Manage Recommendations

A recommendation is a sales and marketing technique in which more products are recommended to customers during the checkout process. These recommended products are an addition to or a replacement for the original products that the customerClosed An individual or business purchasing your product or service by placing an order through Cleverbridge. The customer is the end user of this product, as they are not allowed to resell the purchased products or services. ​ A customer is unique per client. If a customer purchases products or services from two different clients, there are 2 separate records of said customer.​ added to the cart. Recommendations are important to increase the number of products purchased, which in turn increases the cart value.

Types of Recommendations

The Cleverbridge platform offers three types of recommendations:

Cross-Sell

A cross-sell is a similar, additional product that is packaged with the original product the customer selected. This additional product can be offered at a discount. By adding a cross-sell, you can compel the customer to add more products to the cart, thereby increasing the cart value.

Example

Examples of cross-sells are:

  • Similar products in your catalog
  • Product bundles

Sub-Sell

A sub-sell is a supporting product that is frequently dependent on the original product in the cart. When the sub-sell is dependent, the additional product can’t be purchased by itself (for example, a technical support plan for your software). On the other hand, you can also configure an additional product so that customers can purchaseClosed An order made by a customer and the records associated with it. the sub-sell in the event that they remove the original product from the cart, see Products ✱. By adding a sub-sell, you can compel your customers to add more products to the cart, thereby increasing the cart value.

Example

Examples of sub-sells are:

  • Extended download
  • Support package

Up-Sell

An up-sell is a better product that replaces another product in the cart. The original product is removed from the cart. The up-sell increases the cart value because the customer pays for a more expensive product than the one originally selected.

Example

Examples of up-sells are:

  • A more advanced version of a product, such as a “professional” version
  • A higher-priced product
  • Additional licenses

Open a Recommendation

  1. To open a recommendation, select Marketing > Recommendations in the main menu of the Commerce Assistant (CA). The Recommendations search opens.
  2. Search for the recommendation you want to view.
  3. Select the recommendation line item in the search results.
  4. Click Open.

Tip

Once opened, you can set up a discount, specify additional products, and select price configurations for the recommendation. For more information, see the Discount, Products, and Price Configurations sections right below in Add a Recommendation.

Note

You can use our web admin tool to manage recommendations. For more information, see Optimize > Cross / Up & Subsells.

Add a Recommendation

In the main menu of the Commerce Assistant (CA), select Marketing, and select one of the recommendation types:

  • Cross-Sell
  • Sub-Sell
  • Up-Sell

Enter information in the following sections:

General

Use the General section to enter general settings for a recommendation. Follow these steps:

Enter Settings

In the General section, use the Settings options to name a recommendation and to control where and how the recommendation displays in the cart. There are three settings:

Enter Valid Dates and Times

In the General & Parameter section, the Valid Dates and Times options control if and when a recommendation is active. There are two options for controlling a recommendation's validity:

Select a Quantity

In the General & Parameter section, the Quantity Type determines how the quantity of the recommendation is adjusted based on the quantity of the original product it is being recommended with. There are four quantity types:

Select an Opt Type

In the General & Parameter section, the Opt Type controls in what way customers are given the choice of purchasing or not purchasing a cross-sell or a sub-sell. There are three options:

Parameter

The Parameter options control whether or not a recommendation displays in the cart. There are three parameter options:

Important

If a URL has the parameter of &recommendation=none, then no recommendations will display if the recommendation has Displays with parameter or Displays with or without parameter selected. However, if a recommendation has Displays without parameter selected, the recommendation still displays, even if a none parameter is included in the URL.

Set Up Discount for Recommendation

Use the Discount section to limit the discount and to specify a pricing model. Complete the following:

Limit the Discount

The following options are available for limiting the discount:

Specify a Pricing Model

The Price Settings section determines how the discount is priced. To set up the price settings for your discount, you must first select a Discount pricing method. The Subscription Commerce Manager will then provide you with additional fields you must complete. Cleverbridge offers four basic discount pricing methods, all of which you can also apply to a volume scale model:

Products

Use the Products section to specify which products are used in the recommendation. Complete the following:

Price Configurations

Use the Price Configurations section to specify a price configuration for the recommendation. Complete the following:

  1. Click the Limit by these price configurations toggle to enable configuration of this feature.
  2. In the List type drop-down, select:
    • Exclude List to exclude specific price configurations from the recommendation. This option is best when you have only a few price configurations that are not included in the recommendation.

      Or

    • Include List to include specific price configurations in the recommendation. This option is best when you have a limited number of price configurations in the recommendation.
  3. Click in the Price Configurations field and select the price configurations that you would like to include in the recommendation.