How can you boost ecommerce sales with recommendation pages?

When you look for options to increase online sales, the usual advice you read is to optimize for organic SEO, boost ads, and take over social media. While these methods are effective, there's another powerful strategy that many website owners should know. It is the use of recommended product pages.

In this blog, you will learn about what recommendation pages are, how they can increase your e-commerce sales, engage your customers, and boost your average order value.

What are recommendation pages?

Recommendation pages are dedicated pages on your website where you display a curated list of recommended products for your visitors. The recommendation pages can include the following products.

• Related products: This shows items similar to what the customer is seeing. Take an example of someone viewing a white shirt. You can see similar white shirts on the repeated products page.

• Complementary products: These are the products that go well with what the user has selected or viewed. If your visitor has added a shoe to the cart, you can recommend socks on the recommendation pages.

• New arrivals: Put up the latest collections and additions of your online store on the recommendation page.

• Best sellers: Show the trending and popular items that other customers are buying. This may interest the visitor and nudge them to make a purchase.

• Product combos or offers: Highlight bundle offers or discounts on related products, enticing customers to buy more at a better value.

How do recommendation pages increase sales?

Recommendation pages don’t just help your customers find what they want. They also help your business in several powerful ways:

It increases the Average Order Value (AOV)

The recommendation pages nudge users to add more to their cart. When users are shown relevant products they’re likely to need or want, they tend to buy more. This strategy increases the average order value (AOV) by suggesting related items or bundles that enhance their purchase.

Here’s an example. If you are adding a laptop to the cart. The recommendation page can have laptop sleeves, hard drives, a mouse, and other products that you may be interested in picking up along with the laptop.

Increases the conversion rates

Visitors and customers like websites that understand their preferences. This increases their time on the site and drives them to make a purchase. Use the algorithms to see what they are looking for and suggest products that go with them. This increases the conversion rates of the other products that can go along with this.

If a customer is viewing a pair of shoes, they might also be interested in socks, shoe polish, and other related products that are put up in the recommendation page.

It engages with the user and retains them

Displaying products that match a customer’s interests ensures that your website remains relevant to them. When they know they will see personalized recommendations in the future, they are more likely to return to your site.

Users will return if they know that after their first purchase, they’ll receive recommendations for complementary products based on their shopping history.

It improves the user experience

Personalized product recommendations make customers feel like the website understands their preferences. When users are shown products they are likely to find useful, they are more likely to stay on your site longer and engage with your offerings.

Where should the recommendation pages be?

If you are wondering where the recommendation pages must be placed, here are some tried and tested options that have worked for WEMASY’s client. If done right, these pages can seamlessly guide customers toward more products, increase sales, and enhance the overall shopping experience.

Right after the product page

One of the best places to direct users to recommendation pages is immediately after they view a product and add the product to the cart. Once a customer has decided on an item, show them related products or complementary items right before they move to checkout. This allows the user to add similar items without getting them to even search for them. All the related and complementary products sell best on these recommendation pages.

Check out and Cart pages

While users are preparing to finalize their purchase, show them related or complementary items they might want to add before completing the transaction. The customers would have already made up their minds on investing in a product and would want to pick products that complement it. It becomes a perfect moment to upsell and cross-sell the other products on your website.

Recommendations on the product page

Display a small section of recommended products on the product page that the user is viewing. For example, if someone is looking at men’s shoes, show them shoe care kits, socks, or matching accessories right within the product page. If you give a combo offer, it becomes an added advantage for the user to buy 2-3 products together.

Recommendations on the home page

When customers return to your site, imagine them seeing what they were searching for on the internet. Keep a section of personalized recommendations to greet them on the home page. This makes the shopping experience tailored to them, which can improve the likelihood of making a purchase.

Sidebars and floating widgets

For users who are scrolling through your site, use a floating recommendation widget that offers suggestions without distracting them from the page they’re currently browsing. It stays visible as users scroll, encouraging them to explore related products without leaving the current page. This works well when the users are still exploring multiple options.

Tips to create good recommendation pages:

When you are building a recommendation page, make sure you do it right. Here are some tips.

• Do not overload the page: Ensure you are not showing more than 5 recommendations. Overcrowding the page will make the user lose interest in the products, and the main goal of the recommendation page will not be achieved.

• Provide a clear value: Explain why the products are recommended. Whether it's because the products are frequently bought together or the user has browsed similar items before, this context can improve the chances of a sale. Messages like “This will help you” or “Our customers also bought” will give a clear indication of what the users will find and why they can pick the products recommended.

• Optimize it for mobiles: With more people shopping on their mobile devices, your recommendation pages and related product sections must be fully responsive. Make sure the template of the page is great and the page loads quickly.

• Don’t stop testing the pages: Regularly A/B test your recommendation pages to see which type of product suggestions perform best. Check which products have good click-through rates and better sales. Keep refining your recommendation pages based on these.

Our team at WEMASY understands that boosting your sales is about more than just having the right products. We make sure that you are delivering a personalized and smooth experience for your customers.

We offer customizable e-commerce templates and tools that allow you to easily integrate recommendation pages on your site. In case you need more assistance and recommendations, just reach out to our team, and we’ll help you set this up.