Product Recommendations

Product recommendations are the product suggestions that an online store displays automatically, without anyone having to set them up manually for each individual item. You’re probably familiar with them as the “People also viewed” boxes below the product and the “People also bought” section in the shopping cart.

How are they selected?

Recommendations are based on patterns in the online store’s own data. The most common sources are:

• Co-views —which items visitors typically view during the same visit. This is the basis for “Others also viewed.”
• Common purchases – which items appear on the same orders. This is the basis for “Others also bought.”
• Similarity – how closely two items resemble each other in terms of category, brand, features, and price range. Used when there isn’t enough behavioral data.
• Popularity – what’s selling best right now.

Why do online stores use them?

Recommendations solve two problems at once. They help customers find the right item without having to search, and they give the store an opportunity to showcase more than just the one item the customer came for. On product pages, the goal is to keep the customer engaged; in the shopping cart, it’s about adding a few more items; and on an empty search result or a 404 page, it’s about salvaging a visit that would otherwise have been lost.

Recommendations in Shoporama

Shoporama has built-in product recommendations. You set them up as a module in the Page Designer, choose which type to display, and they use your own product card design. There’s nothing to install, and it doesn’t cost extra. The algorithm behind “Others Also Viewed” is updated every night based on the store’s own visitors.

See how to set up recommendations.