In general, treat conversion stats for recommenders as a reference and not dwell too much into absolute numbers. Every product recommendations vendors use a different methodology to calculate conversion stats so you should never choose vendors solely based on conversion stats. Some treat viewed recommendation as attributable conversion while others don't count refunds as conversions.
Below we shall illustrate how OnVoard does conversions tracking for recommenders.
Conversions are treated as Assisted Conversions
A conversion occurs when someone makes an order after clicking on product recommendations. We don't take full credit for the conversion. Instead, we think that product recommendations assisted in getting the conversion.
7 days lookback window
Only recommendations clicks within the last 7 days will count towards conversions.
Double counting can occur for assisted conversions
For example, a single converted product may generate more than 1 assisted conversion if 2 recommender widget is clicked by user to view that product before it gets converted. In this case, both recommenders will show assisted conversion.
Why we don't use last-click attribution
Many merchants use more than 1 recommender widgets. Some recommendations, like Recently Viewed, may be clicked more frequently by users before they make the final purchase. Using last-click attribution will cause these widgets to gain too much attribution while losing insights for other widgets that have contributed to purchase. This is why we use double counting to track assisted conversions.
Conversions are recorded at product-level
Each converted product will count as 1 conversion. Thus, if an order have 5 products, you may have up to 5 conversions for that order. Products that are not clicked from recommendations will not be recorded as conversions.
Subsequent changes to order will not modify conversions
Refunds and cancelled orders will still be counted as conversions.