Boost OpenCart 3.x Sales with Intelligent Product Recommendations
It’s 2018, there’s almost zero chance to stumble upon an E-Commerce site that doesn’t feature a “Customers also bought” section in product page designs.
Product recommendations are an integral part of our online shopping experience.
Why?
Because they...
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Increase average order size and boost revenue (12% worldwide)
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Improve Click-Through Rates and bring more page views (x2 higher than sites without related products)
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Bring more sales and overall conversions (x5.5 higher CTR conversion)
Sometimes the product recommendations that go with the main item you’re viewing are even of greater interest and might suit your needs better.
(Example: www.bygonestore.cоm)
So, at this point we know what product recommendations are and why showing related items is quite promising for sales.
But let’s actually see how bigger brands and stores are doing it.
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Amazon acquires 35% of their sales directly from related products (stats)
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Netflix gets 75% more sales from recommendations what to watch (stats)
However, we’re not gonna show you how those huge companies adopt product recommendations.
Nobody can really compare to them, and you’ve probably already seen their way of showing related products.
Instead, what we're gonna do is show you how a few E-Commerce sites from different industries use related products in their designs.
Woodstock Zambon
The first example is a simple one.
You have the Related products section right underneath the main product.
The “Related products” text is plain, but there are two other elements that are more important.
You have a label on the discounted products showing how much you’ll save, and you also have an “Add-to-Cart” and “Quick View” CTA buttons popping up when hovering.
This lets your customers take an action right away if they decide they want to view or purchase the product right away.
Repechage
In this store, the product recommendations are again right underneath the main item.
The difference this time is that the copy states “You May Also Like…”
This kind of text is a bit more inviting and has more emotional words that can attract more eyes than the plain “Related products” sign.
However, mind that there is a difference between Related products and Personalized product recommendations.
With Related products, you display items that are similar by category, models, tags or purpose.
With Personalized product recommendations however, you use the data from the customer behavior and the products they have clicked so far to bring up the most relevant suggestions.
Indigenous
Another example of the “You may also like” way of suggesting different products.
You can also use the product recommendations just for giving new ideas and alternatives for customers.
What this store is doing here is suggesting items that are relevant.
And this is the biggest key in effective product recommendations - relevancy. You don’t want to be showing socks as a related product to elegant high-end shirts, right?
The main goal of product recommendations is to offer customers the most relevant alternatives to what they are interested in.
And it’s important to stay relevant so you don’t lose your customers by showing them products that aren’t similar to the main one in any way.
Hillberg & Berk
This “More items to consider” approach by Hillberg & Berk is a great way to show off the rest of your products.
It sounds inviting and it's a powerful way to keep the interest of customers even when they're not very sure of purchasing the current item.
Also, this is the tactic to increase the Click-Through Rate (CTR) of your store and get your customers to hang out more and take a good look at what you offer.
The more they browse through your products, the more likely it is for them to find the deal they’re looking for.
Elizabeth Suzann
Now, here we have something different.
This store uses the section for product recommendations as a way to offer additional items that go with the main one.
“Wear it with” points that you know what goes best with your products.
This means you can make an accurate suggestion of how customers can complete a certain look or style if they know what’s best and listen to the authority (you).
This can be used in many different industries, such as in technology for example. Suggesting what tech products are compatible with the one that the customer is viewing.
Backcountry
This is a great example of how such a small piece of text can influence behavior and decisions.
Backcountry have a few different types of text for their Related products section, but the one we liked the most was this one:
“Complementary Gear Suggestions from the Community”
So, those are not regular product recommendations, but they are gathered based on social proof. From the community!
And the Wisdom of the crowd is one of the most powerful types of social proof because it suggests a large group of people liking and endorsing your brand or product.
Polaroid
One of our favorite examples is of course, the most simple one.
Polaroid invite you to discover their huge collection of vintage cameras.
They simply want you to take a look at how much alternatives there are to the product you’re viewing.
This surely increases the chances you could find the one you like the most, which means that this type of approach can greatly increase the conversion rates of a store.
How to Create Product Recommendations in OpenCart 3.x?
Actually, that’s quite easy.
When you edit a product and go to the Links tab, you'll find the Related Products field at the bottom.
You have the default functionality for related products that’s built-in OpenCart, but there are certain limitations to it.
It only allows you to assign specific products to other specific products manually.
What you can do to upgrade this functionality and have more flexibility with your product recommendation tactics is use RelatedProductsPRO.
It gives you multiple ways to customize the suggestions appearing underneath the products in your OpenCart store.
Exclusive and Inclusive Relation
You can setup custom product pairs that customers will see when they open one of the items that you have configured in the pair.
Or, you can expand that and show products from more pairs based on similar matches.
Automatic Related Products
This setting uses the default OpenCart functionality for product relation and it can use the products added to the customer’s cart to offer additional suggestions.
If the customer’s cart is empty and this option is enabled, RelatedProductsPRO will use the default OpenCart functionality for displaying the recommendations.
Random Related Products
You can also randomize the product recommendations if the number of related products exceeds the limit you have set in the extension. This way, the products should be different every time the product is opened.
Product Pairs
This is the field where you can configure all the product pairs you want.
Based on the product that’s added to the cart, you can manually set the products that should appear as recommendations.
There are lots of other settings you can tweak with the RelatedProductsPRO extension and you can check them all out in the demo:
Start Selling More Now
Product recommendations are a powerful way to spark more interest in customers to view more of what your store has to offer. The more they browse, the better the chance for increasing conversion rates. RelatedProductsPRO gives you more power and control over the products your OpenCart store will display for customers. Show customers the right suggestions and start selling more now!
