It has never been easy to recommend something to other people, including your friends and not to
mention people you have never met or talked to. Just like users in your online shop! If you run an ecommerce
business, you should know how important it is to recommend the right products to the
right people in order to encourage them to buy more and come back to you for more in the future.
Having said earlier how difficult it is to recommend, so, what should you do to avoid mistakes when
displaying your product recommendations to complete strangers? What’s more, your
recommendations have to hit the right target, but how? It is not easy at all, but doable.
2. It has never been easy to recommend something to other people, including your friends and not to
mention people you have never met or talked to. Just like users in your online shop! If you run an e-
commerce business, you should know how important it is to recommend the right products to the
right people in order to encourage them to buy more and come back to you for more in the future.
Having said earlier how difficult it is to recommend, so, what should you do to avoid mistakes when
displaying your product recommendations to complete strangers? What’s more, your
recommendations have to hit the right target, but how? It is not easy at all, but doable.
Although some things may seem rather obvious, but, when it comes to the real life, most of the e-
commerce businesses tend to make one major mistake: they think they know what suits their users
most without actually asking them.
Nothing could be further from the truth! Of course, we are not implying that you have no knowledge
about your target group. However, in e-commerce, it is quite impossible to know every individual
customers. Unlike an offline business, we are unable to meet and speak to them in person and hear
about what they like. Nonetheless, we still want them to be satisfied with our service and most
importantly, find and BUY what they have come for or even buy MUCH MORE than what they have
come for.
„I know the best what my
users want, so I can identify.
Their needs just rights”
A big mistake of e-commerce business:
INTRO
3. Are you able to guess what other products
the users who have bought a basketball
ball would be eager to search for?
A LITTLE QUIZ
4. You might be thinking it’s a pair of sport shoes. Or maybe it’s a pair of basketball
shorts? Oops…but the correct answer is DEODORANT!
Would you have thought about this by merely using your own ‘human’ logic?
Very unlikely...
However, there is nothing to worry about. What may sometimes seem difficult
for us to understand is easy for the case of technology – technology can learn
about the users’ needs, preferences and the products they would like to buy
based on their activity on the site. Although you are unable to follow thousands
(or even millions) of your customers on the site, technology can achieve that.
Furthermore, this technology analyses all the data and creates
recommendations tailored to the user’s needs.
Thus, our belief continues:
Have trust in smart technology rather than your intuition.
Users are unpredictable!
Here is our mantra:
A LITTLE QUIZ
!
! !
5. PRODUCT
RECOMMENDATIONS
TYPES
Product Recommendations
Best Practices
Technology is a ‘must have’ if you want to display product recommendations
which will ultimately lead to higher sales. However, even if you use the best tools
available or try to work this out yourself, you will still need to follow some basic
rules in order to achieve satisfactory results.
Why?
1. Because users are already used to certain standards throughout decades of
surfing the web.
2. It is due to the fact that there is nothing worse than displaying a bad product
recommendation or making a poor placement.
That is why we have prepared a list of rules you are advised to follow when using
recommendation widgets on certain pages of your online shop.
8. PRODUCT
RECOMMENDATIONS
TYPES
3. GENERIC
RECOMMENDATIONS:
They serve as inspirations; these are best
sellers, top viewers, or top rated products.
The important thing to remember about this
type of recommendations is to apply the right
logic. Many online businesses make a major
mistake by assuming that they know exactly
which products are complementary to one
another. However, users often surprise us and
make choices we would never have predicted.
That is why it is important to follow the users’
logic rather than ours and take advantage of
the technology to discover and understand
users’ way of thinking correctly.
Product Recommendations
Best Practices
There are 3 main Recommendation types:
10. RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
In most cases, your homepage is the
first thing users see upon their visit.
Hence, it should either be kept general
or if you are displaying it to a returning
user you can make it personalized by
displaying recommendations based on
the user’s earlier activities.
It may be the company’s strategy not to
display any product recommendations
on their homepage. Even with a very
striking design, this is not the best
strategy for the online shop. Users
simply love to see what the hottest
items are in this season according to
the buyers and the items that other
users have viewed on the site.
