7 Best Product Recommendation Software for E-Commerce [2024]

Looking for the best product recommendation software for e-commerce on the market in 2024?

This article reviews the 7 best product recommendation tools for increasing your conversion rate and basket size.

TL;DR

• Big Sur AI offers the best product recommendation software for e-commerce, with its conversational product discovery experience and AI product recommendations. Pricing can be based on sales attributed to the software.
• Bloomreach offers AI-powered product recommendations with its Discovery product plan, which lets you set up a personalized site search function alongside on-page product recommendations. Pricing is calculated based on the features you use and their usage.
• Nosto lets you guide your shoppers through their product discovery journey with real-time product recommendations. Users report that pricing is based on sales attributed to the tool.
• LimeSpot is start-up-friendly product recommendation software that allows you to create a personalized user experience through smart product suggestions. Pricing starts at $18/month.
• Emarsys lets you recommend products across multiple channels, such as email and ads, based on pre-defined rules.
• Luigi's Box uses AI to personalize the content for each user based on consumer preferences and on-site behavior. Pricing starts from ~$1.84/per 1,000 units.
• Coveo AI enables e-commerce brands to nurture the customer product discovery experience in multiple ways - from personalized site search to a conversational experience. Pricing is custom, but users report that it starts at $600/month.

Before we begin, here are a few factors to consider when evaluating product recommendation software for your e-commerce brand.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Product Recommendation Software For E-Commerce

#1: Are The Product Recommendations Accurate and Relevant?

The product recommendation tool needs to use customer data to suggest relevant products to first-time and repeat visitors.

The following tools we will review offer personalized product recommendations that take into consideration each customer's:

• Purchase behavior.
• Preferences and personal attributes.
• Product browsing history.

These tools utilize machine learning algorithms to analyze customer behavior and first-party data to suggest products for each user.

💡Statistics show that personalized product recommendations can make 28% of customers more likely to buy a product they didn’t intend to buy initially.

#2: Are Analytics and Reporting Available?

The product recommendation algorithm should allow you to attribute sales, and the software should report on the results.

The key metrics to look for are the conversion rate and average order value (AOV) linked to the customers who convert from the product recommendations.

For example, you might decide to run A/B tests - the tool should be able to report on the data.

Insights into what products are frequently bought together should also be available so your marketing team can create product bundles or optimize the product pages.

#3: Is it Compatible and Easy to Set Up For My Online Store?

The product recommendation software must seamlessly integrate with your existing e-commerce platform.

Some tools require a set-up fee and can be quite technologically demanding to install on your website.

#4: What Is The Pricing Structure of The Software?

You should evaluate the different tools' pricing models and see what makes sense for your brand.

Some tools price the product recommendations to your bottom line, such as getting a % of each sale that is attributed to the recommendation algorithm.

Other tools price their software based on the usage (e.g., how many users there are on the store) or a fixed annual fee.

After taking into consideration all of the above factors, we selected the best AI-powered product recommendation software:

What Are The Best Product Recommendation Tools for Online Stores?

Here are the best product recommendation tools out of all the software we reviewed:

#1: Big Sur AI - 24/7 conversational experience that is able to recommend products, coupled with AI-powered product recommendations on the product pages.

#2: Bloomreach - AI-fuelled site search that offers personalized product recommendations alongside on-page product suggestions.

#3: Nosto - Real-time product recommendations that are based on consumer behavior on-site.

#4: LimeSpot - Affordable product recommendations for start-ups and small stores.

#5: Emarsys - Set up omnichannel product recommendations across email, advertising, and mobile apps.

#6: Luigi's Box - Increase your basket sizes with cross-selling and up-selling your products.

#7: Coveo AI - Recommend products in different ways, from a conversational experience to a personalized site search.

#1: Big Sur AI

Big Sur AI is an AI-powered sales agent that helps online retailers increase sales by providing your customers with 24/7 real-time assisted shopping experience and AI-driven product recommendations.

Full disclosure: While Big Sur AI is our product, we aim to provide an unbiased perspective on why Big Sur AI is the best product recommendation software on the market.

The ability to replicate a tailored in-store shopping experience online and recommend products to customers is what makes Big Sur AI the best choice for e-commerce brands in 2024.

Here are the 4 most popular Big Sur AI features that our merchants love:

Big Sur AI Features

AI Sales Agent

Our tool approaches product recommendations with a conversational experience.

