WPC Smart Recommendations for WooCommerce

Description

WPC Smart Recommendations is a product recommendation engine for WooCommerce. It analyzes customer shopping behavior — including items frequently purchased together, products viewed within the same browsing session, and customer affinities — to display tailored product recommendations across your store and help increase average order value.

Live demo

Visit our live demo here to see how this plugin works.

Why WPC Smart Recommendations?

  • Easy setup — activate the plugin and it begins analyzing store data immediately while providing fallback recommendations out of the box.
  • Multi-algorithm engine — combines co-purchase, co-view, category affinity, wishlist, and compare data to generate tailored product recommendations.
  • Multiple display surfaces — product pages, cart, checkout, thank you page, popups, and anywhere via shortcodes or widgets.
  • Three layout options — Grid, Carousel (CSS scroll-snap), and compact List view.
  • Performance analytics — track impressions, clicks, add-to-carts, purchases, and revenue attributed to recommendations.
  • Priority rules engine — boost, penalize, or exclude products based on price, stock, age, category, and more.
  • Template overridable — all templates can be customized from your theme.

Key Features

  • Co-purchase algorithm (“Customers who bought this also bought”)
  • Co-view algorithm (“Customers who viewed this also viewed”)
  • Category affinity fallback (popular products from the same category)
  • Wishlist-based recommendations (integrates with WPC Smart Wishlist)
  • Compare-based recommendations (integrates with WPC Smart Compare)
  • Trending Now section with time-decay scoring
  • Recently Viewed products (localStorage-based, zero server load)
  • Personalized “For You” popup (once per session)
  • Manual recommendations per product (drag to reorder)
  • Order-based recommendations for thank you pages and emails
  • Carousel / Slider layout with CSS scroll-snap (zero JS dependency)
  • Grid layout using WooCommerce product cards
  • Compact List layout for sidebars and popups
  • Configurable number of columns (2-6) for Grid and Carousel
  • Smart product link behavior (same tab, new tab, or Quick View popup)
  • Social proof badges (“🔥 12 people bought this today”)
  • Exclude out-of-stock and unpurchasable products
  • Exclude recently purchased products (configurable timeframe)
  • Exclude specific product types
  • Exclude specific pages
  • Priority rules with drag-to-reorder
  • Background performance tracking (impressions, clicks, add-to-carts, purchases, revenue)
  • Transient-based caching with configurable TTL
  • Configurable behavior data retention
  • 6 shortcodes for flexible placement
  • WordPress widget support
  • HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage) compatible
  • Translation ready

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Quick Start Guide (Using from Scratch)

  1. Install & Activate: Ensure WooCommerce 3.0 or higher is installed and activated, then activate WPC Smart Recommendations.
  2. Initial Scan & Fallback: On activation, the plugin automatically scans past completed orders to build initial co-purchase data. For fresh stores with no order history, the plugin automatically falls back to category and store products so recommendations appear immediately.
  3. Configure Settings: Go to WP-admin > Recommendations to adjust display positions, layouts, columns, and recommendation algorithms.
  4. Manual Recommendations (Optional): Edit any individual product in WP-admin > Products, go to the Product Data > Recommendations tab, and manually choose or reorder recommended products.
  5. View Results: Visit any single product page or your cart page to see recommendations displayed.

How to Configure

All plugin options are organized under WP-admin > Recommendations:

  • General Settings:
    • Sort order: Sort recommended products by relevance, price low to high, or price high to low.
    • Exclude unpurchasable: Hide out-of-stock and non-purchasable products.
    • Exclude recently purchased: Exclude items the shopper has bought in the last X days.
    • Product link: Open product links in the same tab, new tab, or trigger WPC Smart Quick View popup.
    • Exclude product types: Exclude variable, grouped, external, or custom product types.
  • Product Page Settings:
    • Position: Choose where recommendation widgets appear (below add-to-cart form, below product summary, after related products, in a custom tab, or replace native WooCommerce related products).
    • Layout: Select Grid, Carousel (CSS scroll-snap slider), or List view.
    • Columns & Limit: Set columns (2 to 6) and maximum products to display (default: 8).
  • Cart & Checkout Settings:
    • Cart Position: Display recommendations after cross-sells, before cross-sells, or replace standard cross-sells.
    • Checkout Position: Optionally display recommendations before or after order review or customer details.
  • Personalized & Trending Settings:
    • Personalized Popup: Display a tailored “For You” popup once per session based on user browsing history.
    • Trending Products: Enable trending section with time-decay scoring across views, carts, and purchases.
  • Algorithms Settings:
    • Enable or disable individual recommendation sources: Co-purchase, Co-view, Category Affinity, On-sale products, Wishlist, and Compare data.
  • Priority Rules:
    • Create rules to boost, penalize, or exclude products based on condition criteria such as stock quantity, price, age in days, on-sale status, or category.

