Include your best-selling or newest products in your campaigns and automations with the Product Recommender Item.
This article will teach you to automatically include your best-sellers or newest products in your email content.
💡 Product Recommender vs. Product Listing Item:
Use Product Recommender for automated, dynamic product selections that update based on customer behavior, sales data, or browsing history (e.g., best sellers, recently viewed products).
Use Product Listing Item to manually select specific products from your store that display the same for all recipients (e.g., featured products, seasonal promotions).
Before You Begin
Product Recommender is available to Omnisend users with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or API integration.
Standard product recommendations are available for all Omnisend pricing plans. They include:
Best-selling products.
Recently added products.
Most viewed products.
Personalized product recommendations are included in the Pro plan and are available as an add-on for the Standard plan. They include:
Products recently viewed by the contact.
Products similar to past purchases.
Recommendations (both Personalized and Standard product recommendations) always use the most recent product data at the moment the message is sent. This applies to both Campaigns and Automations – product details such as price, title, and image are filled in at send time, ensuring they remain up to date.
By default, Product Recommender excludes products marked as out of stock. You can choose whether to display out-of-stock products under Products display.
About Product Recommender
Product Recommender automatically pulls up to 12 products from your store – images, titles, descriptions, prices, and product links. You decide what information should be included in the email content. This item is refreshed every hour to ensure the latest information is pulled from your store.
To include the most recent information from your store, recommended products are pulled at the last moment before the email is sent. Therefore, products do not appear in the email builder, but are automatically added to the email content when it is sent to the recipient.
⚠️ Testing Product Recommender in Campaigns
Product Recommender blocks in campaign previews and test emails display brand-level fallback products (e.g., best sellers, recently added products) instead of personalized recommendations. This is expected behavior – previews and test sends can't access individual contact browsing or purchase history.
To see personalized recommendations: Send a real Campaign to yourself (or a test segment). Recipients with actual browsing or purchase history will see personalized products based on their activity.
In Automation previews, use Dynamic Preview to see personalized products based on contact/event data.
Add Product Recommender to Your Email
To start using Product Recommender, go to either your new campaign or a separate email in your automation workflows.
In the Email Builder, open Add elements → select Product Recommender. Drag the item directly onto the email canvas.
Note: Drag the Product Recommender block directly onto the email canvas – not into a layout column section.
You can also add a product recommendation from Products and change the recommendation type later.
Configure Product Recommender Settings
After you add the Product Recommender Item, select it to open the settings panel. Configure the audience, recommendation type, filters, layout, and product item elements.
Audience and General Settings
First, choose who can see the Product Recommender Item:
All contacts – Shows the item to everyone who receives the email.
Custom contacts – Shows the item only to contacts who meet the conditions you define. Select it to use conditional content settings.
Next, configure the products that the item should display:
Products to recommend – Select the type of products you want to show. See Recommendation Types for details about each option.
Within the last – Choose the time period Omnisend should use when selecting products.
Price from – Enter the minimum product price. Products below this price will not appear in the recommendations.
Fallback option – Choose the recommendation type Omnisend should use when the primary recommendation does not have enough available products.
Note: If both the primary recommendation and fallback option have no available products, the Product Recommender Item displays products from your store catalog so the email layout can display correctly.
Recommendation Types
Select the type of products you want to recommend. Available options depend on your store connection, plan, and enabled features.
Standard Recommendations
Standard recommendations are available on all Omnisend pricing plans.
Best-selling products - Displays products with the most purchases tracked by Omnisend. You can select a period of up to 12 months.
Recently added products - Displays products based on the date they were published in your store. The products appear after their information is synchronized with Omnisend.
Most viewed products - Displays products with the most views from your store. You can select a time range from one to three months.
These recommendations are the same for all contacts who receive the email.
Note: Bestsellers are based only on purchase data Omnisend has tracked since your store was connected – your store's historical sales data is not included. Products with no Omnisend-tracked orders will not appear, regardless of their past performance. If you recently connected your store, you may see fewer results until more orders are recorded.
Personalized Recommendations
Personalized recommendations use contact browsing and purchase data to select products for each contact. They are available in Campaigns and Automation Workflows.
If you're on the Pro plan, you have access to personalized recommendations at no additional cost. If you're on the Standard plan, you can use them by purchasing a paid add-on.
The available personalized recommendation types are:
Recently Viewed Products
Similar to Past Purchases
💡 Tip: Add-ons are billed with your main subscription and scale with your contact tiers. Check active add-ons in Store Settings. Learn about Omnisend pricing plans.
Please note that if upgrading to Pro is more cost-effective for your store than purchasing the add-on separately, the upgrade option will be shown instead. This ensures you always get the best value.
Here's how add-ons billing works:
Unified billing. Add-ons are billed together with your main Omnisend subscription. You will see them on the same invoice and in the same billing cycle.