Big Sur's AI Sales Agent works as a dedicated sales assistant for each of your customers.

Your customers can ask Big Sur’s AI Agent contextual questions about your products and get product recommendations tailored to their needs.

Here’s an example from Rad Power Bikes ⤵️

The tool is trained to provide personalized answers based on the information about your products, site content, and each customer’s engagement with your store, ensuring relevant recommendations.

For example, users can ask the tool for recommendations based on their personal attributes, such as their height ⤵️

E-commerce brands adopt Big Sur AI because of:

• 24/7 Real-Time Assistance: The AI Sales Agent can help your customers find the right product for their needs without relying on human agents to be online.
• Customized to your online store: The merchants control the AI experience. The software has been fed and trained with your store’s information.
• Optimized for conversions: Our tool's advice has been designed to provide relevant recommendations and propose follow-up questions based on data on what would most likely lead to a sale.
• Conversational experience: Your customers can talk to Big Sur’s AI Agent as if they were messaging a human.

AI Product Recommendations

When consumers go to brick-and-mortar stores, product recommendations are generic. They’re the same for all shoppers, usually consisting of:

• Most purchased products overall.
• Frequently bought together.

Our software makes contextual product recommendations based on:

• Your shoppers’ engagement with your online store (e.g., product views and buttons clicked)
• Information gathered through the conversational experience.
• Questions that the customer asked our tool.

Big Sur AI's product recommendations are broken into three modules and are shown to shoppers according to the page they’re on and how they got there:

• Picked just for you: This module displays a selection of products that a user is most likely to buy based on what the tool knows about them.
• Frequently bought together: These recommendations appear once your shoppers add a product to their cart. This module features other products that customers typically buy based on their previous site activity.
• Top sellers: We show the bestsellers in the same product category as the product your customers are considering.

The tool shows products based on the shoppers' gathered information and not generic recommendations.

Your consumers can receive these product suggestions on your product pages or during a conversation with the AI Sales Agent, increasing basket sizes.

Conversion-Optimized AI Prompts

Big Sur AI prompts your users to start more conversations, leading to more purchases and basket sizes.

Our software analyzes how each consumer engages with your store. It predicts which questions they will likely ask and suggests them throughout their shopping experience.

Here’s an example ⤵️

As you can see from the Wyze store, Big Sur AI helps customers alleviate hesitations before purchasing.

💡Shoppers who interact with Big Sur AI tend to convert at four times the rate as the average store user.

These suggested questions are embedded on your product and collections pages and are personalized for every user on your website.

💡This means different shoppers would see different questions crafted to maximize the likelihood of making a purchase.

Merchant Insights

Our AI Sales Agent and AI Product Recommendations gather unique insights that allow you to make better strategic decisions.

First, Big Sur helps you uncover what your customers want to know when they are browsing your products and how questions correlate to purchasing behavior.

You can also get insights on what questions lead to conversions vs. cart abandonment. ⤵️

You also get insights into what products are frequently bought together to help you improve your store’s shopping experience.

Our merchants appreciate the ability to understand correlations between past purchases, customer profiles, and customers' interactions with their stores.

You can use these insights to improve your site's experience, including merchandising and product descriptions, to build a marketing strategy based on what consumers really want.

Lastly, you can see where your customers churn and where the AI Sales Agent helped drive spikes in both sales volume and conversion rate:

Pricing

Big Sur AI has 2 pricing models:

• Commission-Based Model - you only pay when you get sales from the AI Sales Agent.

This is a pay-for-performance model, where you only pay a commission for each sale of your products attributed to our software.

The conversion window is negotiated, but it’s typically 30 days.

• Tiered Pricing Model - recurring monthly payment based on your average volume of unique visitors per month.

Think of these pricing models as if you’re hiring a salesman.

You choose between paying per unique visitor to your website or a commission on each sale attributed to the software.

Pros and Cons

✅ Real-time conversational shopping assistant.

✅ Easy to set up with minimum developer support required.

✅ Data-driven approach to optimizing for conversions.

✅ AI Product Recommendations that personalize the shopping experience.

✅ Seamless integration with Shopify - takes minutes.

❌ Big Sur AI is a new product and hasn’t been as tested as other software on the market.

