Configure an Omnichannel Recommendations Action with Slotting

The Omnichannel recommendations action with slotting allows you to use up to four recommendation strategies in a single action to yield more diversified results.

When you're configuring this type of action, keep in mind that each recommendation strategy that you select has its own combination of recommendation algorithm and filters. For example, you could use two recommendation strategies configured with the Viewed and Also Viewed recommendation algorithm, and one is configured to show items within the same category but the other is configured to show complementary items.

Follow these steps to configure an Omnichannel experience with a Product Recommendations action.

1. Create an Omnichannel experience, and then configure the WHY and WHO settings.
2. Click WHAT and then click ADD ACTION.

   

3. Click Product Recommendations.

   

4. Select the Omnichannel recommendations with slotting template that you want to use.

   The Product Recommendations Omnichannel action templates shown here may not reflect the templates that appear in your account.

   

5. Configure the required recommendations-related inputs for the action.
   1. Select up to four recommendation strategies.
      • When selecting multiple recommendation strategies, ensure that they all use the same product catalog. Using strategies that are configured with different catalogs can produce unexpected results.
      • Scroll through the list of recommendation strategies in a selector, or use the search bar to find one by name.
      • After you select a strategy from one selector, it still appears in the list for each of the other selectors.
      • Select None to remove a previously selected strategy before saving the configuration.

      

   2. Type into Recommendation strategy sequence how many recommended products should come from each strategy that you selected in the previous step. See Setting the Recommendation Strategy Sequence in Configure a Recommendations Action with Slotting for more information.

      

   3. Enter the minimum number of products the recommendation strategies must display before the action triggers a fallback recommendation strategy.

      Setting the minimum to zero prevents the fallback recommendation strategy from rendering and thus causes the action to fire in all scenarios, even if no products are recommended. This situation can also result in customers being counted in the experience without seeing recommendations.

      If in step 5a you selected any recommendation strategy with Prepend context item in recommendation enabled, then the context item counts toward meeting the threshold you set in Minimum products returned.

      

   4. Enter the maximum number of products to include in the recommendations results.

      If in step 5a you selected any recommendation strategy with Prepend context item in recommendation enabled, then the context item counts toward meeting the threshold you set in Maximum products returned.

      

   5. Optionally, enter into Pinned products the value of the id attribute for each product that you want to always appear at the beginning of the recommendations results.

      Pinned products are not subject to any recommendation filters configured in the selected recommendation strategies or to the recommendation filters configured on the Global Settings tab of the Product Recommendations page.

      If you enter product IDs into Pinned products and if in step 5a you selected one or more recommendation strategies with Prepend context item in recommendation enabled, then the products identified at the action level appear before the context product in the recommendations results.

      

   6. Optionally, select a product catalog attribute on which duplicate recommended products are removed from the results.

      Ensure that the attribute that you select is present in the product catalog configured within each recommendation strategy that you selected in step 7a. This requirement doesn't apply to any fallback recommendation strategy that you select because the Remove duplicate products based on setting doesn't apply to fallback recommendation strategies.

      

6. Select backup recommendation strategies from Fallback Strategy 1 and Fallback Strategy 2 that you want used to supplement the strategies that you selected in step 5a if they can't display enough recommended products to meet the minimum that you set in step 5c.

   

7. Enter the identifier for the recommendations results.

   

8. Click ADD CONDITION, select an attribute category, and then select and configure an option to set any conditions that must be met for the action to fire. See Action Conditions for more information.

   

9. Click CREATE.

When you configure the Engine API request, ensure that you include any relevant context in the request. See Omnichannel Recommendations Action Requests in the Monetate Developer Hub for more information.

Using Product Catalog Custom Fields in the Action

You can use custom fields (for example, star ratings) from a product catalog in an Omnichannel recommendations action.

Any custom field that you use in the action must also appear in the product catalog configured as part of the recommendation strategy that you selected for the action.