HOMEPAGE
11. Homepage Advised
Recommendation Types:
• Personalized Products
for returning users.
• Generic Products for new users.
Position on the webpage:
Depends on Homepage layout.
Personalized products should be shown
at the bottom or bottom-right side of the
webpage.
Usual headlines:
„Recommended for you”
„ Products that you might like”
„Bestsellers”
HOMEPAGE
Personalized
products
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
12. Category page is a great but often
underestimated place to display your
recommendations.
The best logic to use on category page
is the Generic one (bestsellers and/or best
viewers filtered to the currently viewed
category). Such a logic is the safest way
to bring the best selling merchandise
from your store within selected category.
It is also acceptable to show personalized
products based on the users’ behaviour
and products they were interested in on
their visit in the store, also limited to
selected category.
However, you have to be cautious with
this logic as it might occur that you end
up with no recommendations displayed
at all should there be no products
meeting the filters and logics applied.
CATEGORY PAGE
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
13. Hence, in general, we would advise using
the generic logic for the category page.
Users will appreciate if you show them the
best selling products from the category.
However, try not to exaggerate, make it
3-6 bestsellers rather than 20. It is also
acceptable to filter recommendations to
the main category. For example, ‘iPhone
cases’ under the subcategory could be
found under the main/mother category
‘iPhone accessories’.
CATEGORY PAGE
Filter by one brand! Do not recommend
products from just one manufacturer in
category page recommendations! The users
will soon find out that you are trying to mislead
them and by trying to sell what is best for you.
This can do you more harm than good.
DO NOT!
Make 3-6 bestsellers
rather than 20!
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
14. Advised Recommendation types:
• Personalized Products
for returning users.
• Top selling Products for new users.
Position on the webpage:
Recommendations are usually shown on
the category page either at the very top
or at the very bottom of the page. When
placing it on the top, before products
listings, you need to make sure that the
recommendations do not cover the
entire screen so that users do not need
to scroll down in order to see the first
organic product listings.
Usual headlines:
“Recommended for you”,
“Products that you might like”,
“Top selling from this category”
CATEGORY PAGE
Recommendations are
placed on the very top
...
... or the bottom of the page.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
15. For e-commerce websites, the product
page is the most important in terms of
placement for recommendations. This is
the page where the sales process speeds
up and user makes the most important
decisions. Therefore, it is vital to make the
most out of the product page in your
online store and use recommendation
widgets in the best possible way. It is
essential to keep recommendations on
the product page personalized for
returning users. Such a strategy always
guarantees the best results.
PRODUCT PAGE
FROM QUARTICON EXPERIENCE:
we can state that the recommendations
on the product pages generate
the highest sales above any other
recommendations placements.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
16. Advised Recommendation types:
• Complementary Products
• Alternative Products
Position on the webpage:
Alternative products are normally shown
on the right side of the product.
Complementary recommendations are
generally placed below the product.
Usual headlines:
“Products that you might also like”,
“People who bought this also bought’”,
“Chosen for you”
PRODUCT PAGE
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
17. HERE ARE THE MOST
IMPORTANT TIPS FOR
PRODUCT PAGE
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Always show the complimentary
products at the bottom of the product
page (for 3+ column websites).
Different products which are
complementary to the currently viewed
product – based on the history and
behaviour of other customers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
18. 2. Always show the alternative products
on the right-hand side of the product
page (for 3+ column websites).
Different products which are similar to the
actual viewed product (based on the
history and behaviour of other customers,
as well as the list of other products that
customer considers to buy).
3. Do not switch placements for the
two above (for 3+ column websites).
The outcome might not be desirable.
Users are already used to this kind
of approach to see similar products on
the right and complementary products
at the bottom.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
19. 4. Filter products to the main category.
Consider filtering recommended products
to the main product category (Electronics,
Clothes, Books, etc.) to avoid recommending
clothes in electronics product page.
5. Do not present user with too many
recommendation widgets.
Having more than 2 widgets might result
in an adverse effect than the expected one.
It might confuse your customers which will
make you end up with no sales at all. More
recommendations do not always mean
more sales. We have seen how some of
QuarticON customers changed the layout
by adding 4 recommendation widgets
instead of 2 which they used to have.
