THE 10 THINGS EVERY ONLINE RETAILER MUST DO TO MAXIMIZE

PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS

Ever since the early days of Amazon, online

retailers have increasingly recognized the selling

power of integrating personalized product

recommendations into the customer journey.

And, for a while, the rules for recommending

were pretty basic. If a consumer added to cart

or expressed affinity for a particular shirt, the

resulting recommendation might be a similar shirt

and/or matching pants. If interest was shown

for certain book, books by the same author or

genre were presented for consideration. 15 years

later, recommendation capabilities and data

sources have multiplied—along with consumer

expectations for relevancy.

Today, consumers are completely immersed in

an omni-channel world. Not only do they expect

a personalized experience across all of their

devices, they respond more favorably to retailers

who guide their brand experience in a helpful, yet

unobtrusive way.

Of course, all retailers know by now that making

recommendations that are noticed, valued, and

acted upon takes more than simply matching

styles or suggesting a complimentary product

before checkout. Recommendation technology

has become a pretty crowded space and there’s a

lot of advice out there on recommendation “bests.”

If you are unsure as to where you stand compared

to others in the retail recommendation game or

are considering integrating more sophisticated

recommendation processes into your online retail

experience, these are 10 recommendation “must

dos” no retailer should overlook.

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ALWAYS GO ABOVE THE FOLD

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Does that mean nothing important should go below the fold?

No, scrolling, especially on mobile devices is

important to design usability. But, according to

well-respected web usability consultant, Jakob

Nielson, “It’s as if users arrive at a page with a

certain amount of fuel in their tanks. As they drive

down the page, they use up gas, and sooner or

later they run dry.”

How can you be sure your recommendations

always go above the fold with so many devices

and variations in screen size? Integrating

responsive web design into your recommendation

practices will ensure that your recommendations

will be above the fold, every time for every

device—encouraging existing and potential

customers to keep clicking forward.

The placement of recommendations on a site

page is critical both to a shopper’s ability to

discover a product and a retailer’s success

in driving them along a pre-determined path

to conversion. If the phrase “above the fold”

as it applies to web design is new to you, it

simply means the portion of a web page that

is visible in a browser window when the page

first loads. Above the fold is prime real estate

for recommendations not only because the

user is not forced to scroll, but also because it

is where your shoppers’ eyeballs’ instinctively

go. You might be thinking that sounds right, but

how do we know? The proof, just like nearly

everything these days, is found in the data.

Through the use of eye tracking software, web

strategists have confirmed the importance of

above the fold by tracking consumer attention

as they follow content further and further down

the page using gaze plots. What did they find?

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Users spent 80.3 % of their time on webpages above the fold, and 19.7 % below

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A customer who made a recent purchase and

is looking at your return policy has a different

motivation, shopper profile and need than

someone who found their way to your site by

clicking an ad. Each of these is an example of

what is becoming known as a micro-moment.

Cookie-cutter recommendation logic will do little to

optimize how well you drive a single visitor forward

or move the ROI needle very far to the right.

Your recommendation engine is likely getting a

massive amount of customer and product data to

crunch on. The level of success achieved by 1:1

personalization depends on the engine being able

to use this data to create as many logic variations

possible. Varying logic can answer questions like:

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- How do you know when to offer a more expensive item?- What page should a complementary item appear on?- Who is a good candidate for cross selling? - What product should you offer to this customer in this moment?

A deep set of logic patterns allows you to not only

customize recommendations to an exact customer,

it enables you to help that customer keep

clicking forward by providing recommendations

in the context of the micro-moment. There are

easily 100 logic patterns available through some

recommendation engines right now including:

- What others are looking at right now- Complete the look- Override the recommendations system and force specific products- Include recommendations that only have a margin over x%- Include or exclude recommendations by brand

Understanding the context of a customer’s

decision path along with sophisticated logic

patterns that can be applied to help drive their

decision is huge to continued recommendation

optimization.

MAKE SENSE IN THE MICRO-MOMENT2

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Some brands make the mistake of

recommending to customers only the

inventory the data says they are currently

interested in or would most likely buy. Retailers

with the most successful recommendation

strategies are able to factor both buyer

behavior and their own sales initiatives into

the recommendation equation. For example,

a visitor to an online outdoors store has

indicated their intent to buy various camping

supplies. If the store is on a push to promote

specific brands, they can tag certain supplies

to be recommended first, over others.

The ability to coordinate customer intent with retail

sales goals also includes using recommendations

to move seasonal inventory. A customer browsing

online from their home in Florida is more likely

to purchase lawn chairs out-of-season than one

living Minnesota. One final example of making

personalized recommendations that optimize

the financial benefits to brands is recommending

higher-priced inventory over products marked

more modestly. Though the customer may still

choose to search inventory by price, other

searches can be set to promote the higher value

products first.

