Why Adding Similar Recommendation Engine Is Always A Win-Win Business-Decision
Let’s define what is a similar recommendation engine. It’s a visual search engine based on artificial intelligence technology (image recognition and deep learning) that analyzes the product of image and delivers visually similar items from a product feed.
This type of similar-product recommendation systems has many applications and benefits for the fashion industry, from enhancing shopping experience for customers to improving key metrics for online store owners. This versatility is, indeed, the main reason why Wide Eyes’ AI similar recommendation engine is one of the most demanded strategies by fashion retailers (from fast-fashion to luxury brands).
In this article we’ll look at the benefits of visual search engine, and why visually similar recommendations are needed, along with 5 implementation details to beware of:
- Personalized product discovery process and provides the right content in the ecommerce Product Page, Fitting Room, Social Ads, Retargeting or where visuals can influence the buying decision of a customer. A similar recommendation engine can be used to serve customers with personalized online product recommendations based on available products visually similar in color, pattern, shape, etc. to the required product, that result in more up-selling, cross-selling, thus boosting conversion rates. The AI recommendation system helps customers to access automatically a greater number of products in one click, and also to navigate the product catalog in a more visual, intuitive and attractive way.
- Keep the user journey going until they find what they’re looking for. Users land on product pages from a wide variety of paths – from a category or on-site search, and perhaps even more often, off-site search like social media links, ads, etc. Yet, what they all have in common is that the user typically chooses to open this product page because the item clicked is very similar that users want. By suggesting similar alternative items, retailers offer a new way to discover fashion and keep the user journey going until they find what they’re looking for.
- Convert dead ends into conversions. When users finally find the product they want and find out that it is not available, they essentially have two options: 1) feel frustrated and abandon the site or product search, or 2) be persistent and continue looking for new alternatives until they find an item that fits their criteria. Offering users similar available products as alternative in real time is an excellent way of solving out-to-stock problem automatically and improving the conversion rate. Similar product recommendation lets the user easily jump from one product page to the next until they find a relevant item.
- Automate suggestion sections on PDPs with smart recommendations. A lot of retailers rely on user behavior (best-seller products, behavior of other customers, products viewed recently) or also on other products of the same category to automatically generate content for suggestion sections. But according to the customer’s expectations, the real purpose of suggesting alternative products on sections like ‘You may also like’ or ‘Also for you’ is to help them find the “right” product. So increasingly more retailers join the trend to automate this sections with visually similar alternatives. Wide Eyes‘ similar recommendation engine can drive conversion by up to 48% and revenue by 20%, and reach 300% higher engagement compared to other recommendation engines. Choosing the right product page recommendation strategy can further boost the sales.
- Identify duplicates on products catalog. One of the challenges of marketplaces or eCommerces with millions of products is the product duplication. The procedure for finding duplicates in a catalog appears to be slow and not a very accurate manual job. Workers frequently use spreadsheets to compare the SKUs manually. Wide Eyes’ similar recommendation engine can be a shiny tool for finding duplicate items and minimize bugs in product feed or its importation.
At the end, as we have seen with the previous examples, Wide Eyes’ fashion visual search engine is good for business and great for customers. Request a free and personalised similar recommendation demo with your product feed.
