🖥️ The 7 best product recommendation software tools for e-commerce

What is product recommendation software exactly? 

Before looking at all the potential solutions, let’s first clarify what product recommendation software is, as there are plenty of different tools available.

Product recommendation software uses algorithms and data analysis to suggest products to customers based on their browsing history, preferences, and behavior.

With product recommendation software, you can personalize the shopping experience, eliminate choice paralysis, and show relevant products to customers at the right time.

Top 7 product recommendation software tools for e-commerce

Now, let’s focus on what you’re here for. We’ve done our research which resulted in a list of the best solutions to consider if you're an online retailer.

There are plenty of solutions available on the market that offer a wide range of features related to product recommendations. That’s why we focused on the most powerful solutions specifically for e-commerce businesses.

1. Aiden

The most powerful recommendation software supports customers in finding the best product for their needs. That’s why Aiden’s uses interactive product finders to ask customers about their preferences, resulting in highly personalized recommendations. This process is also called guided selling.

The biggest difference with most product recommendation tools is that those try to infer visitors' preferences, while Aiden (yes, that’s us) simply asks for them. Rather than tracking and analyzing click behavior for a best guess at which product a customer would be most interested in, Aiden takes on the role of an in-store sales assistant and proactively engages a customer in conversation.

This leads to declarative rather than inferred customer preferences, with more relevant (and effective) recommendations to boot. Those recommendations, as well as any other zero party data gathered through your product finders, can in turn be used to enrich customers profiles. This ensures that the right products and categories are surfaced throughout the customer lifecycle.

Thanks to Aiden AI, you can quickly set up and fine-tune your product finders. By combining filters and weighted scores, you consistently offer the best product advice, increasing both conversion rates and margins.

Website: Aiden.cx

Key features:

• Product recommendations based on interactive product finders
• Declarative zero party customer data
• Aiden AI to set up, refine and scale product finders
• Dynamic conversation flows with different Q&A per customer types
• Multilingual support
• Can be added to any page (PLP, PDP, SEO, etc.)
• Available as a sidebar, pop-up, in-page, or full page app
• A/B testing to increase results 
• Impact dashboard for advanced insights
• Integrates with ESP, CDP, GA4 and all e-commerce platforms

Pricing: Available on request

“With Aiden, you're getting a tool that can structurally increase your conversion rates relatively quickly. Quickly, because the implementation can be tackled in various ways, but also because of the proactive assistance offered by the Aiden team. Once it's up and running, you can start fine-tuning and pushing as much traffic as possible through the product finder. It works :)” - Ivo Klink, Head of E-commerce La Souris

2. Monetate

Monetate is a personalization platform designed to help e-commerce businesses deliver tailored digital experiences that increase customer engagement and conversion rates. Thanks to AI, Monetate allows you to personalize content, product recommendations, and search, as well as optimize your online shopping experience through A/B testing and dynamic testing.

It’s built to scale, enabling businesses to unify workflows and data, making every interaction count for higher customer satisfaction and revenue growth.

Website: Monetate.com

Key features:

• Personalized search 
• Product recommendations based on browsing or purchase history
• A/B and multivariate testing
• Real-time personalized content personalization using AI
• Dynamic product bundles for individual customers
• Customer segmentation and analytics
• Journey analytics into the customer journey across touchpoints
• Integrations with e-commerce platforms, CMS, and CRM systems

Pricing: Available on request

3. Voyado

Voyado is a retail marketing and product discovery software solution designed to unify customer data, personalize communications, and increase loyalty for retailers. It uses AI to create personalized product suggestions based on individual behaviors, preferences, and interactions.

Voyado enables you to deliver these recommendations across multiple channels, including email, SMS, and social media. The software also helps design and manage loyalty programs while gathering customer intelligence for more targeted and effective marketing efforts.

Website: Voyado.com 

Key features:

• Personalized AI product recommendations based on behavior and purchase history
• Omnichannel marketing automation
• Loyalty program management
• Customer insights and intelligence
• Automated merchandising to optimize product displays and promotions
• Integrations with multiple e-commerce platforms, CRMs, and data sources

Pricing: Available on request 

4. Recombee 

Recombee is an advanced recommendation engine that uses AI and machine learning to deliver personalized product suggestions to e-commerce customers in real time. It helps improve user engagement and conversion rates by analyzing browsing behaviors, interactions, and preferences.

The platform is scalable, supporting large product catalogs and high traffic volumes. Its API-based integration allows for flexible implementation into existing systems, making it adaptable to various business needs.

Website: Recombee.com

Key features:

• Real-time product recommendations based on behaviors, preferences, and interactions
• Personalized search by prioritizing items on individual customer data and activity
• Dynamic product bundling to generate upsell opportunities
• API-based integrations

Pricing: From free up to $2,499/month

5. Nosto

Nosto is an AI-driven commerce experience platform that offers personalization, merchandising, and customer engagement. It enables you to unify data across various touchpoints and deliver tailored shopping experiences.

Nosto’s tools allow for personalized product recommendations, dynamic content, and AI-optimized merchandising, all aimed at improving customer retention and maximizing revenue. By integrating with popular e-commerce platforms, it helps businesses deliver real-time, scalable personalized experiences.

