Every Smart Recommender campaign includes a Design and Placement step. This is where you decide how recommendations will look and where they’ll appear on your site.
Design isn’t just decoration — it’s communication. The way widgets look and where they’re placed directly affect trust, engagement, and conversion.
This step is where strategy becomes on-site experience:
Align visual design with your brand identity
Match placement with the user journey
Blend algorithmic intelligence with curated aesthetics
Let’s explore real-world-inspired scenarios that demonstrate the impact of great campaign design.
Scenario 1: Blend recommendations seamlessly into brand design
Instead of using the default layout, Sophie, who is a digital designer at a luxury fashion house, customized the widget to match the brand’s typography, colors, and spacing. Her carousel, titled “You May Also Adore”, appeared below the PDP details — looking like a natural extension of the page.
Why it works
Native-looking design builds trust. Users engaged more because recommendations felt like part of the brand story, not an add-on.
Scenario 2: Maximize scroll value on the homepage
Leo, who is an ecommerce manager at a sports retailer, noticed that users were dropping off mid-scroll on the homepage. Instead of long carousels, he tested a compact 4-card grid with arrows, placed just under the hero banner.
Why it works
Placement respected scanning behavior. Personalized products appeared early, light and engaging, which is capturing attention without clutter.
Scenario 3: Mobile-first layout for faster conversions
Who: Amina, Campaign Manager at a beauty brand
With most traffic from mobile, Amina, who is a campaign manager at a beauty brand, designed a vertical layout optimized for small screens. She reduced image sizes and showed two products per view for faster loading.
Why it works
Designing mobile-first (instead of shrinking desktop layouts) fit actual shopping habits, such as quick scrolls and taps, improving conversions.
Scenario 4: Test placement impact with A/B variants
Who: Daniel, Marketing Lead at an electronics retailer
Daniel, who is a marketing lead at an electronics retailer, tested two homepage placements:
Variant A: Above the banner
Variant B: Below the banner
After 2 weeks, Variant B had 24% higher add-to-cart conversions.
Why it works
Placement can matter more than design itself. Smart Recommender’s flexibility made it easy to test and find the sweet spot.
Scenario 5: Manual merchandising for seasonal campaigns
Elena, a marketing specialist at a home décor store, utilized Manual Merchandising to showcase limited-edition Christmas items in a curated gallery featuring a festive banner, such as “Bring the Holiday Spirit Home.”
Why it works
Algorithms scale personalization, but curated campaigns add storytelling and seasonal relevance — boosting engagement.
Scenario 6: Consistent experience across channels
Nora is a marketplace brand manager, and her team ran campaigns across Home, Category, and Cart pages using a shared widget template — same button style, image ratio, and headers.
Why it works
Consistency built recognition. Users trusted recommendation blocks more and clicked through at higher rates.
Quick Takeaways
Design with purpose, not just polish.
The goal isn’t to make widgets “stand out” — it’s to make them belong. When they blend naturally with your brand design, they convert better.
Placement matters as much as visuals.
A well-designed widget in the wrong place won’t perform. Use data, A/B tests, and scroll analysis to find the most impactful positions.
Think mobile-first.
Your campaign should load fast, look sharp, and stay touch-friendly across all screen sizes. Prioritize real-world usability over perfect symmetry.
Balance automation with curation.
Algorithms deliver scale, while manual merchandising brings storytelling. The best-performing brands mix both.
Keep your brand consistent.
Use templates and styling tools to unify the look and feel across pages — this builds user trust and a cohesive brand experience.