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Setting up an online store with WooCommerce is easy, but that doesn’t give you full advantages. You need to enhance the shopping experience in your store from time to time. The golden rule for any business is to increase sales. Selling more is the ultimate goal for every shop owner. But convincing customers to buy more is not that easy. You need to implement proper marketing strategies to increase sales.
Related products or recommendations are a subtle way to push your customer to buy more or buy higher. They may feel it to be convenient to see the recommendations also it will benefit the sales. So it’s a win-win deal for both customer and shop owner.
Now let’s see some examples of related products on various eCommerce sites.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of adding related products to your WooCommerce store.
That being said, let’s see what are the benefits of using related products in WooCommerce.
1. Upselling and cross-selling
Related products can be used for upselling and cross-selling in your WooCommerce store. In this way, you can increase the sales and cart value.
Upselling
Upselling is a strategy to convince your customers to buy a superior version of the product they are looking for. Let’s say, for example, your customer came looking to your online store for a mobile worth 500$, and there he sees a recommendation of a phone with a 750$ price mark. This way the shop owner can prompt the customer to go for the superior product as it has more features. This is a common strategy in eCommerce where shop owners increase the order value.
Here is an example of upselling products through recommendations.
So related products let you upsell products in your WooCommerce store.
Cross-selling
Cross-selling is also a strategy similar to upselling as the difference here is, that this lets you offer supplementary or complementary products along with the main product which the customer came looking for. This is commonly used in selling accessories for mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. You can make use of related products for cross-selling as this helps customers to find the accessories easily.
Below is an example of cross-selling products as related products.
2. Increase the average time spent
Recommendations in your WooCommerce store will increase the average time spent by a customer. This works as a chain, let’s say that your customer came looking for Product A, and there he saw a recommendation of Product B. Then he will look for the details of Product B, and there he finds Product C. He may not add all the products to his cart but this will definitely increase the average time spent in the store. In this way, you can generate more traffic to your store.
3. Enhance the user experience
Let it be a physical store or an online store, customers love to hear suggestions and recommendations. They might not be fully aware of the product they’re looking for. So they ask the shop owners or salesperson to make a purchase decision. Same way, in an online store you can persuade them to make a purchase decision. Related products will help you give recommendations and suggestions to your customers.
4. Target sales
Related products also help you increase the sales of a particular product. Let’s say the sales numbers for Product X are low and you want to push the product. You can simply add the product as a recommendation along with the related products or categories. This will increase the visibility of that product in your store and thereby attract more customers.
5. Brand Promotion
You can use related products to promote a particular brand and thereby increase its visibility. You can promote different brands and have commissions from them or you can even promote your brand among others. This is common in many of the popular eCommerce sites. When there’s a new brand launched they promote its products through recommendations and thereby increases the brand image.
6. SEO benefits
Related products can be a great way to act as internal links. You can link one product page with other with related product functionality. In this way, you can increase traffic to your website.
7. Decrease cart abandonment
Cart abandonment is a major issue in eCommerce. Related products will help reduce cart abandonment in your WooCommerce store as they suggest various options for the customers to pick from.
8. Social Proof
A nudge like “Customer who bought this product also brought can be social proof and you can push your customers to add more to their cart.
The above-mentioned are the major benefits of using related products in your WooCommerce store.
Best practices for adding related products
You’ve learned the benefits of using related products in your WooCommerce store. Now let’s see how to get the best out of it. We will share with you the best way to use related products.
1. Bucket testing
First of all, you should be aware that there’s no such golden strategy that guarantees maximum results. You have to constantly try one or the other to find out which works best for you. Place recommendations on different pages of your store to see where they work best: home, product, checkout, and even categories pages.
2. Use popups effectively
Popups are the best option to show related products without making the users navigate across pages. Use popups effectively as they can be subtle but can bring good results.
3. Email Recommendations
Email marketing is still the best way to send personalized recommendations. It can be a perfect tool for upselling and cross-selling. Email marketing also helps in recovering cart abandonments. If you are running an eCommerce business it’s a must that you use email marketing.
4. Use Social Proof
Social proofs are a proven psychological behavior of users tending to copy others. A small nudge like “Customers who bought this also bought“ would bring social proof to your WooCommerce store. Also, a product with 10 reviews is more likely to sell than a product with 0 reviews. Users have a tendency to follow the trend and social proof.
5. Don’t overdo
Yes, this is the best practice you can follow. You can try different strategies, but don’t overdo it. Popups are good, but don’t let them ruin your customer’s shopping experience. Remember relevance is the key. Recommended products should be relevant to the customer. Showing irrelevant products will annoy customers.
In this way, you can bring the best results from related products.
To Wrap up:
If you own a WooCommerce website, adding a related products section that is customized to your store is very easy. We have a detailed guide on how to add related products in WooCommerce that may interest you.
Wanna share something? Drop your comments below.
