Replacement items

Replacement items are the items that customers would see on the shelves surrounding a preferred item while shopping in store. You can provide a similar experience for online customers by displaying a selection of recommended replacement items for a product. High-quality recommendations for replacement items increase the chance that your customers can buy the types of items they need, even if the items aren't their first choice of brand or size. From both the customer and retailer perspectives, a satisfactory replacement is always preferable to a refund.

Replacement items on your storefront

In your storefront, customers can find replacement items displayed in the Replacement instructions dialog, which is accessible from the product details page. They can also be found alongside low-stock items.

How replacement items are generated

For each item in a cart, a list of replacement items is generated.

The factors used to select the replacement items for an item can include the following:

• An item's similarity to a selected item.
• How often other customers accepted an item as a replacement for an item.
• The customer's replacement history for an item.

When displaying replacement items, the following rules apply:

• Items must be available in the selected store.
• A customer's past replacement selections are shown at the beginning of the list.
• All other items are shown in order of popularity.

Stock levels in replacement suggestions

Replacement suggestions use stock levels to help customers choose backup items that a shopper can likely find. The following rules apply:

• Items that are out of stock in the selected store aren't suggested.
• Items that are highly likely to be on the shelf display the Many in stock label.
• Items that are low in stock can be suggested and display the Likely out of stock label.

For more information about the labels, see Stock levels.