WPC Smart Recommendations for WooCommerce

WPC Smart Recommendations is the most intelligent product recommendation engine for WooCommerce. Unlike basic “related products” plugins that rely on categories alone, WPC Smart Recommendations learns from real customer behavior — what they buy together, what they view in the same session, and what they browse over time — to surface the products most likely to convert.

Why WPC Smart Recommendations?

• Zero configuration needed — activate the plugin and it starts learning from your store’s data immediately.
• Multi-algorithm engine — combines co-purchase, co-view, category affinity, wishlist, and compare data for the most relevant recommendations.
• Multiple display surfaces — product pages, cart, checkout, thank you page, popups, emails, and anywhere via shortcodes.
• Three layout options — Grid, Carousel (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 (top sellers from the same category)
• Wishlist-based recommendations (requires WPC Smart Wishlist)
• Compare-based recommendations (requires WPC Smart Compare)
• Trending Now section with time-decay scoring
• Recently Viewed products (localStorage-based, no 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
• Performance statistics dashboard with Chart.js
• Transient-based caching with configurable TTL
• Configurable behavior data retention
• REST API for headless/decoupled stores
• 6 shortcodes for flexible placement
• WordPress widget support
• HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage) compatible
• Translation ready

📊 Behavioral Tracking & Algorithms

WPC Smart Recommendations automatically tracks customer interactions to build an intelligent recommendation engine:

Co-Purchase Analysis
Every completed order teaches the algorithm which products are frequently bought together. Over time, this creates powerful “also bought” recommendations that directly increase Average Order Value.

Co-View Analysis
Session-based tracking identifies products viewed together in the same browsing session. This reveals product affinities that purchase data alone might miss — especially useful for new stores with limited order history.

Category Affinity
As a smart fallback, the plugin identifies top-performing products in the same category. This ensures every product page always has relevant recommendations, even for newly added items.

Wishlist & Compare Integration
When WPC Smart Wishlist or WPC Smart Compare are active, the algorithm incorporates wishlist and compare data to surface products the customer has shown genuine interest in.

Interest Scoring
A background hourly process aggregates all behavioral signals into per-product interest scores, which are used to rank recommendations by relevance.

🎠 Carousel / Slider Layout

The Carousel layout provides a sleek horizontal scrolling experience built on CSS `scroll-snap` — meaning zero JavaScript library dependencies, fast loading, and native touch/swipe support on mobile devices.

Features:

• Smooth scroll-snap behavior for precise card alignment
• Previous / Next navigation buttons with automatic disable at boundaries
• Responsive breakpoints: adapts from 6 columns on desktop to single-card on mobile
• Uses the same product card template as Grid layout for visual consistency
• Works on all surfaces: product page, cart, popup, shortcodes, trending, and thank you page

Responsive behavior:

• Desktop (>1024px): respects your column setting (2-6)
• Tablet (768-1024px): caps at 3 visible cards
• Mobile (480-768px): shows 2 cards
• Small mobile (<480px): shows ~1.4 cards for peek-ahead effect

🔮 Personalized “For You” Popup

A modern split-layout popup that appears once per session, showing personalized product recommendations based on the visitor’s browsing history.

Configuration options:

• Show to all visitors, logged-in users only, guests only, or disable
• Customizable popup delay (seconds of idle time before trigger)
• Custom heading, subheading, and icon/emoji
• Grid, Carousel, or List layout inside the popup
• Configurable number of products and columns

📈 Trending Now

A dedicated “Trending Now” section powered by a time-decay scoring algorithm. Products that are popular *right now* rank higher than products that were popular last month.

• Configurable via shortcode `[wpcrc_trending]` or admin settings
• Adjustable number of products and time window
• Grid, Carousel, or List layout
• Custom heading text

🛒 Cart, Checkout & Order Recommendations

Cart Page

Display recommendations based on all products currently in the cart, with multiple position options:

• Before cross-sells
• After cross-sells
• Below cart table
• After cart totals

Checkout Page

Position options for checkout recommendations:

• Before/after order review
• Before/after customer details

Thank You / Order Confirmation Page

Use the `[wpcrc_order]` shortcode on your custom thank you page to show recommendations based on the products just purchased — when the customer is most engaged and likely to return.

Email Integration

Add `[wpcrc_order order_id=”{{order_id}}”]` to WooCommerce email templates to include personalized recommendations directly in order confirmation emails.

⚙️ Priority Rules Engine

A powerful rule-based system to fine-tune which products appear in recommendations:

• Conditions: Product age, price, stock quantity, on sale, featured, category, tag, product type
• Operators: Less than, greater than, equals, not equals, in, not in
• Actions: Boost % (increase score), Penalize % (decrease score), Exclude (remove entirely)
• Drag-to-reorder: Rules are evaluated in order — first match wins
• Per-rule toggle: Enable/disable individual rules without deleting them

Example rules:

• “If product age < 7 days, Boost 50%" — prioritize new arrivals
• “If stock quantity < 5, Penalize 30%" — deprioritize low-stock items
• “If on sale = yes, Boost 25%” — promote discounted products
• “If product type = external, Exclude” — hide affiliate products

📋 Shortcodes

All shortcodes support `layout`, `columns`, `limit`, and `title` attributes unless noted otherwise.

= [wpcrc_product] =
Display recommendations for the current product.

`[wpcrc_product limit=”8″ columns=”4″ layout=”grid”]`

= [wpcrc_cart] =
Display recommendations based on all products in the cart.

`[wpcrc_cart limit=”4″ columns=”4″ layout=”carousel”]`

= [wpcrc_order] =
Display recommendations based on products in a completed order. Auto-detects the order ID on the WooCommerce thank you page. Can also accept an explicit `order_id` for use in emails or custom pages.

`[wpcrc_order]`
`[wpcrc_order order_id=”123″ limit=”6″ layout=”list”]`

= [wpcrc_trending] =
Display trending products based on time-decay scoring.

`[wpcrc_trending limit=”8″ columns=”4″ layout=”carousel”]`

= [wpcrc_for_you] =
Display personalized recommendations for the current user.

`[wpcrc_for_you limit=”6″ columns=”3″ layout=”grid” title=”Picked for you”]`

= [wpcrc_recent_viewed] =
Display recently viewed products (stored in localStorage).

`[wpcrc_recent_viewed limit=”6″ columns=”4″ layout=”grid” title=”Recently viewed”]`

🔌 Developer API

For theme developers and custom integrations, the plugin provides a clean public API:

= Get product recommendations =
`$recs = WPCleverWpcrc::get_product_recs($product_id, $limit);`
Returns an array of product IDs based on merged algorithm results for the given product.

= Get cart recommendations =
`$recs = WPCleverWpcrc::get_cart_recs($limit);`
Returns product IDs recommended based on all products currently in the cart.

= Get order recommendations =
`$recs = WPCleverWpcrc::get_order_recs($order_id, $limit);`
Returns product IDs recommended based on products in a completed order. Use this on thank you pages or in email templates where WC()->cart is empty.

= Get user recommendations =
`$recs = WPCleverWpcrc::get_user_recs($limit);`
Returns personalized product IDs based on the logged-in user’s browsing and purchase history.

REST API

The plugin registers REST API endpoints under `wpcrc/v1/` for headless WooCommerce stores.

🎨 Template Overrides

Product card templates can be overridden in your theme:

1. Copy `wp-content/plugins/wpc-smart-recommendations/templates/content-product-grid.php` to `wp-content/themes/your-theme/wpcrc/content-product-grid.php`
2. Customize the template as needed
3. Your theme version will be used automatically