Guide to Ecommerce Product Recommendation for Shopify

Hey fellow Shopify users, if you're reading this article, it's likely that you're facing the challenge of making your ecommerce store stand out in a crowded market. We understand your frustration. The ecommerce landscape is fiercely competitive, and simply having a great product isn't enough anymore. To succeed, you need to create a unique, personalized shopping experience that keeps customers coming back for more.

In this guide, We'll guide you through the essentials of ecommerce personalization for Shopify. We will share practical tips, proven strategies, and real-world examples to help you create a shopping experience that resonates with your customers.

Why Shopify personalization is important?

You may be wondering why it is important to implement personalization in Shopify. There are several reasons:

• Ecommerce personalization trends show that businesses that invest in personalized experiences see a substantial return on investment. Recent studies have shown that personalized product recommendations can drive up to 30% of ecommerce revenue.
• 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase when brands offer personalized experiences.

For Shopify store owners, embracing personalization is important. You can strengthen customer relationships by implementing effective personalization strategies, then foster brand loyalty, and ultimately drive more revenue. Therefore, if you're looking to enhance your Shopify store and create a memorable shopping experience, personalization is the key to success.

How to implement product recommendation on Shopify?

Adding personalization to your Shopify store may initially appear challenging on your own, but two methods can assist you in developing it.

Built Shpoify personalization in-house

The following process outlines the steps required to build Shopify personalization in-house:

1. Leverage Shopify’s Liquid templating language to create dynamic content that meets your business needs.
2. Utilize Shopify's APIs to access and manipulate customer data.
3. Integrate JavaScript into the client-side personalization and interactivity framework.
4. Create custom product options using Shopify's variant system.
5. Develop a backend system to process and store personalization data.
6. Use Shopify's Sections feature to create modular, customizable content blocks
   Implement A/B testing to optimize personalization strategies.
7. Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
8. Regularly analyze performance metrics to refine personalization algorithms.
9. Consider using Shopify's GraphQL Admin API for more advanced data queries.

App-Based Personalization

It is important to be aware that the traditional methods for personalization on Shopify are complex and require many time. However, the introduction of innovative way of using apps like AfterShip Personalization has made it possible to manage all of these metrics in a single platform. A well-designed personalization system will implement these personalized changes for your shop:

• Personalized product recommendations: Utilize data to provide personalized product suggestions that align with each visitor's unique interests and purchasing history. This approach is critical to the success of personalizing a website, ensuring that customers find the items they are looking for, which in turn increases brand loyalty and revenue.

• Personalized products search: A personalized products search function allows customers to search for products based on their own unique interests and past purchases. A dynamic search function that adapts to user preferences allows for a smoother and more personalized browsing experience.

• Artificial intelligence product tagging: Make use of artificial intelligence to ensure the accurate and efficient tagging of products. This method enhances the discoverability of items by ensuring they appear in relevant search results, thus improving the personalized homepage experience by connecting customers with their desired products faster.

• Comprehensive Analytics: Use analytics to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences. This data allows for further refinement of your personalization strategies.

Pros & Cons of Two Way

How to choose a Shopify personalization app?

Selecting the right Shopify personalization app is essential for the success of your ecommerce business. It is advisable to consider above pros and cons when selecting a Shopify personalization app. In the following section, we will present some fundamental principles:

1. Identify Your Personalization Requirements
Before you start the selection process, it's important to clearly define what you're looking for. Here's a simple process to help you identify it:

• Identify your objectives: either you want to increase engagement, conversion rate, GMV, or something else.
• Understand your audiences: who are your customers, their demographics, interests, purchase history, etc.
• Analyze your content and offerings: what services, products, or content can be personalized?

Are you looking to offer personalized product recommendations, dynamic content, or just refine your store's homepage? Understanding your specific needs will help you narrow down the options and choose an app that aligns with your objectives.

2. Evaluate Features and Capabilities
Now you should have a list of your requirements, different personalization apps offer various features and capabilities, only some can match your requirements, for example:

a. Enagegement:
If you're looking to increase your engagement rate, you should check these features:

• Personalized product recommendations based on customers' browsing and purchase behavior, geographics, etc.
• Customize design
• AI engine
• Rule engine
• Multi-modal search
• Search popup content
• Search result page
• AB testing & Dashboard

b. Conversion rate:
To improve conversion rate mostly focuses on customer journey, you need to check the checkout solutions like:

• Personalized checkout experience: like product offers, free gifts, free samples, custom banners, cart validation, customized payment and customized delivery.

c. GMV and AOV:
GMV is more like increase conversion rate like we just discussed above, plus increase in AOV (Average Order Value), for AOV, you should check this feature:

• Recommendation with bundle and cross-selling.

Apps like AfterShip Personalization – AI Recommendations are renowned for it's above features. Based on what you need, you should figure out which features are most important to you.

3. Check Integration and Compatibility
Ensure that the personalization app you choose seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stacks.

4. Data Privacy and Security Complaince
Check what customer data the app collects and how it uses that data. Verify if the app complies with regulations like GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, etc.

5. Read Reviews
Look for feedback from other Shopify store owners who have used the app to understand its strengths and weaknesses.

6. Consider Pricing
While it's important to find an app that fits your budget, it's equally crucial to consider the potential return on investment (ROI). Many apps offer free trials, so take advantage of these to test the app before committing.

7. Assess Customer Support
Good customer support can make a significant difference in resolving any issues quickly and ensuring a smooth personalization process.

8. Test and Iterate
Once you have selected a personalization app, it is crucial to test its performance and continuously refine it based on the results.

After considering the aforementioned factors, you may find yourself in a position where selecting two or three apps is challenging. In such instances, we would suggest that you check our 'Top 10 Ecommerce Recommendation Systems', which will assist you in making the final decision.

Are there any principles to check whether my Shopify personalization is success?

You can follow 4Rs of perconalization to check:
1. Recognize:

• Identify and understand your customers
• Collect and analyze data on customer behavior, preferences, and demographics
• Use tools like customer relationship management (CRM) systems and analytics platforms to gather insights

2. Remember:

• Store and utilize customer data across interactions and touchpoints
• Create comprehensive customer profiles that include purchase history, browsing behavior, and preferences
• Implement systems that allow for easy access to this information across your organization

3. Recommend:

• Use collected data to provide personalized product recommendations
• Implement recommendation engines that suggest relevant products based on browsing history, past purchases, and similar customer profiles
• Offer personalized content, such as personalized email campaigns or customized landing pages

4. Relevance:

• Ensure all personalized content and recommendations are timely and contextually relevant
• Deliver personalized experiences across all channels, including website, email, mobile apps, and in-store
• Continuously refine and improve personalization efforts based on customer feedback and performance metrics

Conclusion

Are you looking to streamline the process of personalizing your Shopify store? Try Aftership Personalization! Take your ecommerce business to the next level with AfterShip, the leading provider of Shopify personalization solutions.