How to increase your e-shop conversion rate through personalisation

8. 7. 2025

In today's digital age, personalization is one of the most important tools for increasing conversions in e-commerce. Customers expect a personalised approach in recommendations, immediate reactions to their behaviour and relevant offers that match their needs. Personalisation tools such as semantic and full-text search, real-time product recommendations or shopping assistants then play an indispensable role in how effectively e-shops can convert mere visitors into customers.

Personalisation as the basis of modern e-commerce

Personalisation generally means tailoring content, product offers and communication to individual customer preferences. Using data about a user's web behavior, historical purchases or interactions with the site, today's sophisticated tools can offer a personalized experience that leads to higher satisfaction and more frequent purchases. The result is logically higher conversion rates and overall sales.

Real-time product recommendation on the e-shop

One of the most effective personalisation tools is real-time product recommendation. Algorithms track a user's behaviour during a visit and instantly adjust product offerings based on their click-throughs, products viewed or items added to the cart. They can even track the time spent viewing a specific part of the page (or the viewport itself, depending on the device from which the user is accessing it) and predict interest or disinterest in the product being viewed. Tailored recommendations - such as "You might like" or "We recommend adding" - have a direct impact on increasing order value and likelihood of purchase.

At the same time, it offers innovative features such as product bundles, or Bundles, which allow you to add a pair or trio of products from a single recommendation area to your cart with a single click. This is a non-violent but very effective upsell that has a significant impact on the e-shop's sales.

Semantic vs. fulltext search

A quality search is the key to finding the goods you want quickly. While full-text search works based on keyword matching, semantic search understands the meaning of a query in context.

For example, when a query "rain boots" is entered, semantic search will offer relevant products with a waterproof finish even though the phrase is not in the product name. The ultimate goal, of course, is to get the user to the product they are looking for as quickly as possible without knowing its specific name, or to direct only a "browsing" user appropriately. The desired result is a reduction in the abandonment rate and a higher conversion rate.

Shopping Assistant: a smart decision-making guide

Another important tool in the field of personalisation is the shopping assistant - an interactive guide that helps customers to select products. It uses a combination of data about visitor behaviour on the site, information from the product feed and content available on the site (such as articles, blogs or FAQs).

Customers can ask specific questions about usage, budget, preferred brands or technical specifications. The assistant will recommend the most suitable products based on the available data. This approach is particularly effective for more technically demanding products or in e-shops with a large range of products, where customers appreciate decision support.

Modern shopping assistants handle not only general queries, but also contextual responses while browsing - for example, when moving from the main page to a specific product detail. Some of them even allow you to add items to your cart directly from the conversation, without having to click through further.

AB-tests: proven effectiveness

In order to measure the actual impact of personalisation tools on conversions, AB tests are used. AB tests generally compare two versions of a website - one with personalisation elements, one without, or two versions of a website with different personalisation tools. The results of the versions with and without personalization often show an increase in conversion rate and sales by tens of percent. In the case of a comparison between two existing personalization tools, the results are usually in the order of percentages. It is important to choose the right target metric before the AB-test. It doesn't have to be just conversion rate or total sales, but e.g. margin or average order value per user (this is statistically the cleanest method, as it doesn't affect the distribution of the number of users in each group).

✅ Benefits of personalisation:

  • Higher conversions: Relevant offers increase the likelihood of purchase.

  • Increased sales: Average order value increases due to cross-sell and upsell.

  • Better user experience: Visitors spend less time searching and more time shopping.

  • Customer loyalty: Repeat purchases and loyalty to the e-shop thanks to a personalised approach.

  • Effective marketing: Targeted campaigns deliver higher ROI.

  • ROI: Deploying a truly advanced tool usually pays for itself in a matter of months.

❌ Possible restrictions:

  • Invasion of privacy: Some customers perceive behavioral tracking as invasive. On the other hand, you can turn off personalization simply by not consenting to the collection of cookies.

  • Dependence on good data: Incorrect or incomplete data can lead to inappropriate recommendations. This particularly applies to product feeds.

  • Lack of products: If you own an eshop that sells 20 products, there is probably no need for deep personalization within search and recommendation. But a shopping assistant can make sense here as well.

Summary

The implementation of personalization tools is not just a trend, but a necessity for anyone who wants to succeed in the competitive environment of online sales. Combining real-time product recommendations, hybrid search, and a shopping assistant can dramatically improve the user experience and increase conversions and overall eshop sales. The effectiveness of these tools can be continuously tested using AB-tests, allowing e-shops to optimize their strategy and choose the most suitable tool on the market.

One platform that offers all these tools in a comprehensive and powerful package is Zoe.ai - a Czech AI platform for personalization and search. Zoe.ai allows you to integrate recommendation, Deep Search and a conversational shopping assistant into one ecosystem to achieve extraordinary results.