If you are planning to open your own e-commerce based business, there are a number of helpful tips and suggestions that you should take firmly to heart. One of these is the addition of a recommendation engine to your e-commerce site, as this is an excellent way to collect data on your customers’ buying preferences.
The use of a recommendation engine has helped websites, such as Amazon and Facebook, grow from start ups to major players in the industry within the space of a few very short years, and it can do wonders for your own new business as well.
How Does A Recommendation Engine Work On Your Website?
A recommendation engine is a computer generated algorithm that can be installed on your website by any professional custom web design provider. Once installed, the engine works by collecting the data created by each and every individual customer that logs on to your site and browses through the various goods and services that you have available for sale. Every item that they view, every item they store in their shopping cart, and every item that they purchase is captured and stored by the recommendation engine.
How Can A Recommendation Engine Stimulate Sales?
Once collected, this data can be used to generate products that are individually tailored to the interests of the customer, as suggested by their browsing history and past purchases. The recommendation engine will thus create a list of products that are expressly “Recommended For You”, based on all of this data. The customer will see items that may well stimulate their interest and, more importantly, might just trigger an “impulse buy” or some serious consideration for a purchase in the very near future.
Recommendation Engines Can Be Found All Over The Web
It’s important to note that recommendation engines can be found in a great variety of places, not just on the expected e-commerce websites. The fact of the matter is that you’re also extremely likely to find them being used in places that you might not even realize your data is being collected, such as major social media network sites.
For example, when you log on to Facebook, you might sometimes wonder why the ads that are placed on the right hand side of your screen have such an uncanny resemblance to products you have recently viewed elsewhere on the web. This is no coincidence. Social media sites use recommendation engines to store all of your various likes, shares, and friend adds. This is how Facebook is so easily able to give you a periodically updated list of “People You May Know.”
Increasing Your Knowledge Means Increasing Your Future Sales
The most important reason to add a recommendation engine to your site is a very simple one: Increasing your knowledge of your customers’ browsing and buying habits means acquiring the ability to tailor goods and services directly to their individual needs. This, in turn, is sure to increase the likelihood that they will return to your e-commerce site to purchase more products from you in the future.