How to Use Shortcodes

Embed recommendation sections anywhere in posts, pages, or page builders using shortcodes:

  • [wpcrc_product] — Display recommendations for a product.

    • id: Target product ID (optional, defaults to current product on single product pages).
    • limit: Number of products to show (default: 4).
    • columns: Number of columns (2 to 6, default: 4).
    • layout: Display layout: grid, carousel, or list (default: grid).
    • Example: [wpcrc_product id="123" limit="4" columns="4" layout="grid"]
  • [wpcrc_trending] — Display trending products across the store.

    • limit: Number of products to show (default: 8).
    • columns: Number of columns (2 to 6, default: 4).
    • layout: Display layout: grid, carousel, or list (default: grid).
    • Example: [wpcrc_trending limit="8" columns="4" layout="carousel"]
  • [wpcrc_for_you] — Display personalized recommendations for the current visitor.

    • limit: Number of products to show (default: 8).
    • columns: Number of columns (2 to 6, default: 4).
    • layout: Display layout: grid, carousel, or list (default: grid).
    • Example: [wpcrc_for_you limit="6" columns="3" layout="grid"]
  • [wpcrc_cart] — Display recommendations based on current cart contents.

    • limit: Number of products to show (default: 4).
    • columns: Number of columns (2 to 6, default: 4).
    • layout: Display layout: grid, carousel, or list (default: grid).
    • Example: [wpcrc_cart limit="4" columns="4" layout="grid"]
  • [wpcrc_recent_viewed] — Display recently viewed products.

    • limit: Number of products to show (default: 6).
    • columns: Number of columns (2 to 6, default: 6).
    • Example: [wpcrc_recent_viewed limit="6" columns="6"]
  • [wpcrc_order] — Display recommendations based on items in an order (useful for custom thank you pages).

    • id: WooCommerce Order ID.
    • limit: Number of products to show (default: 4).
    • Example: [wpcrc_order id="456" limit="4"]

Widget

Go to WP-admin > Appearance > Widgets and add the WPC Smart Recommendations widget to any sidebar or widget area. Choose between personalized, trending, or cart-based recommendation modes.

Screenshots

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/ or install via Plugins > Add New in WordPress admin.
  2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu.
  3. Go to WP-admin > Recommendations to configure your desired settings and display positions.
  4. The plugin will automatically start tracking customer behavior and building recommendations.

FAQ

Does this plugin work on a fresh store without sales history?

Yes. For newly launched stores or test environments without past orders or visitor activity, the plugin automatically falls back to category-based and store products so recommendations appear immediately. As visitors browse and purchase items, the background engine builds co-purchase and co-view data to continuously refine recommendations.

How do I display recommendations on single product pages?

Go to WP-admin > Recommendations > Product Page and choose your preferred position from the dropdown (e.g., After Related Products, Below Add to Cart, Below Summary, or In a Tab). Recommendations will automatically appear on product pages without requiring code changes.

Can I set manual recommendations for specific products?

Yes. In WP-admin > Products, edit any product and scroll down to the Product Data box. Click the Recommendations tab on the left. Search and select products to recommend, and drag them to reorder. Manual recommendations are prioritized first.

Does this plugin support WooCommerce HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage)?

Yes, WPC Smart Recommendations is fully compatible with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS) as well as traditional post meta storage.

Does this plugin send data to external third-party services?

No. All behavioral tracking, scoring algorithms, and recommendation computations are processed locally within your WordPress database. No external API keys or cloud subscriptions are required.

Can I customize recommendation templates?

Yes. All templates are located in the /templates/ directory of the plugin. You can copy them into your theme or child theme folder to override the HTML layout and styles.

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Contributors & Developers

“WPC Smart Recommendations for WooCommerce” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

1.1.0

  • Updated: Minor CSS/JS issues in the backend
  • Updated: Compatible with WP 7.1 & Woo 11.1

1.0.1

  • Update: Separate widget admin script into standalone file and enqueue properly
  • Fix: Add missing capability and autosave checks in admin AJAX handlers and product meta saving

1.0.0

  • Initial release