Adventures in Product Recommendations: HomeDepot.com
Just a fun little post here about product recommendation engines. I know, the idea is to upsell your customer with an item that may compliment an item he or she is about to purchase online.
Click on the screenshot to the right and see what HomeDepot.com felt I should buy so I could take advantage of its free shipping offer (if I purchase select items that total $299 or more).
I need a submersible utility pump. Mine blew out last winter thaw, and I couldn’t find one at my local Home Depot. I figured I’d beat the rush before the 60-inch snow mounds in my back yard melt, checked HomeDepot.com last night, and hit the Bridgeport, CT store. Same result as last year – no luck finding what I wanted. They did have the pump I was looking for, but it was sitting on a shelf without a box or instructions, warranty, etc.
So I went home and decided to buy the one pictured, which is only available online.
I don’t need a ladder to go with it. And while I’m thinking about redoing our main bathroom soon, there’s no way the recommendation engine could read my mind. Even then, it didn’t – I want to get rid of the shower doors I installed a few years back and go back to the ol’ shower curtain and rod. A pressure washer? Just because I need to get rid of some water doesn’t mean I want to reuse it to wash my house.
As for related items… I can see the portable generator. If I was getting ready for a disaster, I may need it to power my house. But the humidifier? Heck, I’m trying to dry something out. Why make it wet again? And the packages of decorative cable covers really doesn’t seem to be related to a new pump.
But I do have to say the recommendations on HomeDepot.com’s product pages work well. The pump I purchased was suggested to me when I looked for the one I thought I could pick up at my local store. So in all, I was happy.
Ecommerce marketers: How are you using product recommendation engines on your site? Is this a good practice for the shopping cart, or do you need to fine-tune the selections based on the products being checked out? I’d like to know.