#2: Bloomreach

Best for: Product recommendations via personalized site search.

Similar to: LimeSpot, Emarsys, Luigi's Box.

Bloomreach offers AI-powered product recommendations with its Discovery product plan.

The platform combines a personalized site search, dynamic recommendations, and seasonal product suggestions to improve your conversion rate.

Top Features

• AI site search that shows products based on the customers' shopping journey and purchase behavior.
• Personalized curated collections of products that engage your shoppers with custom product collections, such as new brands, seasonal products, and targeted gift ideas.
• Dynamic product recommendations that show frequently bought together products to help you increase basket sizes.
• Other features include automatically suggesting seasonal products, setting up a ''similar products'' section, and showing recommendations based on returning users.

Pricing

Bloomreach is an omnichannel marketing platform, and it has different features and plans.

Their product recommendations are under ''Discovery'', which has custom pricing.

Bloomreach's pricing works with annual subscriptions that consist of the following:

• Module fee: Pay for the features you wish to access, such as the AI site search. You only pay for the features you use.
• Usage fee: The more customers you serve with Bloomreach, the more you'll pay for the platform.

💡This approach differs from Big Sur AI, which can be results-based and connected to your bottom line by charging you for sales attributed to the tool.

In our Bloomreach pricing guide, we also found that the product has a set-up fee starting from $4,000.

Pros and Cons

✅ Ability to tailor product recommendation campaigns with data and AI.

✅ The platform is highly customizable, and you can set up business rules.

✅ Personalized site search functionality.

❌ Complex to set up and use.

❌ Analytics reported to be basic.

#3: Nosto

Best for: Real-time behavioral product recommendations.

Similar to: Emarsys.

Nosto is an e-commerce customer experience platform that lets you guide your customers through their product discovery journey with real-time product recommendations.

The software uses behavioral and transactional data, combined with Predictive AI, to suggest products that each customer is most likely to purchase next.

Top Features

• Predictive product recommendations that are based on customer insights gathered in real-time.
• Customize and edit the product recommendations within a user-friendly no-code interface.
• Dynamic product placements where you can inject product recommendations to your customers anywhere on the website.
• Set up merchandising rules to dynamically re-order recommended products using performance metrics to align product selection.

Pricing

Nosto does not have transparent pricing, and you will have to contact them to get a quote.

Some users of Nosto reported that the platform charges a percentage of the sale made through the software, which would make it similar to Big Sur AI's pricing model.

Pros and Cons

✅ Customizable product recommendations with business rules.

✅ Dynamically re-ordering product recommendations based on performance.

✅ The ability to set up and edit the recommendations in a no-code environment.

❌ Too many features become overwhelming.

❌ Users report that it's hard to find specific data.

#4: LimeSpot

Best for: Affordable product recommendations for small online stores.

Similar to: Bloomreach.

LimeSpot lets you to create a personalized shopping experience for your customers via smart product suggestions.

The tool offers product recommendations that combine your product catalog with an algorithm that enables cross-selling and personalized recommendations for each customer.

Top Features

• Add product recommendation modules such as ''related items'', ''trending products'', and ''people also bought'' to any page of your page.
• Shopping cart page customization where you can recommend products at the end of the customers' shopping journey to increase basket sizes.
• You can also integrate the platform with loyalty program apps to display product reviews alongside the recommendations.
• Personalized discounts and three-way testing (A/B/N) that allow you to refine your product recommendations and increase your conversion rate continuously.

Pricing

LimeSpot has start-up-friendly pricing for e-commerce brands.

The tool has 2 pricing tiers:

• Essentials - $18/month, giving you access to unlimited product recommendations, upselling, cross-selling and product bundles, and real-time analytics.
• Premium - Custom pricing that gives you access to real-time audience segmentation, personalized discounts, and A/B/N testing.

💡This pricing model of LimeSpot is different from the other tools' pricing structures that charge you for usability or sales attributed to the software.

Pros and Cons

✅ Personalized discounts.

✅ Three-way split testing - A/B/N.

✅ Set up and edit the product recommendations in a no-code environment.

❌ The platform is not as complex as other alternatives.

❌ The tool is only available for Shopify and BigCommerce.

#5: Emarsys

Best for: Product recommendations across multiple channels.

Similar to: Bloomreach, Nosto.