Website: Nosto.com

Key features: 

• Personalized product recommendations
• Dynamic content personalization
• Category merchandising
• AI-driven search optimization
• Omnichannel marketing automation
• A/B testing and optimization
• User-generated content integration
• Integrations with various e-commerce platforms, CMS, and marketing tools

Pricing: Available on request 

6. Dynamic Yield

Dynamic Yield by Mastercard is an AI-powered personalization platform designed to improve customer experiences by delivering personalized content, product recommendations, and tailored offers across digital channels.

It focuses on optimizing customer engagement through real-time data analysis, A/B testing, and customer segmentation. Dynamic Yield allows businesses across various industries to create highly personalized experiences that drive conversions and loyalty, while also offering scalability for large enterprises.

Website: Dynamicyield.com

Key features: 

• Real-time personalized product recommendations
• A/B and multivariate testing
• Dynamic content personalization
• Customer segmentation and targeting
• Omnichannel experience management
• Machine learning-driven insights
• Direct integrations, APIs and plugins with existing tech stacks

Pricing: Available on request 

7. Tweakwise

Tweakwise is a platform that helps online stores optimize their search functionality, merchandising, and product recommendations.

Tweakwise uses AI-powered tools to make search results more relevant, improve upsell and cross-sell strategies, and streamline the customer journey through features like guided selling and real-time recommendations.

Website: Tweakwise.com

Key features:

• AI-powered search optimization with smart suggestions 
• Personalized product recommendations
• Dynamic merchandising to prioritize relevant items for users
• Guided selling to recreate in-store assistance 
• External data integration to inform recommendations and personalization
• Customizable product displays
• Integrates with e-commerce platforms, content management systems (CMS), and external data sources

Pricing: Standard subscription starting from € 395/month

What’s the difference between merchandising, product recommendations and guided selling?

As you might have noticed from the list above, product recommendations come in different forms. To understand what best fits your business, it’s important to grasp the differences, similarities, and benefits.

The solutions listed above are similar in that each feature contributes to optimizing the shopping experience and recommending products. The biggest differences can be found in the ways customers interact with the tools and in the decision-making process.

Merchandising organizes and displays products to maximize sales. In e-commerce, this means prioritizing certain products on search results pages. Product recommendations, on the other hand, use algorithms and AI to suggest relevant products based on customer data such as browsing history or past purchases.

Lastly, there’s guided selling, which is almost a combination of both. The biggest difference is that product recommendations are based on actual answers customers provide. It’s an interactive process that helps customers find the right product by simulating in-store assistance and conversations. Customer input automatically guides shoppers to the best fit.

Types of product recommendation engines

Product recommendations can be generated using different engines. To compare all the options, it’s important to understand their differences.

• Rule-based product recommendations: These follow an if/then logic with a predefined set of conditions.
• AI-driven recommendations: Multiple data sources are used to create recommendations. These are based on individual user actions, historical purchases, and browsing tendencies.
• Segmentation-based recommendations: These recommendations are based on differences within segments or groups that share characteristics or behaviors.
• Input-based recommendations: These are based on a question-and-answer logic. Preferences are gathered via a product finder, quiz or form, requiring more effort and input from the shopper but providing the most tailored recommendations, as products are matched with preferences the shopper intentionally provides.

Key features of product recommendation software to compare

When looking for the best product recommendation software for e-commerce, it's important to review the different features. Some features may be more crucial than others, depending on your store’s characteristics, business stage, and goals. Certain software might be a better fit for your store based on these factors and features.

• Personalization: What personalization methods are used, and do they match the complexity of your products?
• Data integration: How does the software integrate with other tools you're using, and what solutions are supported?
• Ease of use: How easy is it to get started with the software? If a large team needs to use it, how much training is required? If AI is part of the solution, check whether it simplifies setup or requires a training period for the model.
• AI & machine learning: AI can be a key factor when choosing between solutions. While most modern product recommendation tools use AI for smart suggestions, it's important to understand how AI is utilized and how much of the software depends on it.
• Omnichannel capabilities: Can the software provide consistent product suggestions across web, mobile, email, or other touchpoints you want to involve?
• A/B testing: Does the software include built-in tools for testing and optimizing recommendations? This can significantly impact long-term conversion results.
• Scalability: How well does the software handle large catalogs and high-traffic scenarios?

Why Aiden is the product recommendation software e-commerce brands are looking for

Customers who aren't sure won't buy. And when they do buy, they often buy the wrong product. Advice is extremely important: only with the right knowledge will customers buy with confidence. That’s why Aiden focuses on providing great advice to every online shopper.

You can use all the customer data you want to offer the best product recommendations, but none of the data is as pure as the input from the visitors themselves. Aiden's software easily creates dynamic conversation flows, allowing you to set up different question-and-answer flows for various customer types.

By shifting from “You figure it out!” to "Hi, how can I help you?" you'll notice a significant difference in your results. You provide personal, nuanced advice that customers truly understand, leading to an average of 91% completed sessions, a 60% CTR from recommendation to purchase, and a conversion uplift of on average 2.5x.

Aiden is trusted by many of Europe's largest online retailers. Check out what they say about transforming their e-commerce strategy and product recommendations with Aiden. 

Want to learn more about implementing product recommendations with Aiden? Let us guide you through our platform and discover how to set you up for product recommendation success in a free demo.