Global Recommendation Settings

The options on the Global Recommendation Settings tab affect every recommendation strategy in the account. Follow these steps to access the settings.

  1. Click COMPONENTS in the top navigation bar, and then select Product Recommendations.

    Callout of the Recommendations option in the COMPONENTS menu

  2. Click the Global Recommendation Settings tab.

    Callout of the Global Recommendation Settings tab

On this tab you can adjust how much historical data a recommendation strategy considers as well as create product filters that apply to all recommendation strategies in the account.

Recommendation Lookback Period

The default amount of historical data considered in a recommendation strategy is 30 days if that strategy uses a recommendation algorithm with lookback period options. This setting only determines what lookback period option appears preselected for a recommendation algorithm with lookback period options when you create a new recommendation strategy. This setting does not prevent you from selecting a different lookback period for a recommendation algorithm when configuring or modifying a recommendation strategy that uses a recommendation algorithm that has lookback period options.

You can change this default setting on the Global Recommendation Settings tab from 30 days to 2 days or 7 days. Click SAVE after you select a new setting.

Callout of the default lookback period options on the Global Recommendation Settings tab and of the SAVE button

Be aware that a 30-day default lookback period in some situations might cause new products to take longer to appear in recommendations. For example, if you frequently update a product catalog in the account, then recommendations drawn from it based on 30 days' worth of historical data might include products that are no longer in that catalog. If you update product catalogs frequently, consider a shorter lookback period.

Offline Purchase Data

The Offline Purchases Data feature is part of Monetate's Premium Product Recommendations package. Contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager for more information.

If your account has the Offline Purchase Data add-on and if you have uploaded at least one Offline Purchases dataset, then the Global Recommendation Settings page includes an optional setting so that you can make one Offline Purchases dataset the default used for every recommendation strategy configured to include offline purchase data.

You must select an Offline Purchases dataset to use that data in recommendation strategies. You cannot select an Offline Purchases dataset when creating an individual recommendation strategy.

Callout of the 'Offline Purchase Data' selector

Even if you don't select an Offline Purchases dataset on the Global Recommendation Settings page, the options to include offline purchase data still appear on the recommendation strategy configuration page. If you configure a recommendation strategy that in some way includes offline purchases data but haven't selected an Offline Purchases dataset on the Global Recommendation Settings page, you don't see an error message, and the strategy will not work as expected.

Global Filters

Global filters allow you to further refine the products included in recommendations. The filters you create on the Global Recommendation Settings tab are applied to all recommendation strategies in the account, including existing strategies that are in use in experiences.

See Filters in Recommendation Strategies for more information about the types of attribute-based filters you can create on the Global Recommendation Settings tab.

Callout of the Global Filters section of the Global Recommendation Settings tab

Furthermore, you cannot modify global filters when you're creating a recommendation strategy. The filters you create on the Global Recommendation Settings tab appear in a recommendation strategy, but the ability to edit their values is disabled.

Example of global filters with editing options disabled in a recommendation strategy

Creating a Global Filter

Follow these steps to create a global filter to apply to all existing and future recommendation strategies.

  1. Click COMPONENTS in the top navigation bar, and then select Product Recommendations.
  2. Click the Global Recommendation Settings tab.
  3. Click ADD FILTER in the Global Filters section.

    Callout of the ADD FILTER button in the Global Filters section

  4. Choose an attribute option and then complete the filter equation.

    Animated demonstration of a user clicking the ADD FILTER button, selecting the 'Age Range' attribute, selecting the 'EQUALS' operator, and then selecting a dynamic value to complete the filter

  5. Optionally, repeat steps 3 and 4 to add additional filters, if necessary. Click the logic connector toggle from AND to OR as necessary.

    Callout of the logic connector toggle for multiple global filters

  6. Click SAVE, and then click OK to acknowledge the warning modal reminding users that global filters apply to all recommendations.

    Animated demonstration of a user clicking the SAVE button and then clicking OK to acknowledge the warning that global filters apply to all recommendations

See Filters in Recommendation Strategies for guidance on creating filters and understanding the logic behind them.