Offering product recommendations is a tactic as old as retail itself. And for good reason… Product recommendations work. In fact, one Fresh Relevance client saw a 112% increase in sales with onsite product recommendations.
When it comes to retention, research shows that customers are more likely to be loyal to retailers who show them personalized product recommendations. Almost 1 in 4 consumers want retailers to make it easy for them to discover more products they might like.
And with a plethora of customer data available at the average eCommerce manager’s fingertips, there are plenty of opportunities to personalize those product recommendations and ramp up their retention-boosting power.
Here are 3 types of product recommendations to help boost your customer retention rate.
1) ‘Frequently browsed or purchased’
Use past purchase data to recommend products that your customer has frequently browsed or purchased, reminding them of products that they are already interested in but haven’t carted yet or items that are available for repurchase. This type of product recommendation works well for beauty retailers, for example, where shoppers are likely to have preferred brands and buy products that need replenishing.
Look Fabulous Forever sends cart abandonment emails to remind their shoppers to complete their purchase, along with product recommendations to provide the extra dose of inspiration a shopper might need to return to the website.
Look Fabulous Forever has seen more than 10x ROI with Fresh Relevance. Read their full success story.
2) ‘Similar customers bought’
Harness your customers’ desire to follow the wisdom of the crowd and use past purchase data to recommend products that were bought by similar customers. This type of product recommendation can be particularly effective for eCommerce fashion stores, since without the ability to try on and touch products, customers are likely to put their purchase decision into the hands of their shopping predecessors.
Boost the efficacy of this recommendation type by using headers such as “People like you buy”.
In this example, Rip Curl greets each customer on the homepage with a range of products ‘recommended for you’, which include products that were bought by similar customers.
Rip Curl has seen a 2% increase in sales with product recommendations on their homepage and within emails. Read their full success story.
3) Complimentary products
Recommend complementary products based on what other shoppers of this product have ended up buying with it to remind customers of accessories that they might have forgotten when they filled their cart. Almost 1 in 4 consumers want retailers to recommend complementary products, so this is a tactic worth trying.
This product recommendation type can work well for home retailers, where larger products often work well with smaller, related items. Try using this recommendation type at the checkout to increase the order value or include in your post-purchase communications to encourage another purchase.
In this example, FFX displays items that are ‘also purchased with’ the product the shopper is browsing.
Read FFX’s full success story.
Discover more retention strategies, as well as awareness and acquisition tactics in Reload Digital’s comprehensive guide to the perfect eCommerce customer journey.
This free eBook is packed full of real-life examples and actionable tips from Little Dot Studios, Gorgias, dotdigital, Fifty, Facebook, Fresh Relevance, Shopify, Klaviyo, and LoyaltyLion.
Download your copy to find (and fill) the gaps in your customer journey.
