Most Popular In Category
Narrow down recommendations to most popular products in a specific product category.
Most Popular In Category is an OptiMonk feature that automatically shows visitors the best-selling products from the specific category they are currently browsing — without any manual campaign management. It is a sub-mode of the "Most popular" recommendation setting, available as "Each category page," which tells OptiMonk to read the visitor's current category page context at display time and surface the most-viewed products from that category based on the last 14 days of browsing data. A single campaign covers every category in your store simultaneously: a visitor on the Running Shoes category sees the top running shoes, while a visitor on the Backpacks category sees the top backpacks — all from the same campaign, with no duplication required. Available for Shopify and Shoprenter stores.
Key benefits
- One campaign covers every category automatically: Instead of creating a separate recommendation campaign for each product category in your store, a single Most Popular In Category campaign adapts its recommendations to match whatever category the visitor is browsing at the moment — scaling to your entire catalog with no extra work.
- Recommendations are always based on real browsing data: OptiMonk calculates popularity using the last 14 days of page views, meaning the recommendations reflect current visitor behavior rather than a static, manually chosen list. Trending products in a category surface automatically without any campaign updates.
- Highly relevant by definition: Showing the most popular products within the category a visitor is already browsing produces inherently relevant recommendations — the visitor has already expressed category-level interest, and seeing the top products within that category reinforces purchase intent precisely when it is strongest.
How it works
In the OptiMonk campaign editor, click on a Product Element and set the recommendation mode to "Most popular" in the General / Mode drop-down.
Under the Most popular settings, select "Each category page." OptiMonk will automatically add a "Current category page" targeting condition to your campaign, ensuring the popup only appears on category pages.
When a visitor lands on any category page, the popup fires and OptiMonk identifies the current category, looks up the most-viewed products in that category over the last 14 days, and displays them. No manual product selection or per-category campaign needed.
Frequently asked questions
What is Most Popular In Category in OptiMonk?+
Most Popular In Category is an OptiMonk feature that shows visitors the most-viewed products from the specific category they are currently browsing. It uses the "Most popular — Each category page" mode, which reads the visitor's current category context and populates the popup with the top products from that category based on the last 14 days of view data. One campaign covers your entire store.
How does OptiMonk determine which products are most popular in a category?+
OptiMonk tracks product page views across your store and calculates popularity based on view counts over the previous 14 days. For category-specific recommendations, it scopes this calculation to products belonging to the category the visitor is currently browsing. Rankings update continuously.
Does Most Popular In Category work on non-Shopify stores?+
This feature is available for Shopify and Shoprenter stores, which allow OptiMonk to automatically detect the category a visitor is browsing. On other platforms, the "Each category page" mode is not supported — you would use the "Given category" option instead and manually specify which category to pull from.
What is the difference between "Most Popular In Category" and "Most Popular Products"?+
"Most Popular Products" shows the most-viewed products across your entire store, regardless of which category the visitor is browsing. "Most Popular In Category" scopes recommendations to the specific category the visitor is currently on. The category-scoped version is more relevant for visitors already browsing a specific product type, while the store-wide version is better for homepages or generic pages.
Do I need a separate campaign for each category?+
No. A single "Each category page" campaign automatically adapts to every category on your store. OptiMonk reads the visitor's current category at display time and fills in the appropriate recommendations — no per-category duplication is needed.
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