TIE SALES INITIATIVES TO RECOMMENDATION LOGIC3

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Recommendations aren’t something you do just once. It’s important that recommendations are present

and relevant from product discovery to conversion. The recommendations given at checkout should

be different than those given when a shopper first arrives. Both sets of recommendations should also

differ from those displayed to a shopper returning to their previously abandoned cart.

RECOMMEND ON EVERY PAGE4

For repeat visitors, recommend products

that they have viewed but not purchased.

Another option is showing them products

relevant to their previously tracked

preferences including brand, color, price,

etc.

For new visitors, show top-selling products.

Though you don’t have any personal data

yet to go on, if your customers like it there’s

a pretty good chance they’ll like it too.

HOME PAGE

Personalized recommendations based on past

search behavior and/or items that have been

recently viewed but not purchased.

People here are most likely your browsers with a

buying intent that is questionable. Showing the

most popular products by category is your best

recommendation bet.

SEARCH RESULTS PAGE CATEGORY PAGE

Here your shoppers are closer to conversion.

More like these and viewed also viewed

encourages customers to add to cart. Upsells of

higher-priced items or upgraded configurations

are also optimal recommendations.

At the final stage, show recommendations

with complementary products to decrease the

likelihood of cart abandonment.

PRODUCT DETAIL PAGE SHOPPING CART PAGE

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ADD RECOMMENDATIONS TO EMAIL

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Recommendations are no longer just about the

upsell; they help retailers forge a bond with

consumers by personalizing the entire customer

experience from product discovery to checkout.

Though your website is your primary pallet for

producing action-instilling recommendations,

pairing recommendations with emails is a tactic

that often gets overlooked. Key scenarios that

should prompt personalized recommendations via

email include:

- Cart abandonment- Browse abandonment- Purchase follow-up- Order confirmation

For example, when you send email that says,

Good news! Your order has shipped; take

advantage of a customer’s attention by providing

additional retail recommendations. At first glance,

these efforts might seem like a pushy way to

squeeze as much immediate revenue as you

can out of the consumer. But done right, adding

email recommendations isn’t about how much a

business can take—it’s about continually giving

consumer subtle cues that you know them and

you care.

You may be thinking: We already

use emails to thank customers,

confirm purchases and update them

orders. What’s further personalizing

one email really going to do?

Personalized emails improve

click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%.

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Leveraging mcommerce (mobile commerce), as part of your

retail strategy has never been more important, therefore, your

recommendations need to fit well into mobile. With over 10

billion mobile-connected devices in use, representing 80 million

consumers in the US alone, mcommerce is a revenue sweet spot for

retailers. First, let’s consider why it’s so important to make sure your

recommendation operations are mobile ready:

BE MOBILE-FRIENDLY6

75% of shoppers use a

mobile phone inside a physical

store. There is considerable value

in tying the mobile and in-store

experience together.

67% of users are more

likely to buy from a mobile friendly

site. Being mobile-friendly means

the ability to provide the omni-

channel experience today’s retail

customers reward.

52% are less likely to engage

with a business after a bad mobile

experience. Customer retention is highly

dependent on mobile-friendliness.

By 2016,

mobile ad spend with

be 5x the ad share

of 2012. Ad dollars

follow audiences. The

audience you want to

engage today is mobile.

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k Mobile-friendly means having the ability to

leverage responsive design that allows an

easy, intuitive and relevant mobile experience

whether the customer is comparing your

products to a competitor’s, adding items to

a wish list or sending a special message at

checkout.

k Mobile-friendly recommendations also require

that you can provide consistency access every

digital device a customer uses so their omni-

channel shopping journey is one continuous,

fluid motion.

k Finally, optimizing recommendations for mobile

relies on having access to data that can give

you revenue-changing insight on customer

behavior across every channel.

Making your recommendations mobile

doesn’t mean simply hoisting up a “we

are mobile” flag or adding those QR

codes consumers like to use for in-store

discounts.

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Winning at recommending means delivering the most relevant results.

These relevant results rely on your ability to continually absorb,

interpret and take action on incoming streams of data. And you can

always be better.

