Action: Display IBM Product Recommendations

Use this action in a web activity to display one or more catalog entries that are recommended in an e-Marketing Spot by IBM Product Recommendations, formerly known as Coremetrics Intelligent Offer. This action can display both flat file and dynamic recommendations.

Feature Pack 4 Feature Pack 2 Feature Pack 5 Feature Pack 3 Feature Pack 6 The Display IBM Product Recommendations action displays as Display Intelligent Offer Recommendation.

Example 1

Here is an example of a web activity that uses the Display IBM Product Recommendations action to display a dynamic recommendation. In this example, a site zone with the ID A123456 is set up using the IBM Product Recommendations software. The purpose of the site zone is to display a list of products that other customers also viewed when the customer is viewing the current product:

When this web activity is activated, the product details page displays the catalog entries that are recommended by site zone ID A123456.

A store page that shows dynamic Intelligent Offer recommendations — Figure 1: IBM Product Recommendations on the product details page

Example 2

Here is an example of a web activity that uses the Display IBM Product Recommendations action to display a flat file recommendation. For flat file recommendations, you must specify an offer that is created in the IBM Product Recommendations software:

When this web activity is activated, the shopping cart page displays the catalog entry recommendations that are provided in the Shopping Cart Page offer flat file that is imported from IBM Product Recommendations:

A store page that shows flat file IBM Product Recommendations — Figure 2: IBM Product Recommendations on the shopping cart page

Tip: You can use this action to display different recommendations to different sets of customers by using a Branch element to split a single path in the activity into multiple paths. You can also use this action with the Experiment element to perform A/B or multivariate testing on the activity.

Requirements for e-Marketing Spots that display recommendations from IBM Product Recommendations

The e-Marketing Spot requirements for flat file recommendations are different from the requirements for dynamic recommendations:

For flat file recommendations, you can use any basic e-Marketing Spot that displays catalog entries on store pages. In WebSphere Commerce starter stores, basic e-Marketing Spots use snippets that are named ContentAreaESpot.jsp, ESpotNavDisplay.jsp, and ScrollingProductESpot.jsp.
For dynamic recommendations, you must use a specialized e-Marketing Spot that has an added function to include a refresh area. For more information about this e-Marketing Spot if you are a store developer, see

Requirements for Commerce Composer widgets to display recommendations from IBM Product Recommendations

If you are using the Commerce Composer tool, you can run this web activity in the IBM Product Recommendations widget. This widget supports both flat file and dynamic recommendations. You can place the widget in layouts for pages that you manage in the Commerce Composer tool, such as category, catalog entry, and search results pages. For pages you do not in the Commerce Composer tool, such as shopping cart and order summary pages, you must continue to use e-Marketing Spots to display these recommendations. For more information, see IBM Product Recommendations in the Aurora starter store.

Prerequisites for using this action

A site administrator must configure your site to use IBM Digital Analytics, formerly known as Coremetrics Analytics as the web analytics service provider.
Your site must subscribe to IBM Product Recommendations, for either dynamic or flat file recommendations.
For dynamic recommendations:
- The store page must have a specialized e-Marketing Spot that can display dynamic recommendations from IBM Product Recommendations. The corresponding offer and zone must be configured within the e-Marketing Spot. Alternatively, if the page is managed in the Commerce Composer tool, you can use the IBM Product Recommendations widget.
- The offer, recommendation plan, and zone you plan to use must exist in the IBM Product Recommendations software.
For flat file recommendations:
- The flat file recommendations must be imported by using the ImportIntelligentOfferAssociations scheduled job.
- The store page must have an e-Marketing Spot that can display catalog entries.
- The offer that you plan to use must exist in the IBM Product Recommendations software.

Guidelines for using this action

When you set up the Display IBM Product Recommendations action in a web activity, you can specify the following options:


Option	Description
Recommendation delivery	For dynamic recommendations, choose Site Zone. For flat file recommendations, choose Flat File.
Zone IDs	For dynamic recommendations, enter one or more zone IDs defined in the IBM Product Recommendations software. If you specify multiple zone IDs, the e-Marketing Spot displays a separate section for the recommendations for each zone. IBM Product Recommendations ensures that the same catalog entry is not recommended in more than one zone on the page. Ensure that your store developer has configured the e-Marketing Spot to match the corresponding zone function: If the zone displays recommendations for a specific catalog entry, the e-Marketing Spot must be passed the part number ID of the current catalog entry. If the zone has a fallback in the recommendation plan to display category top sellers, the e-Marketing Spot must be passed the parent category ID of the catalog entry. If the zone displays recommendations for the most recently viewed product, the product display page must contain an analytics tag to identify viewed products. If the zone displays recommendations for the most recently purchased product, the order summary page must contain an analytics tag to identify purchased products. If the zone displays recommendations for category top sellers, the e-Marketing Spot must be passed the current category ID. If the zone displays recommendations for site top sellers, the e-Marketing Spot must be passed `_TS_` as the category ID.
Offer name	For flat file recommendations, type the offer name that is defined in the IBM Product Recommendations software. The maximum length of the offer name is 32 characters. The offer name must match the name that is defined in IBM Product Recommendations exactly, including case.
Action	For flat file recommendations, specify what you want to base the display of recommendations from IBM Product Recommendations on. Options are: Display a recommendation based on the catalog entries of the current page The server determines which catalog entry the customer is viewing. Then, the server finds any merchandising associations corresponding to the specified flat file offer and displays those catalog entries. Use this option only on the product details page. Display a recommendation based on the catalog entries in the customer's shopping cart The server checks the catalog entries the customer has in the shopping cart. Then, the server finds any merchandising associations corresponding to the specified flat file offer and displays those catalog entries. Display a recommendation based on the catalog entries in the customer's purchase history The server checks the customer's purchase history for previously purchased catalog entries. Then, the server finds any merchandising associations corresponding to the specified flat file offer and displays those catalog entries. You can also specify a time frame for the purchase history, for example, within the last 7 days. Display a recommendation based on specific catalog entries The server checks that catalog entries are specified in the Display IBM Product Recommendations action. Then, the server finds any merchandising associations corresponding to the specified flat file offer and displays those catalog entries.

Tip: For flat file recommendations, consider specifying default catalog entries to display in the e-Marketing Spot. If IBM Product Recommendations does not return any recommendations to the e-Marketing Spot, customers see the default catalog entries instead of an empty e-Marketing Spot. Specifying default catalog entries is useful for flat file recommendations when there are no fallback recommendations that are provided for catalog entries that do not pass the view floor threshold in IBM Product Recommendations. To specify default catalog entries, open the properties view for the e-Marketing Spot and add the catalog entries to the Default content table.

Limitations for dynamic recommendations

If a Display IBM Product Recommendations action that displays dynamic recommendations is used in an experiment:
- If a customer views a recommended catalog entry, statistics are not gathered for the revenue that is associated with purchasing that catalog entry.
- If a customer clicks a recommended catalog entry, statistics are gathered for the revenue that is associated with purchasing that catalog entry.
If the Display IBM Product Recommendations action is displaying dynamic recommendations, the web activity cannot be used in a remote widget.
If you view an IBM Product Recommendations e-Marketing Spot displaying dynamic recommendations in store preview, the red dashed box surrounds only the e-Marketing Spot name. The box does not surround the catalog entries that are displayed in the e-Marketing Spot.