As a result, their sales went down instantly.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
20. 6. Use standard headers for your
widgets.
It is important to be creative on your
website. However, it is better to stick to
the standards at times. Standardized
headers for recommendation widgets is
one such case. So you should rather say:
“Products that you might also like”
or “People who bought this also bought”
rather than “Check this one out” or “Other
products in our store”. The general rule is
that the headers should inform the user
why we are presenting him with this
specific set of products.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
21. Do not be mistaken. When the product
goes to the shopping cart it is not the
end of the story. Actually, the cart is a
place where the users tend to spend
even more money than what they have
intended when they started shopping.
The key is to provide them with the
right recommendations.
SHOPPING CART PAGE
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
22. SHOPPING CART PAGE
ALWAYS!
1. Show complementary products in the
shopping cart. The shopping cart is one of
the best places for cross-selling. This is a great
opportunity to inspire the users, or even
remind them what they could have forgotten.
2. Use the price filter and suggest
complementary products which are not too
expensive. Give impetus to the rapid purchase
without much to think about. Keep the
recommended products within the price
range of 30% of the product/products added
into shopping cart.
3. Create the ‘Add to Cart’ button for the
recommended products widget. Allowing the
user to add products easily without leaving
the cart is not only convenient for the him,
but it can also improve your sales from the
shopping cart recommendations
tremendously.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
ADD TO
CART
23. SHOPPING CART PAGE
NEVER!
1. Suggest alternative products in the
shopping cart. This may kill your sales! You
do not want user to change his/her mind
when products are already in the cart.
2. Recommend a product which is already
added to the shopping cart even if it is
different color.
3. Show products which the user has
bought lately or in previous session,
unless it is not food, cosmetics, or other
FMCG goods. Consider using QuarticON.com
recommendation engine that will never let
you make such a mistake.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
24. ERROR „404” PAGES
On 404, you have to explicitly inform the user about the error but why not also
recommend your best sellers or top rated products? The potential of 404 page is
rarely taken advantage of. With QuarticOn recommendation widget, you can direct
users on the buyer’s path even from this abandoned, ‘Page not found’ area.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
25. NO SEARCH RESULTS PAGES
An approach with a slight difference but rather
similar, could be used with the ‘No results’ page.
Most of the small and medium-size online shops
search engines are too distant from being perfect.
To be honest, the big e-shops often deal with the
same problems. ‘No search results’, which is the
most common situation is when user has misspelled
the name of a searched product and the search
engine brings him no results at all – this is a very bad
practice for the ecommerce industry!
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
Not everyone is wealthy enough to purchase advanced search technology
which is quite an expensive investment for the majority of eCommerce
businesses. Why should you show a blank page to the user rather than
‘Personalized Recommendations’? It is not only a great way to improve
usability and fill the gaps of your online shop, but it also helps to increase
the sales with cost-effective personalization technology. Recommendation
widget on “zero search results page” is the best you can get if you do not
intend to build the coolest search engine ever which is both expensive and
in most cases just unnecessary, if your eCommerce business is not that big.
26. Do not forget to place some recommendations
even when the user gets as far as the ‘Thank
you page’.
This is an amazing placement for up-selling.
Recommendations are based on the historical
data of what the user has bought lately and
what he has bought just now.
It is particularly important to take advantage
of the up-selling potential of the ‘Thank you
page’ in the food&beverages stores and online
stores selling FMCG goods.
The only condition you need to follow while
considering the ‘Thank you page
recommendations’ is to create the possibility
of reopening the shopping cart and adding
more products to the same order. Customers
do have last minute thoughts on what they
have forgotten to put into the cart so let’s not
discourage them by insisting them to make a
brand new order.
THANK YOU
(CONFIRMATION) PAGES
RECOMMENDATIONS
STANDARDS:
WHERE AND HOW
TO USE THEM?
27. THANK YOU!
Feel free to contact us!
Przemysław Mańkowski
CEO
mobile +48 533 320 184
e-mail pm@quarticon.com
twitter @przemanko
linkedin linkedin.com/in/przemanko
Quarticon.com, Szarotki 10/16
02-609 Warsaw, Poland