DESIGN WITH CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION IN MIND7

A recommendation system that not only provides relevant results but

includes tools to continually define and refine customer segments

based on data already being collected is another recommendation

must for companies who want to remain competitive. These “bonus”

tools provide segmentation insight for both customers and products.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION EXAMPLES:

• Your best customers by spend using any customized time frame

• Customers who have bought things only after seeing a certain

number of products

• Customers who saw a certain number of products but did not buy

• Customers who showed the highest intent, yet left items in their cart

PRODUCT SEGMENTATION EXAMPLES:

• Top selling products over a specific period of time

• The products that customers have viewed first before they bought

something else

• A list of products that were viewed but never purchased

• Products left behind in the shopping cart over a specific time period

• Products people tend to consider together

The most versatile of these tools allow marketers can create just

about any behavior-based product or customer segment that they

want. And just how can you use these newly created segments to

your advantage?

• Send special offers to customers within a given segment.

• Remarket to your customers who have been looking but not buying.

• Make way for new inventories by clearing out the old.

• Increase stock on new items that are showing a lot of initial sales

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Don’t let yourself fall into the category of retailers

who fine-tune their recommendations and then

leave them on autopilot. Though this fine-tuning

may result in (for example) a 5% increase in

revenue, you’ll never know what you might be

leaving on the table unless you continually test

the validity of your original assumptions.

DON’T SET IT AND FORGET IT8

Product recommendation engines are a powerful

marketing tool, but its merchandising potential

often goes unrecognized because marketers don’t

take advantage of its capabilities in the beginning

and fail to check up on their recommendation

process regularly to ensure optimal performance.

Retailers should A/B test and tweak their recommendations every few months. Testing is a very easy

(but often forgotten) way to optimize product recommendations and increase a retailer’s average order

value (AOV). The title is an important area in the recommendation section and should also be tested to

increase AOV. For example:

SUGGESTED TITLES TO TEST:

80% people who viewed above

product also viewed these

80% people who

viewed above product also

viewed these

80% people who

bought above product also

bought these

80% people who

viewed above product bought

these

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Following the Amazon example, your homepage is a place where significant recommendation gains

can be made. Instead of showing the same home page to everyone who walks through a retailer’s

digital doors, the homepage is a prime place to imprint consumer mindset with personalization cues.

Depending on the customer and their most recent behavior, your homepage recommendation blocks

could include:

ADD MULTIPLE RECOMMENDATIONS ACROSS YOUR HOMEPAGE9

Best sellers this week

Items still in your card

People who are like you also liked these products

Based on your recent purchases, we think you will also like

Why is the homepage such important real estate for recommendations? Often someone coming to

your homepage is a new visitor you know nothing about. They may spend time on your page, leave

and then return. It is this returning customer you are appealing to with recommendations that silently

communicate, welcome back, we saved your place!

Many recommendation engines are able to continually use customer intelligence to ensure the

homepage always keeps up with a customer’s place in their buying journey and can enjoy a fresh

homepage experience every time. This includes the ability to alter page elements, alternate banners,

show them items complimentary to what they left in cart or recommendations based on previous

searches.

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CAPITALIZE ON THE OMNI-CHANNEL10The most optimized recommendations accurately recognize customers wherever they are, according

to what digital device they are on and what behaviors they have previously taken across channels. The

ability to effectively execute on the omni-channel relies on a retailer’s capacity to create such a unified

experience.

Omni-channel marketing is the key to getting “micro-moments” right. Recommendation engines today

exist that help retailers determine and deliver, without a doubt, the right experience and message for

each of these potentially revenue-impacting micro-moments. Such recommendation engines help

retailers:

• Create single-view user profiles that consolidate data from multiple channels and devices in addition to offline information to enable marketing to deliver more value to each person

• Take the most relevant action or deliver the most relevant message in real-time

• Manage adaptive content efficiently

WHAT VALUE CAN DOING RIGHT BY THE OMNI-CHANNEL REALLY BRING RETAILERS?

• Omni-channel personalization can increase sales conversion by as much as 70%

• Companies with extremely strong omni-channel customer engagement retain on average 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for companies with weak omni-channel customer engagement

• 56% of consumers say they would be more inclined to use a retailer if it offered a good personalized experience

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There’s nothing simple about online retail strategy anymore. Consumers demand personalization at

every turn and reward retailers who can execute a flawless omni-channel experience. Though the data

to do it is out there, retailers must continually equip themselves with tools that can quickly and efficiently

leverage customer behavior and profile information to draw customers nearer.

Even these 10 must dos to maximize product recommendations will eventually be revised and added

to along with the ebb and flow of new ideas, increasing data and emerging consumer expectations.

Whether you are a retailer just getting onboard or have been riding the personalization trend for

awhile, what is most important is using all of the tools at your disposal right now to optimize product

recommendations, draw more value from 1:1 relationships and increase recommendation revenue

potential.

IF YOU’D LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MAXIMIZING PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS:

REQUEST A DEMO

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