Emarsys is an omnichannel customer engagement platform that enables you to personalize the customer experience with product recommendations across multiple channels.

The tool is an alternative to Bloomreach and is ideal for large enterprises with complex customer data sets and a large product catalog.

Top Features

• Machine learning algorithms that analyze customer data and provide relevant product recommendations tailored to each customer's interests and behavior.
• Real-time recommendations that are generated in real-time, ensuring your users always see the most up-to-date products based on their last interaction on the site.
• The ability to set up automated email campaigns that trigger personalized product recommendations based on pre-defined rules and user actions.
• Detailed analytics on the performance of product recommendations. This includes click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and TOTAL revenue generated.

Pricing

Contact Emarsys for a product demo and pricing.

Pros and Cons

✅ AI-powered predictive analysis and machine learning to personalize product recommendations.

✅ Integrations with email, mobile app, and digital ads.

✅ Advanced reporting and analytics.

❌ The support team can be quite slow and unhelpful, as per reports.

❌ The contract has been reported to be quite lengthy and with a high price tag.

#6: Luigi's Box

Best for: Up-selling and cross-selling products on your website.

Similar to: Bloomreach.

Luigi's Box offers a Box Recommender feature that offers personalized product recommendations.

The tool uses AI technology to personalize the content based on consumer preferences and on-site behavior.

Top Features

• Test different types of product recommendations and different product placements to optimize for conversions.
• Personalized site search that recommends products based on site behavior and previous purchases.
• Strategic up-selling and cross-selling of products that can be placed anywhere on the website.
• Merchandising features that let you to display the right products at the right time.

Pricing

Luigi's Box charges retailers based on:

• The pageviews of your website.
• The size of your product catalog.
• The number of your users using the platform.

The tool has 3 tiers:

• Self-service - €1.7/per 1,000 units, giving you access of all the product recommendation features of the platform.
• Advanced - €2.2/per 1,000 units, unlocking custom integrations, tailor-made design, and premium support.
• Enterprise - Custom price, where you will get a fully customized solution and a customer success manager.

Units = calculated from a number of items in the catalog, page views, and several requests such as product recommendations and personalized site searches.

❗Luigi's Box preferred currency is EUR (€).

• €1.7 ~ $1.84
• €2.2 ~ $2.38

Pros and Cons

✅ Cross-selling and up-selling features that can be improved with A/B testing.

✅ Display the right products at the right time to the right customers.

✅ Personalized site search experience.

❌ Lack of learning resources for using the platform.

❌ Users report that the price can get quite expensive if you operate a large store.

#7: Coveo AI

Best for: Nurturing the product discovery experience in multiple ways - from site search to a conversational experience.

Similar to: Bloomreach, Big Sur AI.

Coveo AI is an AI-powered product discovery platform that allows your customers to find the best product for their needs in a variety of ways.

The platform offers a site search and listings, a conversational experience, and standard product recommendations on the product pages.

Top Features

• Real-time product recommendations that give you in-depth data into consumer behavior, such as what product categories are ignored.
• Personalized semantic site search that returns results based on consumer preferences and on-site behavior.
• Schedule campaigns and A/B test different recommendations to make data-driven decisions.
• Guided advisory experience where an AI assistant helps customers find the right product for their needs.

Pricing:

You'd have to contact Coveo AI for custom pricing and a demo.

We found reported pricing for the platform's personalized site search, noting that they have a base plan that starts at $600/month and a pro plan that starts at $1,320/month.

Pros and Cons

✅ Product recommendations via personalized site search, on-page suggestions, and AI assistant.

✅ Users are happy with how easy it was to set up and start running.

✅ Experiment with A/B tests and evaluate the results.

❌ Recommendations may not always be relevant, according to users.

❌ Search results and recommendations are not location-specific.

Wondering how these tools are utilizing AI to increase revenue?

Check out our AI in e-commerce examples article, which covers 6 case studies of retailers who used AI-powered recommendations and other tools to increase revenues.

Next Steps: Improve Your Store's Product Discovery Experience With Big Sur AI's Sales Agent

Increase your basket sizes and revenue by bringing sales assistant-like conversations and AI product recommendations to your online store.

Our AI-powered Sales Agent can guide customers' buying journey with product suggestions and conversion-optimized prompts.

Be data-driven about what pre-purchase questions consumers have on your store to improve your product descriptions and customer journey.