How to Add a Recently Viewed Products Section In Shopify?
In the world of e-commerce, enhancing user experience is key to boosting sales and customer satisfaction. One effective way to achieve this is by adding a “Recently Viewed Products” section to your online Shopify store. While many premium Shopify themes include this feature, it’s not readily available in free themes. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to set up a “Recently Viewed Products” section on free Shopify themes like Dawn, Fresh, and Sales.
Why Add a “Recently Viewed Products” Section?
Before we dive into the how-to, you might be wondering why you should consider adding this section to your store. While you may already have a “You May Also Like” section and other features, a “Recently Viewed Products” section is valuable for several reasons:
- Facilitating Purchase Decisions: It’s common for online shoppers to take some time before making a purchase decision. Having a section that displays the products they’ve recently viewed keeps those items top of mind.
- User Convenience: Customers can easily return to products they are interested in without having to search for them again.
- Enhanced User Experience: This feature adds a level of personalization to your store, making it more engaging for users.
Now, let’s go step by step and see how you can implement this feature in your store.
Step 1: Creating a “Recently Viewed” Snippet
To begin, you’ll need to create a “Recently Viewed” snippet. Here’s how:
- Log in to your Shopify admin and go to the “Themes” section.
- Click on the “Edit Code” option.
- Scroll down and open the “Snippets” folder.
- Click on “Add a new snippet” and name it “recently-viewed.liquid”
Now, you’re ready for the next step.
Step 2: Adding the Code
<style>
@media only screen and (min-width: 750px)
{
.js-recentPdpBlock{
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr;
column-gap: var(--grid-desktop-horizontal-spacing);
}
}
@media only screen and (max-width: 576px)
{
/* Code by https://websensepro.com */
.js-recentPdpBlock{
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
column-gap: var(--grid-desktop-horizontal-spacing);
}
.c-product img{
height: 230px !important;
}
}
.recently-title h2 {
font-size: 24px;
border-top: 1px solid #d2d2d2;
padding-top: 50px;
}
/* .js-recentPdpBlock {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap !important;
} */
.c-product{
cursor: pointer;
}
.c-product img {
height: 280px;
width: 100%;
object-fit: cover;
}
.c-product p.c-productPrice {
line-height: 0px;
color: #000;
}
.c-product h3.c-product__title {
line-height: 0px;
padding-bottom: 10px;
}
.c-product h3.c-product__title a {
color: black;
text-decoration: none;
}
a.c-product__url{
position: relative;
}
</style>
<script>
// First Block
function setRecentlyViewedPdp() {
const pdpData = {
productTitle : "{{ product.title }}",
productImg : "{{ product.featured_image | img_url: '' }}",
productPrice : "{{ product.price | money | remove_first: '' }}",
productUrl : "{{ product.url }}"
};
// Init Empty Array to push data
const productArr = [];
// Create a couple of variables
let jsonResp,
jsonRespArr,
jsonRespArrStr;
// Set the number how many products you want to capture
const numberOfProduct = 4;
// Now push the pdpData into Array so that we can use it
productArr.push(pdpData);
// Get the product title from pdpData
const currPdpTitle = pdpData.productTitle;
// Now Convert current page data into Strings which we already pushed in Array
const pdpDataString = JSON.stringify(productArr);
// Set the variable for localStorage
const localData = localStorage.getItem('recently_viewed');
// Second Block
// first we need to check data if data is not there then store right // away
if (localData == null) {
localStorage.setItem('recently_viewed', pdpDataString);
}
// If data is there then we need to check couple of other conditions
else if ( localData != null ) {
// Create Variable for oldData or Previous page
const oldPdpData = localStorage.getItem('recently_viewed');
// Count the amount of data stored in strings so that we can remove // old products from the stack
const countPdpData = (oldPdpData.match(/productTitle/g) || []).length;
// we also need to check if user is not visiting page again
const reVisitPdp = oldPdpData.includes(currPdpTitle);
// Get old data, merged it with new data and store merged data
if (countPdpData < numberOfProduct && reVisitPdp == false) {
jsonResp = JSON.parse(oldPdpData);
jsonRespArr = jsonResp.concat(productArr);
jsonRespArrStr = JSON.stringify(jsonRespArr);
localStorage.setItem('recently_viewed', jsonRespArrStr);
}
// If User visited more the 4 pages delete first page data
else if (countPdpData >= numberOfProduct && reVisitPdp == false) {
jsonResp = JSON.parse(oldPdpData);
jsonResp.shift();
jsonRespArr = jsonResp.concat(productArr);
jsonRespArr = JSON.stringify(jsonRespArr);
localStorage.setItem('recently_viewed', jsonRespArr);
}
}
}
// Now we write all our function and it's time to execute it
setRecentlyViewedPdp();
// Set Variable for Local Storage Data
const localViewed = localStorage.recently_viewed;
// console.log to verify the data
</script>
<div class="recently-title">
<h2 class="title inline-richtext h2 scroll-trigger animate--slide-in"><b>Recently Viewed</b></h2>
</div>
<div class="js-recentPdpBlock">
</div>
<script>
// Third Block
function getRecentPdp (){
// First let's convert localStorage data into object again
const pdpData = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('recently_viewed'));
console.log(pdpData)
// Create a empty Array
const recentViewHtml = []
// Loop through all the data and inject into HTML using ES6
pdpData.forEach(function(item){
recentViewHtml.push(`
<section id="Recent">
<div class="c-product">
<div class="c-product__img">
<a href="${item.productUrl}"><img src='${item.productImg}'/></a>
</div>
<h3 class="c-product__title">
<a class="c-product__url" href="${item.productUrl}">
${item.productTitle}
</a>
</h3>
<p class="c-productPrice">${item.productPrice}</p>
</div>
</section>
`)
})
// Now consolidate the data
const recentBlock = `${recentViewHtml.join('')}`
// console.log() to check data is correct
console.log(recentBlock);
// Inject into PDP page
const contentBlock = document.querySelectorAll('.js-recentPdpBlock');
// Push the data
contentBlock.forEach(element =>{
element.innerHTML = recentBlock;
})
}
// Execute this function on DOM content load
getRecentPdp();
</script>This code will pull product information from Shopify and utilize local storage in the visitor’s browser to display recently viewed products. The code is designed to work with various Shopify themes.
Step 3: Rendering the Snippet
In the “main-product. liquid” file, search for “product-media-model” and add a line break to render the “recently-viewed” snippet. This step ensures that the recently viewed products appear on your product pages.
{% render 'recently-viewed' %}Step 4: Test Your “Recently Viewed” Section
Preview your store to ensure that the “Recently Viewed Products” section is functioning correctly. It should display a list of the products a visitor has recently viewed, even after refreshing the page.
