YITH Recently Viewed Products surfaces each customer’s own trail: a widget or shortcode showing the products they’ve viewed this session (or across sessions for logged-in users) — the resume-where-you-left-off pattern that e-commerce borrowed from retail and never should have dropped. The returning-visitor case is the money scenario: someone browsed Tuesday, returns Friday ready to buy, and the homepage reminds them of exactly what they were considering — no search, no memory required. Placement flexibility (widgets, shortcodes, cart and checkout slots) puts the trail where recovery happens. Against personalization tools like Wishlist (explicit saving) and Frequently Bought Together (algorithmic suggestions), recently-viewed is the implicit personalization — what the customer actually did, not what they declared or what an algorithm guesses.
The 2.5x line maintains steady cadence. For catalogs with considered purchases, it’s the cheapest personalization with the highest signal.
Competitive Features
- Browsing trail display — products the customer viewed
- Session and persistent tracking — history depth configurable
- Placement flexibility — widgets, shortcodes, cart slots
- Logged-in history — cross-session trails for members
- Widget customization — display and layout control
- Exclusion rules — products kept off trails
- Performance-light — no heavy tracking infrastructure
Key Features
- Trail length control — how many items show
- Responsive widgets — trails on mobile
- Slider layout — history as carousel
- Cart-page placement — last-glance reminders
- Theme compatibility — standard templates respected
- Translation ready — multilingual compatible
Comparison with Competitors
YITH Recently Viewed vs Wishlists
| Aspect | Recently Viewed | Wishlists |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Implicit (behavior) | Explicit (customer action) |
| Effort required | None from customer | Save clicks |
| Signal quality | Actual interest | Declared interest |
| Coverage | Everything viewed | Only saved items |
Bottom line: Wishlists capture what customers commit to; browsing history captures everything they touched — broader signal, zero friction. Personalization stacks use both layers.
YITH Recently Viewed vs algorithmic recommendations
| Aspect | Recently Viewed | Recommendation engines |
|---|---|---|
| Logic | Customer’s own trail | Predictive models |
| Setup | None | Configuration and tuning |
| Accuracy | Literal | Probabilistic |
| Privacy | Self-evident | Model-dependent |
Bottom line: Recommendation engines guess; recently-viewed is literal — the customer’s own trail, no algorithm to tune, no privacy explanation needed. The simplest personalization that works.
Recommended Stack — browsing trails pair with explicit saving: combine with YITH Wishlist so implicit history and declared intent both serve recovery.
Official Changelog
Version 2.54.0
Release Date: August 24, 2026
- Feature release: widget-layout and tracking refinements.
Version 2.53.0
Release Date: July 12, 2026
- Maintenance release: WooCommerce compatibility updates.
Version 2.52.0
Release Date: May 18, 2026
- Maintenance release: stability and display fixes.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the tracking work?
Viewed products record to the customer’s session (visitors) or account (logged-in users) — no personal data beyond browsing behavior, and the trail renders wherever you place the widget.
Does history persist across visits?
Yes for logged-in customers — their trail survives sessions; guests see session-scoped history, reset when the browsing session ends.
Where can the trail appear?
Widgets (sidebars, footers), shortcodes (any page), and specialized slots (cart and checkout pages) — the last-glance cart placement being the classic recovery position.
Can I exclude products from trails?
Yes — exclusion rules keep specific items (clearance, private, irrelevant) off the display, curating what the trail surfaces.
Does it slow the site?
No — tracking is lightweight cookie/session work with no external calls; the widget renders from standard WooCommerce queries.
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