Consistent tiers. Add-ons scale with your subscription tiers, so charges remain predictable as your contact list grows.
Visibility. You can check your active add-ons and their billing status anytime in Store Settings.
Recently Viewed Products
Select Recently Viewed Products to show products that each contact viewed recently.
The Product Recommender:
Shows up to 10 recently viewed products per contact.
Uses browsing activity from the last 30 days.
Displays products starting with the most recently viewed product.
Shows fewer products if the contact has viewed fewer than 10 products.
For example, if a contact viewed 20 products, the Product Recommender displays the 10 most recent products.
If a contact has no browsing history, the Product Recommender uses the fallback option you selected.
Similar to Past Purchases
Select Similar to Past Purchases to recommend products based on a contact’s purchase history.
This recommendation type can be useful for:
Post-purchase Automation Workflows
Win-back Automation Workflows
Cross-sell messages
Upsell messages
You do not need to select products manually. Omnisend selects products based on the contact’s previous purchases and brand-level product co-occurrence data.
The selection process works as follows:
Reviewing purchase history – Omnisend retrieves the products the contact has purchased.
Analyzing products bought together – Omnisend analyzes which products were purchased together by contacts across the brand.
Calculating product relationships – Omnisend assigns a co-occurrence score to product pairs based on how often they appear together in purchases.
Generating recommendations – Omnisend compares the contact’s previous purchases with these product relationships and selects products with the highest co-occurrence scores.
Creating personalized results – The Product Recommender displays products that other contacts frequently purchased together with the contact’s previously purchased products.
Important Notes About Personalized Recommendations:
Minimum data requirement: For accurate personalized recommendations, your store needs at least 5-7% returning customers (minimum 100 contacts). If there's insufficient data, the system automatically switches to fallback options (best sellers, recently added, or most viewed).
For Similar to Past Purchases, the same product will not be recommended again if the contact purchased it within the last 365 days.
In Clickmap reports, you won't see individual clicks or percentage tracking for Product Recommender blocks.
Dynamic preview behavior varies:
In Campaigns, both preview and test sends display brand-level fallback products (e.g., best sellers) because contact-specific browsing data isn't available in preview mode. Recipients with actual browsing history will see personalized products when the email is sent.
In Automation Workflows, preview mode uses event properties (trigger data), so you can use Dynamic Preview to see personalized products based on contact/event data.
The view in browser (preheader) link will only remain functional for 6 months for campaigns with personalized recommendations. After this period, it will be directed to a 404 page.
When using the Facebook Auto-post campaign feature, Product Recommender Items will show placeholders (like in the Email Builder) instead of actual products.
You can use personalized product recommendations in various ways:
Product abandonment – include more than one recently viewed product in your message.
Order replenishment – when reminding someone to reorder, show items they viewed recently.
Cart abandonment – show both the product that wasn’t purchased and other viewed products.
Campaigns – add a personalized block with recently viewed or similar products.
💡 Note: Product recommender (dynamic) content is refreshed in real time when an email is sent. Any updates made to product details – such as price, title, or image – before the email is delivered will automatically appear in the final email.
Product Layout Settings
Control the structure and product content inside the Product Recommender Item:
Layout type – Choose whether products appear in a grid or list.
Number of products to show – Select how many products the Product Recommender Item should display (up to 12 products).
Number of columns – Choose how many products should appear in each column of the layout. You can show up to four products in one column on desktop devices.
Recommender options – Choose whether to recommend products from All categories or from a Specific category. You can also select Exclude products to prevent specific products from appearing in the recommendations.
Product details – Select which information to display for each product, including Image, Price, Old price, Button, Title, and Description.
Products display – Choose whether products marked as out of stock should appear.
Layout and Display Options
Configure how the Product Recommender Item appears in the email:
Mobile stacking – Enable Stack on mobile to display products vertically instead of placing them side by side on mobile devices.
Visibility on devices – Choose which devices should display the Product Recommender Item:
All devices – Displays the item on desktop and mobile devices.
Mobile only – Displays the item only on mobile devices.
Desktop only – Displays the item only on desktop devices.
Padding – Set the amount of empty space around the content. You can adjust the top, right, bottom, and left padding separately.
Background color or image – Add a background color or upload a background image for the Product Recommender Item. You can also choose whether the background includes or excludes the padding area.
Note: On mobile devices, a maximum of two products can appear in one column. Preview the email on mobile to check how the layout looks.
Product Details Settings
To adjust an individual element, select it inside the Product Recommender Item. Its settings will open in the right-hand panel.
Image settings – Adjust the image alignment, maximum height, and padding around the image.
Text settings – Adjust the appearance of the product title, description, current price, and old price.
Button settings – Adjust the appearance and settings of the product button.
