As merchants we know that featuring recommendations on individual product pages helps to find and purchase products they may not have seen before. However, at Nosto we’ve noticed many brands will only feature similar products and then call it a day. While this is beneficial, there are many other strategies that can be employed to better target customers with the products they’re most likely to buy.
As we know, product page recommendations allow merchants to use an individual product page to incentivize purchase before the shopper bounces without converting. The most common strategy is to showcase recommendations of similar products to the one the site visitor is currently viewing. While this makes sense because the user has already shown buying intent, it doesn’t explore the wide range of options available. In layman’s terms, merchants should be going a layer deeper.
Here are 2 examples of retailers who spice up their product page recommendations with real-time segmentation.
Targeting product recommendations to each site visitor
Just like onsite content personalization, product page recommendations should be strategically used based on where your site visitors are in the buying cycle and how likely they are to buy additional products. Let’s look at two retailers who do just that.
Trading Depot
Online electrical wholesaler Trading Depot sells many products that act as components of larger systems. For example, if someone was buying a new sink bowl for their kitchen, they would likely also be looking for kitchen taps, drainers, and other necessities. Instead of focusing on similar products, they saw the opportunity to upsell their client base with relevant product recommendations that they’d likely buy anyway. Using Nosto, they created Dynamic Bundles that help their customers find all the products they need to finish their home project without hassle.

Donald Russell
Food provider Donald Russell also recognizes that their customer base is discerning when it comes to the quality of the food they want to purchase. To showcase the quality of their products, they know they need to create messaging that is tailored to visitors based on where they are in the buying cycle. To do this, they set up product page recommendations that targeted users based on if they were first time visitors, returning visitors, or prospects. As you can see below, for first-time visitors they made sure to note that their products were frozen at the absolute perfect time to alleviate any potential concerns around freshness.


Conclusion
Targeting changes like these help ensure that each user is getting the right onsite experience to help them see the value in your products. Without these recommendations, you run the chance of having users leave or complete their purchase with competitors. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you’d like to learn more about how you can optimize your product page recommendations head here. You can also send us a chat from the button on your screen and we’ll answer any questions you have ASAP.