Marketing campaigns vary from brand to brand. Strategies that don’t work for one business would be a wise move for another business. Incorporating product recommendations into your store, however, is something every merchant should seriously consider. 

Here’s why: you provide your customers with a seamless customer experience through tailored recommendations for products that they otherwise might not have found on their own. 

When done right, personalized product recommendations can dramatically increase click-through rates, and so do conversions. A 2016 Mailchimp analysis shows that:

  • Brands who have campaigns with product recommendations see a 31% increase in revenue. 
  • Personalized product recommendations campaigns improve click-through rate by at least 2%

Take a look at 8 examples of product recommendations we love and get started with your own product recommendations. 

Lazy Oaf: Similar products 

One of the main goals for product recommendations, at the business level, is to increase the webstore global conversion rate. One of the most successful strategies to reach this goal is displaying a range of products similar to the one they’re looking at. 

In the following example you can see how Lazyoaf shows recommendations for alternatives, and thus the increase in the store’s conversion rate.


Why does it work? 

For customers, that means discovering different types of the same product around the same price point. For merchants who frequently add new stuff to their inventory this strategy works well since you can immediately include recently added products to your recommendation strategy without any manual tagging or customer behavioral data. 

Where to implement: product detail page. 

Madewell: Bestsellers

When you read comments before making a purchase or ask someone you trust for their recommendation, you are looking for social proof. You want to be sure that the product you’re about to purchase is worth your money. As a merchant you can use product recommendations to provide social proof. 

Bring more attention to products your other customers are interested in and make their purchasing decisions easier. 

To welcome first-time visitors, Madewell uses crowd logic, “most-shopped right now” content to inspire and guide them to learn more about the brand and their the most popular stuff:


Why does it work?

The reality is: people are swayed by other shoppers’ opinions. The products that others are buying are desirable and so, suggestions that hint at what other customers already love have proven to increase conversion and click through rate.  

Where to implement: homepage. 

Sephora: New Arrivals

Promoting new arrivals with a product recommendation box is one of the most successful way to interact with new visitors as well as to retain your current customers. 

Sephora knows this well. That’s why they add “New Arrivals” to the homepage:


Why does it work?

We have a built-in expectation that something new must be better than what came before. Recommendations for the newest products also build excitement around the shopping experience. This is especially true in industries driven by fast-moving trends like fashion or beauty. 

Where to implement: homepage, category pages.  

Ikea: Must be completed with

As its name implies, frequently bought together strategies suggest products that can be used in conjunction with the currently viewed products. For instance, if a customer is about to buy a bed frame, maybe a “Must be completed with” box delivering a mattress and a slatted bed base would be effective. 

Ikea encourages customers to complete the purchase using product recommendations bundles which has helped increase average order value by 6,5%:


Why does it work?

Success of  a frequently bought together strategy is linked to customer delight, so the key lies in convincing your customers that your suggestions for additional purchases will be of real benefit to them. 

Where to implement: product detail page, shopping cart page. 

Lush: Related products

This recommendation includes products that a merchant has defined as related to the current product for merchandising purposes.

Lush uses a “Related content” box to give customers the opportunity to make their purchase better. 


Why does it work?

This is great for cross-sell and up-sell where the merchant needs full control over what items appear together. It can be used to inspire customers with products that complement the one they are looking at.

Where to implement: product detail page. 

Amazon: Your browsing history

These recommendations showcase products a shopper has already viewed.

On Amazon’s product page, the brand shows recently viewed product recommendations to remind customers of the products they had expressed interested in, but had not yet added to the cart:


Why does it work?

As customers engage in product discovery, exploring a catalog in hopes of finding the right item to reach their goals, they often need assistance staying on top of which products they’ve already viewed. No matter how many pages a shopper navigated, a block with recently viewed products allows them to conveniently come back to items that they were interested in.

Where to implement: product detail page, shopping cart page. 

Get more out of product recommendations

Advances in machine learning means it’s easier than ever to deliver personalized product recommendations at the moment when they’re most engaged. A recommendation engine lets merchants automate ecommerce personalization – so you can devote more resources to producing engaging content and making smart business decisions. 

If you’re looking to start recommending (and honestly, why wouldn’t you be), there are 6 things in particular you can do to see a hefty bump in your bottom line:

  1. Offer Similar products 
  2. Highlight your Bestsellers 
  3. Showcase your New Arrivals
  4. Create Frequently bought together recommendations
  5. Promote Related stuff
  6. Don’t forget about Recently viewed items

And if you do all of those, you’re sure to see a significant increase in your sales. 

What’s next

Experimenting with different types of recommendations, you can achieve a level of personalization that was once only possible in physical stores. 

And product recommendations are not difficult to incorporate. – Upsell & Cross-sell will help you launch your first product recommendation campaign in just 3 steps:

  • First, you install our app. 
  • Then, you select types of recommendations that you want to create. 
  • Finally, choose pages for  your recommendations and tap Publish.

You’re all set. Our app will generate smart suggestions for products that your visitors are likely to purchase. 

For more inspiration and 1:1 guidance to get started, contact our support team.