Recently Viewed is a personalisation feature on ecommerce websites that displays a carousel or section of products the visitor browsed in their current or previous sessions. It acts as a memory aid — recreating the user's browsing trail so they can quickly return to products they considered but didn't add to cart. The feature is powered by session and cookie data (or user account history for logged-in users) and requires no active input from the shopper to be useful.
Why Recently Viewed Matters for Ecommerce
Shopping sessions are frequently interrupted. A customer browses 8 products, gets a phone call, closes the tab, and returns the next evening. Without Recently Viewed, they must start their search from scratch, which creates friction and may result in them finding the same product on a competitor's site instead. With Recently Viewed, they land on your homepage or any other page and immediately see a personalised entry point back into their previous decision journey.
For mobile shoppers specifically — who are more likely to browse in short, interrupted sessions — Recently Viewed is one of the highest-value personalisation features because it reduces the resume-session cost. Data from ecommerce platforms consistently shows that users who interact with Recently Viewed sections have 2–3x higher conversion rates than users who browse without this aid, because they are re-engaging with products they already showed intent towards.
Real-World Example
Myntra surfaces a "Recently Viewed" strip on the homepage for returning logged-in users and in the cart page as a "Continue browsing" module. The cart placement is particularly strategic: a user at cart who hasn't added what they were looking for sees a direct prompt to retrieve it. Brands implementing this on their Shopify stores report that the recently viewed carousel on the cart page contributes 5–10% of assisted conversions — meaning it appeared in the session before a purchase was completed, even if it wasn't the last product clicked.
How to Improve / Optimize Recently Viewed
- Place it where return sessions start: Homepage (for returning visitors), cart page, and search results page are the three highest-value placements for Recently Viewed because users are either just arriving or actively in buying mode.
- Persist across sessions for logged-in users: Recently Viewed should extend beyond the current session for account holders. A returning user from 3 days ago should still see the products they browsed last week.
- For guest users, use cookies with a reasonable duration: 7–14 days of cookie-based Recently Viewed persistence covers most re-visit windows without privacy over-reach.
- Show at least 4–6 products: A single recently-viewed product is less useful than a full carousel. Show enough to trigger memory and re-engagement.
- Combine with re-engagement emails: For users who browsed but didn't convert, a "You left these behind" email showing Recently Viewed products is more compelling than a generic promotional offer.
Recently Viewed in A/B Testing
Test Recently Viewed placement (homepage vs. cart vs. PDP), carousel size, and the threshold for triggering it (after how many products does it appear?). Measure the contribution to assisted and direct conversion rates by tracking sessions where users click through from the module.
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