Recommendations
How the Recommendations home block works — what drives the suggestions, when they appear, and how to add a recommended product to the cart.
The Recommendations block surfaces product suggestions directly on the Home screen while staff are serving a customer. Suggestions are generated server-side based on the contents of the active cart and the purchase history of any attached customer, so they update automatically as the interaction evolves.
The block is part of the configurable Home layout and must be enabled by a manager before it appears. See Home Blocks for setup instructions.
Prerequisites
- You are signed in and the device has completed Initial Device Setup.
- A manager has added the Recommendations block to the Home layout via Settings → Home Blocks.
- An active cart exists on the device.
The Recommendations block is invisible until a cart is started. It does not show a placeholder or empty state — it simply takes up no space until suggestions are available.
How recommendations are generated
The app sends the active cart ID and (if present) the attached customer ID to the Omnium recommendation engine each time the cart changes. The engine returns a ranked list of products based on:
- What is already in the cart (cross-sell and upsell logic)
- The attached customer's previous purchase history
Recommendations refresh automatically whenever:
- A new cart is selected or created
- A customer is attached to or removed from the cart
- Any item is added to or removed from the cart
No manual refresh is needed.
Reading the block
When recommendations are available, the block appears as a labelled card spanning the full width of the Home pane.
Block heading
The top of the card shows a recommend icon and the label Recommendations in a slightly smaller secondary style — this lets staff identify the section at a glance.
Product cards
Below the heading is a horizontally scrollable row of compact product cards. Each card is roughly 160 × 74 px and contains:
| Element | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Product image | 54 × 54 px thumbnail, or a generic image icon if no image is available |
| Product name | Up to two lines; truncated with an ellipsis if longer |
| Price | Shown for single-variant products (SKUs); the lowest currently valid price |
| Variant count | Shown for products with multiple variants — a small palette icon followed by the number of variants |
Scroll horizontally to see all suggestions.
Adding a recommended product to the cart
- Locate the Recommendations block on the Home screen.
- Tap the product card you want to add.
If the product is a single variant (SKU): The product is added to the active cart immediately. A confirmation snackbar appears at the bottom of the screen: <Product name> added to cart.
If the product has multiple variants (sizes, colours): A bottom sheet opens titled with the product name. Select the specific variant you want, then tap to add it. The sheet stays open so you can add more than one variant if needed.
If the add fails for any reason, a snackbar shows Failed to add <name> to cart: <error detail>.
Variations
When no recommendations are available
If the engine returns no results for the current cart and customer combination, the Recommendations block collapses completely — it takes up no space and shows no message. This is expected behaviour; it means the engine did not find relevant suggestions for this particular combination.
When recommendations are refreshing
While a new set of recommendations is being fetched (for example, immediately after adding an item to the cart), the existing cards remain visible but at reduced opacity. Interaction is temporarily disabled during this brief window. Normal opacity and interactivity return as soon as the new results arrive.
No cart active
The block is not rendered at all when no cart is selected. Start a cart — by adding a product, scanning a barcode, or attaching a customer — and the block will appear once recommendations are fetched.
Customer attached vs. no customer
Recommendations work with or without an attached customer, but they are typically more targeted when a customer is attached, as the engine can factor in that customer's purchase history. Attaching or detaching a customer triggers an immediate refresh.
Managing the block in Settings
The Recommendations block can only be added once per Home layout. An administrator can:
- Add it via the + button in Settings → Home Blocks, then selecting Add Recommendations.
- Move it up or down in the Home layout by tapping the block in the settings grid and using Move up / Move down.
- Remove it by tapping the block and selecting Delete, then confirming.
There are no further configuration options for the Recommendations block itself. For full Home Blocks administration, see Home Blocks.