How To Use Product Recommendation On Your Shopify Store to Boost Sales?

Do you want to increase sales on your Shopify store and keep hearing that cha-ching sound on repeat? Well, it goes without saying that every Shopify store owner loves to hear that sound every single time, right?

But what if you can also put more weight on that cha-ching sound by increasing the average order value (AOV)? It can surely double the joy of celebrating your sales.

Shopify product recommendation techniques can help you to achieve these goals. We know it’s easier said than done, but if you use this technique with a solid strategy and tools, you can also achieve the desired results.

In this blog post, we’re bringing you a detailed guide on Shopify product recommendations, their benefits, different ways to create them, and many helpful tips and tricks to use product recommendations effectively.

What is Product Recommendation?

Product recommendation is a technique of suggesting relevant products to customers anticipating that they would like to purchase them along with the main product that they are browsing or planning to buy.

These suggested products on Shopify could be based on related products, frequently bought together products or products recommended based on customer behavior and history. Also, product recommendations could be displayed on the website pages in many different ways.

For example, if you’re a beauty and cosmetic brand, your product page for lipstick can recommend/display other related products such as nail polish, eyeliner, or even a complete makeup kit.

What are The Benefits of Product Recommendations?

1. Increase Average Order Value (AOV)

When buying a $50 hoodie, if your product recommendations can get a customer to buy a $20 t-shirt together, you just increased your order value from $50 to $70. And if you could increase your order value like this on a consistent basis, it will have a snowball effect on your AOV, overall revenue, and profits.

54% of retailers indicated that product recommendation is the key driver of their Average Order Value.

2. Boost Sales

When vising your store, not every customer is going to explore all of your collections and products. So, when you recommend your customers the products that they might not have searched for by themselves, you’re encouraging them to check more of your products - which can convert lost opportunities into sales.

Product recommendations like upsells and cross-sells are responsible for 10-30% of ecommerce revenues » http://t.co/vPCuckDhEm

— Shopify (@Shopify) March 11, 2015

3. Enhance Customer Experience

Product recommendations are not just for the benefit of your business, customers love them, too. If you provide your customers with the right and personalized product recommendations, it would make their shopping experience smooth and convenient.

4. Reduce Cart Abandonments

We’re living in a world where people have a very short attention span. Some customers might just check a few products and leave your store. By using the exit-intent pop-up for product recommendations, you can have them continue shopping without leaving their cart.

How to Create Product Recommendations for Your Shopify Store?

1. Create Product Recommendations on Shopify

There are some Shopify themes with built-in related products.

Also, you can create product recommendations on Shopify by adding custom code to your Shopify theme files. Once you do this, you can add a section to your product pages that will help you display auto-generated product recommendations.

However, to custom code your theme files, you need to have a sound knowledge of Liquid - a template language that is created by Shopify. So, if you’re familiar with Liquid as well as JavaScript, you may check out Resources available on the Shopify Developers Platform.

For all the Shopify store owners who may not have technical expertise in coding or do not have the time and resources to invest in this method, we’ve got you covered with the next two options.

2. Create Product Recommendations with GemPages

Now let's talk about a relatively easier option - GemPages.

GemPages is an easy-to-use page builder app that helps Shopify merchants to create and customize stunning, high-converting store pages.

To create product recommendations with GemPages, you can use one of its many elements, the Related Products element.

Step 1: Install the GemPages app

First, install the GemPages app to your Shopify store if you haven’t already.
Go to Shopify App Store > GemPages Landing Page Builder app. Click on Add app button and you can start with the free plan.

Step 2: Drag and drop the Related Product element

Go to GemPages Dashboard, select your product page, and click on the Edit button to enter the GemPages Editor. In the left sidebar, search for the Related Products element. Once found, drag and drop it below the product content.

Step 3: Configure the Settings tab

In the Settings tab, you can set up all the parameters and logic to display product recommendations.

• Select Product: Use the “Pick a product” button to select the main product from your Shopify inventory to display its related products.
• Dynamic Switch: This setting helps to display the correct related product for the selected product.
• Order Of Products: Use the Randomize button to display random related products from different collections in your Shopify store.
• Products Per Row: Set anywhere between one to six products that you would like to display per row.
• Number Of Products: Set how many related products you would like to display.
• Exclusions: Exclude products from a certain collection that should not be shown in product recommendations.
• Extra Class: This is for store owners who want to customize the element even further by using coding or CSS skills.

