalization of emails is enough and that’s why we recommend adding recommendations to your emails as well. In fact, Amazon hasn’t missed out on this particular conversion hack either!
By including recommendations like ‘customers also bought’, ‘inspired by your browsing’ and similar, you capture the interest of an online shopper all over again, bringing them back to your store to explore more, through the email.
6. Show product recommendations on popups
What’s the first thing that captures your attention when you walk into a brick and mortar store? It’s either the sign board that says ‘SALE’ or the one that calls out ‘NEW COLLECTION;. It’s obvious they are strategically placed to make you gravitate towards the product under them. You can use the same strategy to call out to visitors on your online store as well!
This is where displaying product recommendations on pop ups comes in. These smart overlay windows have been used to collect email addresses of website visitors for years; but we have a different approach to using this space that pops a message right in front of a disengaged visitor like a flash.
By displaying recommendations to a visitor on a popup, you re-engage their interest, making them stay back a little longer to explore more. This also gives you another chance to learn from the products they show interest in and display recommendations accordingly.
Our best conversion hack is to display best-selling or trending product recommendations on popups to first-time visitors. It has helped online stores reduce their bounce rates by almost 13%, driving more conversions and sales.
7. Show product recommendations at checkout
When a visitor adds a product to cart, it is an indication of their high purchase intent. They’re at their purchase-ready state and that’s when you need to strike!
By displaying product recommendations such as ‘customers also bought’, ‘frequently bought together’, ‘similar product’ and ‘hot selling items’, you’re essentially nudging this consumer to explore a few more products before making the purchase.
It’s similar to how you step out to buy that pair of jeans but end up purchasing a t-shirt as well so that you can complete the look. The idea is to make the buyer feel like the recommended products make for valuable additions to what they already intend on purchasing.
8. A/B test your product recommendation strategy
A/B testing or split testing, is a randomized experimentation process. In this technique, two or more versions of a variable such as a page element or a web page are shown to different sections of website visitors at the same time – in this case, we’re talking about the product recommendations widget This not only helps to govern which widget leaves the maximum impact but also drives business metrics such as conversions and sales.
We include this as a conversion hack because every consumer is different. If viewing similar products may appeal to one, it might overwhelm the other with a choice-paradox and drive them away. The latter in this case may respond better to ‘best-selling’ items being recommended instead.
With apps like WISER, we make testing out different product recommendation strategies a breeze. We help you set up different widgets across the same pages to monitor how visitors interact with them over a defined period of time.
The goal here still remains the same – understanding how your store visitors expect their buying journey to be.
Conclusion
There are always a lot of little things and tricks you can do to make your product recommendations more powerful. But the main challenge in your way is to understand the customer requirements and play accordingly. That’s where having a powerful product recommendations app on your side comes into play.
The product recommendation app you choose should enable you to implement different strategies by equipping you with widgets based on different consumer behaviour. It should also let you monitor the response to the recommendations in order to further learn from them and personalize buying journeys on your store, irrespective of the stage a visitor is at in the buying cycle.
At WISER, we’re enabling leading Shopify and Shopify Plus brands to set up and run product recommendations that convert. The above strategies and conversion hacks have been tried, tested and proven to help personalize online shopping journeys, leading to higher engagement rates on the stores and eventually, even sales.
Want to see how product recommendations work? Book a demo with WISER today or install the app to get a free trial.
