Product-Centric and Customer-Centric Recommendations

Retailers don't always know who their customers are.  Although, the more we know about them, the more likely we are to generate additional sales during their shopping visits – we can also make very effective recommendations for anonymous customers. Let's take a quick look at how we can create the best possible customer experience for Albert, our shopper.

What could prospective new customer Albert see in his first visit:

Many times a new prospective customer such as Albert comes to your site and lands on a product page.  You don't know Albert's identity or buying habits because you don't have a cookie on him.  But you do know that Albert is interested in a specific product.  In this case, 4-Tell provides product-centric recommendations back to Albert based on your store's aggregate sales data and product attributes – known as wisdom of the crowd. You can suggest these types of product recommendations:
1) Cross-selling items (products often bought together) - people who purchased this item chose to add these other (related) products together in the same shopping cart.
2) Similar items - alternative choices based upon Albert's selected product.

You can aid Albert's decision by presenting either or both of these recommendation types on the product page, with higher probability of converting your new shopper to an uplifted, satisfied customer.

What would Albert, now your existing customer, see in a personalized email:

Once you know who your customer is, you may want to suggest products, as in a follow up or monthly branding email campaign as well as online user administration (account) tools.  In these cases, Albert is not coming to your site to choose a product.  4-Tell can suggest customer-centric recommendations - products from your catalog that Albert is likely to buy based upon his previous purchase history.  4-Tell's personalized up-sell recommendations factor in all historical purchases for that particular customer.  Therefore, if in the event that Albert bought a recent gift for someone else, his recommendations would be less influenced by this single purchase, since his long buying history is taken into account.

What would Albert, your existing customer, see in a personalized site visit:

When you know both a product history and a shopper's identity, 4-Tell's recommendations can be very powerful. While Albert is looking at a product, you can provide personalized cross-sell recommendations, which suggest products that are bought with the viewed product, and are based upon both of these factors:
1) products that are most often bought alongside the current selected product(s)
2) products that are personalized to the shopper based upon their personal buying history.

If you also show similar recommendations, these recommendations are also personalized to Albert.

As such, 4-Tell provides the best recommendation possible for Albert and all of your customers. 4-Tell's recommendations are powerful for known customers, anonymous shoppers and even those that have yet to look at a product. We recommend that you try them out and gain the benefit of uplifted sales.