The world is online. People are sharing, talking, and buying everything they like or dislike. And with all this eCommerce is growing at a pace like never before. And do you know what leverage they have today?
It’s the very own Product recommendation. It can be either from a friend or family, sharing links of the Hot New Deals in the market or it can be the eCommerce itself. Moreover, looking at the broader image, it’s always the seller, the eCommerce store to start the chain of product recommendation to grow eCommerce sales.
Hence, in this article, you will be learning about Product Recommendation and how you can use Product recommendation tactics to boost your sales.
What is a Product recommendation?
As the name is suggesting, it is the way of recommending a product to your potential customer or the viewer on your site. But taking this a step forward, the best way to do so is by creating a personalized recommendation for each customer.
The reason for this is shown by the survey conducted by Epsilon where it is seen that 80% of customers are more likely to buy from a customer that gives them a personalized experience.
What are the benefits of Product recommendation?
Other than the increase in sales by 35% for the eCommerce, having a product recommendation system for your eCommerce build trust within your customers. About 55% of the customers are more likely to return and make the purchase based on the recommendation they got before.
Other than all the statistical data, when your customer gets to see professional product images editing and a good experience while shopping from you, he or she is more likely to share your site– or can we say “recommend your site” to his friend and family. One of the best kinds of marketing that you can get.
To get all these benefits, you need to make sure that you are practicing and using the most beneficial product recommendation tactics. And for that, here are Top 10 ways you can use Product recommendation tactics to boost your sales.
10 Ways you can use Product Recommendation Tactics to Boost Your Sales
Home page
The home page is one of the most important places on your site. Especially, if you are having an eCommerce store or a website, it would be the first place your new customer would be landing upon.
As the customer is new, you won’t be having any previous data, hence your goal would be to catch attention by showing off the best deal of the best selling product.
Also recommended, do not force your customer to sign up immediately, rather leave it until he or she has completed the buying and checking out for payment and delivery options.
Product page
It is hands down, one of the best places to showcase personalized product recommendations. How? Let us understand this taking two situations that you shall come across.
First, where your customer is new and recently landed on a product page. Here, you won’t know much about your customer but, you have found out what product he is interested in. Hence, it would be very wise of you to up-sale your product. It means to recommend similar products in your store.
Second, where your customer has signed up previously and has been a previous customer to your eCommerce. Now with data, you shall cross-sale the products. It means recommending the products that are related to the previous purchases and recent searches.
This section is very important as it enhances your customer experience and shows the products they can purchase in and along with a similar category.
Search page
Aren’t you impressed by google search results that show you results even if you spell the item wrong or incomplete? We may not appreciate it verbally but all know the importance of how well it shows us the result.
Similarly, for your search bar, it would come in very handy for your customer to find the desired and related products even if they aren’t able to find it particularly. Moreover, it would also encourage them to check out other products rather than just leaving your site if the product is unavailable.
This isn’t just about customer experience but also about making sure that your customers engage with your site and product, if not today then for future purchases.
Category Page
If you have a wider niche of products on your site, another great place for the best product recommendation would be the category page. Along with showcasing the products classifying them based upon their respective niche, you can also show different categories such as:
- Best Selling Products
- New Release
- Best Deals
- Top Trending Products
Not only would it flaunt the reach of your eCommerce but would also build interest in new and interesting products.
Shopping cart
Next, the best place where you can convert your customer is the shopping cart. The main reason here is that the person on this page is already trusting your eCommerce and purchasing a product.
What you do is, recommend the products that they can buy along with the product they are buying. For eg: if someone is purchasing Football Shoes, you may recommend them long socks, football leg pads, and even a football maybe.
In addition to this, you can even recommend bundle deals. From the previous example, it can be Shoe( that they are already on the way to buy), long socks, and leg pads all combined at the discounted price.
Such offers can really enhance your customer experience and you can gain trust as well as word of mouths marketing through this recommendation.
Seasonal banners
Other than the places we discussed above, recommending products on the banners of your site is a great way to convert your customer as well as make your site look more esthetic. Especially, during particular seasons and festivals.
You can use this time for the product recommendation that people might not be searching for but would be interested in buying it if they saw it. For eg: During the winter season, maybe someone comes to your site to search for a jacket or an overcoat and see that you have a special section for mufflers, hand gloves.
This situation can even be vise-versa but the aim here is to recommend the obvious product that someone would like to buy based on the time of the year it is.
E-mails
Do you know, emails have resulted in a 50% increase in cart abandonment. Hence, they aren’t just like other blind marketing techniques, they can get you some unexpected sales. Now, when you have so much potential through email, you shall also use it for recommending the products.
Now, there can be two types of emails that you are most likely to send. First to customers who have abandoned the cart without purchasing anything. For them, you would mail them reminding them about the product they left in the cart along with similar products. Hence now they can choose the best options from them.
Secondly, there will be customers who haven’t bought from you for a long time. For them, you shall send a mail with product recommendations based on the product they previously bought and they would also like to buy now. You can even send them an alert mail regarding the sale, or new arrivals that they would be interested in.
Chatbot/ Online assistance
It is a very new yet amazing concept that’s catching trends in eCommerce. Using chatbot as online or virtual assistance is an amazing way to personalize your product recommendation to grow your eCommerce.
A good chatbot can assist the customer by recommending customers other options based on the page they are present right now. Other than this, they can also reduce cart abandonment by showing them other options they can go for.
If used right, chatbots can make a great difference as the customer would get an interactive eCommerce to help him choose the product according to his or her choice.
Past History and behavior
As of now, we have discussed where and somewhat how you can recommend products to your potential customer. But in addition to that all, you can also follow this way of product recommendation.
Knowing what your customer has bought in the past, and what kind of products he or she is interested in can be very helpful in suggesting the products to them and increasing your returning customer.
Show rating based and location-based recommendation
Finally, the best way to recommend the product to the customer in order to grow your sales would be showing the higher rating products to your customer. This will imply that you are recommending a well known and trustworthy product.
Taking this a step further, you can even use the location of your customer in order to give better suggestions to your customer. For eg: if someone is living in the areas where there is heavy rainfall, you can suggest an umbrella or a raincoat. And another person living in a place where the sun is shining very bright and warm, you can suggest shades to them.
Surly the vice versa of the product won’t work in this case as it is location-based targeting and if done right, would give you more sales than you can expect.
Bonus Read
As you have read above, product recommendation is an amazing method to showcase that you care about your customer. Not only it shows that you know what your customer wants, but it also builds trust between you and your customer.
Moreover, the growth eCommerce has shown using these following methods is astonishing. All the above-mentioned ways are tried and tested along with some addition to make sure that you are future-ready. Hence, don’t hold back on giving your efforts.
You may also note that the amount of effort you would give to your customer experience, the better it would be for your eCommerce to grow.
Bio: Chetan Menaria is Partnership & Collaboration Manager at PixelPhant, an eCommerce & fashion photo editing service provider. PixelPhant edit product images to make them look professional & eCommerce ready. Loves to learn new things every day, read something all the time, never miss the sunset & do Product Designing & Create content.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @chetanmenaria3
