Pin or Exclude Products to Curate Product Recommendations
Product Update · Recommendations
Product recommendations are a proven driver of revenue. They nudge shoppers toward alternatives, encourage add-ons, and increase basket size.
An automated recommendations system saves ecommerce managers a lot of time, and ensures customers always get relevant suggestions, no matter what product they explore.
But sometimes, specific products go together, or the opposite, should never be recommended together. And now, ecommerce managers using Hello Retail get more control over these configurations.
With this update, you gain the ability to take charge and hand-pick the items you want featured in Alternative or Bought Together boxes. This ensures recommendations align with your merchandising strategy and business goals.
What’s new: Add overrides to algorithms to curate product recommendations
With this release, you can:
- Pin products so they always appear together in Alternative and Bought Together recommendations for individual products.
- Exclude products you don’t want tied to a specific item.
- Work visually with product cards and a built-in search bar, making it quick and intuitive to curate recommendations.
This gives you both control and speed, fine-tuning recommendations without heavy configuration.
Problem solved:
Merchandising often requires product pairings that follow a specific plan, whether to support a campaign, push high-margin add-ons, or tell a complete product story.
An automated recommendation engine alone can’t capture every nuance of those decisions.
That’s why ecommerce managers need direct control, to curate product recommendations and be sure they stay in place, whatever the algorithm might suggest.
Built for ecommerce managers who want more merchandising control
This feature is designed for ecommerce managers who want to play an active role in merchandising through recommendations.
Here are 7 practical ways to use it:
- Product launches: Pair new products with must-have accessories to boost adoption from day one.
- Coordinated looks: Pair key products with complementary items to help shoppers complete a set or style in one click.
- Required components: Link products with essential add-ons to guarantee customers have everything they need for easy use.
- Curated experiences: Build product pairings that reflect your brand story, not just algorithmic logic.
- Incompatible components: Exclude items that are not meant to be used together to prevent confusing or unsuitable product combinations.
- Outdated items: Ensure older or discontinued products are removed from key recommendation spots so shoppers always see the most up-to-date items.
Each of these examples puts merchandising power directly in your hands, helping you grow revenue while keeping recommendations consistent with your brand vision.
How it works: A quick look at functionalities
Search for any item in your catalog to see which products are currently recommended as Alternatives or Bought Together.
Use the simple Settings visual interface to override the algorithm selection and pin products you want always shown, or blacklist products you don’t want suggested. Just search and select, no complex setup.
You can review and adjust at any time, and quickly check where a product is pinned or blacklisted.
Available to all Hello Retail users:
This feature is being rolled out to all Hello Retail customers as part of our Recommendations solution. Try it out in Product Settings.