Customize Product Descriptions:
Product Recommender pulls descriptions directly from your store admin (e.g., WooCommerce product pages). To customize descriptions for emails:
Update the product description field in your store admin
The change syncs to Omnisend automatically (every hour)
If you need different descriptions for emails vs. your website, keep the main description field brief for email use and move longer content to a separate field in your store (e.g., "Long description").
That's it; your Product Recommender is all set! It will be saved in real time automatically as you edit it.
Product Recommender for API Stores
If your store is connected to Omnisend through the API, you can use personalized product recommendations such as Recently viewed products and Products similar to last purchases. To make these work, ensure that the correct data is being sent from your store to Omnisend.
Data Requirements
Omnisend uses your product and order data to display accurate recommendations. You’ll need to have specific events implemented in your store for this to function correctly.
Recommendation type | What you need to implement | What it does | Documentation |
Recently viewed products |
| Sends information about which products a visitor has looked at, so Omnisend can display them in recommendations. | |
Products similar to last purchases |
| Allows Omnisend to show items similar to previous purchases, based on available product data and order history. To work correctly, product IDs must match between the order events and the product data you send. |
|
Syncing Past Order Data
If you want recommendations to include previous purchases, you can sync your historical orders through the API. Learn how to sync historic orders.
If you’re sending large amounts of data, it’s best to use batches to avoid reaching API limits. Learn more in our POST Batches documentation.
Troubleshooting
Products are not showing when I select a category
If no products appear after selecting a specific category:
Verify stock status: Check that products in that category are marked "in stock" in your store admin. Products with "out of stock" or custom statuses won't display.
Check category assignment: For API stores, ensure products have the correct
categoryIDs(including parent category IDs).Review excluded products: If you used "Exclude products," make sure you haven't excluded all items in that category.
Test without category filter: Remove the category filter temporarily. If products display, the issue is with category assignment or stock status.
For WooCommerce stores, if products still don't sync:
Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → REST API
Revoke the Omnisend API key
Deactivate and reactivate the Omnisend plugin
Re-add API permissions
Images in the same row aren't aligning
This can happen when products have different aspect ratios. Click on a product image → go to the Image tab → set a Max height value to bring all images into a consistent height range.
FAQ
Can I use multiple Product Recommender Items in a single email?
Yes. You can add multiple items to a single email. Additionally, various types of product recommendations can be added, including best sellers, new arrivals, and personalized suggestions.
What’s the difference between the Product Recommender and Abandoned Products layouts?
The Product Recommender and Abandoned Products layouts display product information in different ways depending on the event that triggers the message and the purpose of the flow or campaign.
The Abandoned Products layout is designed for reminders about specific items that a contact left behind or viewed recently. When the message is triggered by the added product to cart event, it includes all products that were left in the cart. When triggered by the viewed product event, it shows only one product — the most recent one viewed before the message was sent. This layout is best for flows focused on cart or browse abandonment, where the goal is to remind someone about the exact items they interacted with.
The Product Recommender, on the other hand, can be used with any Automation Workflow trigger and in Campaigns. It displays multiple products based on browsing activity, purchase history, or store data. This makes it a more dynamic and personalized option for showcasing relevant products, not limited to a single cart or session.
In short:
Use Abandoned Products when you want to remind contacts about items they didn’t buy.
Use Product Recommender when you want to display a richer, more personalized selection based on browsing or purchase behavior.
The Product Recommender layout provides a more flexible and engaging experience because it can show multiple items and adapt to each contact’s activity — offering stronger personalization and higher engagement compared to Abandoned Products.
The product images in my email appear too large or too small. How can I adjust them?
Click on a product image within the product recommender block, then go to the Image tab in the right-hand sidebar. Use the Max height field to set a maximum image height in pixels.
Images scale proportionally up to that value, which means:
Images shorter than the max display at their natural height.
Taller images are capped at the value you set.
Keep in mind:
The actual rendered height may be lower than the value you set, as it is also affected by column width, canvas width, padding, and column count.
The setting applies to all products in the layout - you can't set different heights per product.
I sent a test email and saw products that don't match my selection. Why?
Test emails display brand-level fallback products (the fallback option you configured in Product Recommender settings) rather than the specific recommendation type you selected (e.g., recently viewed products). This is expected – test sends can't access individual contact data.
When you send the campaign to real recipients, contacts with browsing or purchase history will see personalized products based on the recommendation type you selected.
Why are old products showing in my Product Recommender even though I deleted them?
If old or deleted products still appear, your product data may not be syncing correctly. For WooCommerce stores, try reconnecting your integration:
Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → REST API
Revoke the Omnisend key
Deactivate and reactivate the Omnisend plugin
Re-add API permissions
For API stores, check your API logs in Store Settings to identify sync errors.
Have more questions? Chat with us directly in the app or send an email to [email protected].