Introducing Trending: Show your customers what’s trending in one, convenient module

Popular or Trending?

What’s the difference between popular products and trending ones? In short, it’s all about movement and change. 

Products in your feed will naturally fluctuate in popularity throughout the year. But for something to be a trend, it needs to see a significant rise in attention. 

That’s where the Trending algorithm shines.

At its core, the Trending algorithm compares how much traffic a product gets in the current period versus earlier periods. You decide how long these periods should be (usually between 1-30 days), impacting how fast- or slow-moving you want the selected products to be. Recent data carries more weight, making the algorithm responsive to even the most fast-moving trends.  

Whether it’s a 7-day spike or a 30-day seasonal change, Trending will promote these products in the module. 

Real-world examples: The Holidays and social trends

1. The Holidays

Fairy lights and Christmas decorations sit idle for most of the year. Then, mid-fall hits, and suddenly, it’s jingle bells everywhere. 

Traffic to these products goes up, and the Trending algorithm spots it immediately and brings these products to the forefront of your modules. 

Once the holiday season ends and interest naturally wanes, they will quickly disappear from your feed to make room for New Year’s stuff instead.  

2. TikTok and Instagram trends

Trends that start online are a lot more unpredictable. For example, the Stanley Cup went from a simple water bottle to the most wanted accessory in a matter of days. 

The Trending algorithm spots this surge early, ensuring that viral hits are front and center in your recommendations when they’re on their way to popularity.

Where to use it? 

There are many good use cases for Trending, but it’s especially ideal to use where it won’t compete with other types of recommendations.  

• Homepage: Highlight what’s hot today. 
• 404 pages: Turn dead ends into new discoveries. 
• E-mails: Show the best you have to offer right in your newsletter.  
  

You set the parameters 

Depending on your strategy, you choose how Trending decides which products to promote: 

Period length: 

• Decide how long each period (e.g. the time span used to track activity) should be 
• Shorter periods capture fast trends but can introduce more noise. 
• Longer periods provide stable, long-term trends. 

Min. support:  

• Filter out low-traffic products. 
• Decide the minimum number of visits a product should receive to be shown in the modules.  

Number of periods 

• How many periods you want to compare, impacting how dynamic recommendations will be. 

And that’s it! You’ve learned:

• What the difference is between popular and trending products
• How Raptor’s new trending functionality can help you automatically keep up with fast-moving trends
• Cool use cases for trending – including TikTok trends, seasonal changes, and time-limited events.
• How you can tweak the functionality to work with your strategy

Curious what Trending can do for you?

Reach out to your usual Raptor expert, or talk to Jakob and he’ll help you with the next steps.

Jakob Djernes VP Customer Service Raptor Services +45 53 67 57 55 jdj@raptor.dk