Product Recommendation: The New Tool For Boosting Your Conversions

Product recommendations are increasingly becoming a popular way to increase sales. Even when a shopper is simply browsing with no intent to buy, merchandise recommendations can lead to a deal. The concept is simple: depending on what a retailer knows about a shopper, or the general trend, through purchase history and e-commerce site behavior, a system displays products it believes a shopper might like. But do merchandise recommendations work?

According to a research by Monetate, product recommendations help triple the company revenue. Not only that, it helped increase conversation by 150% and increased the order value by upto 50%.

However, the most important thing in all this is to make sure your recommendations are relevant. Irrelevant recommendation can be plain annoying.

Here are a few effective ways in which you can recommend effectively:

1. Accessorize

   ASOS and Lulu’s offer accessories that go with a certain purchase. Like for example, if you buy a dress off Lulu’s they recommend, mumps, jewelry and other accessories that go with dress giving a ‘complete look’ and thus increasing order value.

2. Options for the brand freak

   There are many consumers who are very loyal to a particular brand. Often, suggesting other products or top sellers from the same brand can also be a good idea to encourage them to buy more.

3. Frequently bought combos

   These can be determined from buying patterns. Like amazon usually gives options for frequently bought together whenever you buy something. Like for eg. If you buy The Hunger Games on Amazon, it’ll recommend you to also look at Catching Fire and Mocking Jay as they are all part of a series and are frequently bought together.

4. Questionnaire to custom fit choices
   Another way to recommend wisely is to make a questionnaire algorithm that recommends products to the customer. For eg. Morissons wine cellar has developed Taste test tool to determine what wines would suit you taste palate. It is so interactive and innovative along with great graphics that by the end of it, you’re absolutely ready to choose a wine from their suggested list based on your test results.
5. What’s trending now
   You could also recommend based on what people are currently looking at. That way not only do the buyers get new ideas to buy but also get updated with latest offers and deals of the day.
6. Similar products
   It’s possible that your consumers are looking for options for a particular product. One could recommend different brands to choose from. Like for eg. If a customer comes looking for Nike basketball shoes, you could recommend Reebok and Adidas basketball shoes too, for comparison.