Step 4: Configure the Design tab

The final step would be to fine-tune the design of your Related Product element to ensure that it goes well with your brand. In the left sidebar, you’ll see the Design tab next to the Settings tab. Using this tab, you can customize the design of this element if you want.

And that’s it!

Once your product page is ready with the Related Products, click on Save and Publish the page.

For more detailed information, check out this GemPages Help Center article: Upsell and Cross-sell with the Related Products element

3. Create Product Recommendations with Third-party Apps: Wiser

If you’re still looking for more options on how to add related products in Shopify or want something that integrates with GemPages so that you can double the power of product recommendations, you can try Wiser - Upsell, Recommendations app.

Wiser is a product recommendation app that uses the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create highly relevant recommendations based on customer behavior.

Here are some of the key features of Wiser:

• AI-based Frequently Bought Together products: Show product bundling recommendations based on buying behavior of the previous customers.
• AI-based Personalized recommendations: Display automated product recommendations based on the browsing behavior of customers.
• Customer Journey: Analyze the browsing pattern and actions your customers perform on your store. This can help you personalize your store and enhance your customer experience.
• Advanced Related Products: Display related products based on similar collections, product tags, and product types.
• Manual Recommendations for Personalization: Create manual recommendations and help your customer with a "Shop the Look" product bundling.

Check out this GemPages article for the complete step-by-step guide on How to add Wiser Product Recommendations on your page.

Easily create product recommendations with GemPages

Quickly use our "Related Products element" to create product recommendations and watch your AOV grow.

Start designing today

Tips and Tricks on How to Use Product Recommendations Effectively

Now, let’s take you through some strategies to display suggested products on Shopify along with product recommendation examples.

1. Highlight Your Best-selling Products on The Homepage

Homepage is one of the most critical pages on your website. Make sure that your homepage is designed carefully to make a solid impression.
There are two main reasons you should highlight your best-selling products on your homepage:

1. Obviously, because they’re best sellers and you want to make the most out of it.

2. For your customers, it works as a factor that intrigues them to buy and try the products that are trending.

The Factor Formula - a brand that sells natural skin care products is a perfect example of how the best-selling products should be positioned on the homepage. The neat and tidy homepage designed with GemPages makes the best sellers look strikingly appealing.

The Factor Formula displays its best-selling products through a slider on the homepage so that it can quickly grab the attention of visitors as soon as they land on the homepage.

2. Showcase Bestseller Products on the Product Pages

So, we just saw a great example of displaying the best-selling products on the homepage. Now, let’s see how we can use the same technique of highlighting the bestseller products, but on a different page, i.e., the product page.

By displaying your best-selling products on your product page, you can entice customers to shop more from your brand. Also, if a customer doesn’t like to buy the main product, this technique can help you to prevent the customer from exiting your store by putting your best players in the game.

Another GemPages user and a popular fashion brand - Pink Boutique - is doing great with promoting its bestseller products on the product page. Pink Boutique was founded by a mom-and-daughter team with a small investment in eBay and an initial pack of just 6 dresses. Now, the brand is shipping about 1000 parcels daily from its warehouse.

On Pink Boutique's product page for a blazer, customers can also explore the best-selling products including a bodysuit, dress, etcetera. This gives customers a good reason to shop more and add some trending products to their carts.

3. Display “Similar Products” or “You may also like” on Product Pages

When browsing your product page, a customer is getting one step closer to buying your product. This is one of the best opportunities for you to upsell or cross-sell similar products to your customers.

Also, it could be useful in certain scenarios when a customer directly goes to your product page. For example, if you’re running a specific product-based ad or marketing campaign or when a customer searches for a specific product on a search engine, they may directly click on the specific product page and might not have seen your other products.

Royal Beardsmen - a brand that sells premium natural beard grooming products promotes “Similar Products” on its product pages.

Royal Beardsmen offers a variety of beard grooming and personal care products, and thus, it can be helpful for its customers to explore different products through recommendations shown in “Similar Products”.

Similarly, by recommending some impulse-buying products, you can entice your customer to add them to their cart along with the main product they’re looking to buy. This technique can be very effective, especially for businesses like clothing, accessories, and jewelry.

Clothing brand - Lucy & Yak - is known for its “comfy organic dungas, conscious clothing, and vibrant prints”. It displays related products on product pages with the title - “You may also like”. Lucy & Yak also uses GemPages to create stunning store pages.

On Lucy & Yak’s product page for a long-sleeve tee, customers are recommended different related products such as a dungaree, jeans, and jacket.

4. Display Product Recommendations on The Cart Page

Displaying related products on the cart page is one of the best ways to encourage customers to add more products to their cart in the final stage of their buying journey. If you can recommend your best or most relevant products on the cart page, you can increase the chances of conversion.

Swedishness shows relevant products on their cart page that nudges customers to add those items to their cart.

Swedishness recommends related products on the cart page, which can help you to upsell even at the last step of the customer journey.

5. Recommend Products with Hot Deals on The Thank You Page

“Thank you page” is a webpage displayed upon the completion of a purchase. Usually, Shopify merchants use this page to appreciate and thank the customers for their business, share transaction details, and social media promotions.

All those things are great but you should also be looking forward to more business from your customers. So, why not use your thank you page to display the latest range of products or some hot deals that your customers might not be aware of?

By promoting discount offers to your customers on the thank you page, you can convert your customers into repeat buyers.

6. List out Recently Viewed Products on the Product Page for Returning Visitors

When a customer returns to your online store after a few days or weeks, they may not remember what were the products that they had explored during the last visit. Even if they remember it, they may have to go through a few searches.

91% of customers are more likely to buy from brands that recognize, remember, and provide relevant recommendations and offers. - Pulse Survey by Accenture.

By displaying “Recently Viewed Products” on your product pages, you can make your customers' jobs easy and save some time for them. Overall, this can improve their customer experience and keep them coming back.

A French-based fashion brand - Des Petits Hauts is a great example of providing personalized experience to its customers. “Your latest favorites” section on its product pages displays the recently viewed products.

While browsing different products on Des Petits Hauts, it remembers and recommends the products that you’ve browsed on its store previously.

7. Highlight Frequently Bought Products on the Product Pages

Frequently Bought Together is a product recommendation as well as a product bundling technique that can help you increase your sales and average order value. In this technique, you can display a combination of products that were bought together by previous customers or create a manual recommendation that customers would be likely to buy together.

A bike company - Canyon Bicycles - is highly passionate and dedicated to delivering great bikes to riders. Apart from bikes, it also offers a range of different products that riders would love to buy. On its product page, it displays related products under - "Other Riders Also Bought".

With Canyon's E-Gravel bike, customers are also offered products that other riders also buy, such as a front-light set, water bottle, Garmin mount, and snapback cap.

Easily create product recommendations with GemPages

Quickly use our "Related Products element" to create product recommendations and watch your AOV grow.

Start designing today

Ready to Increase AOV with Shopify Product Recommendations?

In this highly competitive eCommerce era, you must use every single opportunity to maximize your sales and always stay on top of your game. Check different product recommendation strategies, use GemPages to perform A/B testing with different pages, and see what works best for you.

By using the right product recommendation strategies, you can not only grow your business faster but also elevate your customer experience. Happy customers will become loyal to your brand and advocate your brand to others as well.

FAQs about Shopify Product Recommendations

Can I Show Custom Product Recommendations on Shopify?

Yes, there are different ways to show custom product recommendations on Shopify. But with apps like GemPages, you can create custom product recommendations fairly easily.

How Do Product Recommendations Work in Shopify?

To create product recommendations in Shopify, you can either add code to your theme files (if you are a technical expert in Liquid and JavaScript) or install a Shopify related products app like Wiser to help you create product recommendations.

How Do Product Recommendations Increase Sales?

Product recommendations can increase sales by displaying related products that a customer might be interested to buy. This improves a customer's shopping experience and they would be likely to buy more products if they are shown highly relevant products.