Action: Display Top Browsed

Use this action in a web activity to display in an e-Marketing Spot a list of the top-browsed catalog entries for a category you specify. This type of list can motivate customers to find out more about catalog entries that are driving a lot of interest on the site.

When you activate a web activity with the Display Top Browsed action, the server records customer browsing activity for catalog entries in the category you specify. Each day, the server generates a list of the top-browsed catalog entries. When a customer views the e-Marketing Spot specified in the web activity, the top-browsed list displays.

Here is an example of a web activity that uses the Display Top Browsed action:

When a customer views the e-Marketing Spot in the home page, display a list of the 4 top-browsed catalog entries from the Apparel category:

When this web activity is activated, the e-Marketing Spot on the home page displays the four top-browsed catalog entries:

Here is an example:

When a customer views the e-Marketing Spot on the category display page, display a list of the 5 top-browsed catalog entries from the Coffee Makers category, but only when the customer is browsing the Coffee Makers category or its subcategories:

Example of Action: Display Top Browsed with browsing option selected

In the previous example, if a customer is viewing any category other than Coffee Makers, the web activity does not display a top-browsed list in the e-Marketing Spot. If you want, you can specify multiple categories for the Display Top Browsed action. As a result, the customer sees a top-browsed list on the category display page for each category you specify.

When web activity containing the Display Top Browsed action is activated, the result on the storefront might look something like this example:

Example of top-browsed list on the storefront

The JSP file for the e-Marketing Spot defines which pieces of information about the associated catalog entries to display in the top-browsed list. In the previous example, the JSP file displays a numbered list of catalog entries. Each catalog entry contains the thumbnail image for the product, its name, and its offer price, as defined in the Catalogs tool.

Tip: The Madisons starter store provides an example of a top-browsed list displayed in a scrollable e-Marketing Spot that can also display a best-sellers list. See Product Rankings in the Madisons starter store.

Tip: For testing the web activity, the top browsed product list is generated daily. It run at 2:00 AM by default. You can create a customized version of the wc-admin-component.xml file to specify a different time of day. For more information, see Changing the daily scheduled time for marketing triggers and lists. The browsing behavior is recorded in batch mode. The default size is 200. You can specify a more appropriate size to suite your environment in the wc-admin-component.xml file.

Prerequisites for using the Display Top Browsed action

Make sure a site administrator has your site configured to support Management Center marketing features. See Configuring marketing for Management Center.

Guidelines for using the Display Top Browsed action

When setting up this action, you can specify the following options:


Option	Description
Categories	Specify the category for which you want to display a list of top-browsed catalog entries. You can specify more than one category, but only if you choose one of the following Display options: Display a list for the specified category only when the customer is viewing the category Display a list for the specified category only when the customer is viewing the category or its subcategories
Display	Specify whether the customer must be viewing the category to see the top-browsed list. Options are: Display a list for the specified category For this option, customers do not need to be viewing the category to see the top-browsed list. Therefore, you can use an e-Marketing Spot on any page. The e-Marketing Spot displays the top-browsed list for the category you specify. Display a list for the specified category only when the customer is viewing the category For this option, you must use an e-Marketing Spot on a category page; otherwise, customers will never see the top-browsed list. The top-browsed list displays to customers viewing the category but not its subcategories. For example, if you specify the Furniture category and the Tableware category: Customers viewing the Furniture category page see a list of the top-browsed furniture Customers viewing the Tableware category page see a list of the top-browsed tableware Customers viewing any other category pages, including subcategories of Furniture and Tableware do not see a top-browsed list Display a list for the specified category only when the customer is viewing the category or its subcategories For this option, you must use e-Marketing Spots on a category page or the product details page, or both; otherwise, customers will never see the top-browsed list. If you specify an e-Marketing Spot on a category page, the top-browsed list displays to customers viewing the category or its subcategories. For example, if you specify the Furniture category, customers viewing either the Furniture category page or any category page within the Furniture category (for example, the Desks category page or Love Seats category page) see a list of top-browsed furniture. If you specify an e-Marketing Spot on the product details page, the top-browsed list displays to customers viewing any catalog entries in the category or its subcategories. For example, if you specify the Furniture category, customers viewing a specific desk or a chair see a list of top-browsed furniture.
Maximum number	Specify the maximum number of catalog entries to include in the top-browsed list.
Time frame in days	Specify how many days' worth of browsing activity to base the top-browsed list on. For example, if you specify 3, then the top-browsed list is based on browsing activity that occurred within the last three days.

To determine when a customer is viewing a page related to the categories you specify, the server uses either the categoryId value on the CategoryDisplay URL or the productId value on the ProductDisplay URL. If your store uses page view names or URL parameter names that are different from the default, then the Display Top Browsed action will not work unless a developer performs some customization steps. See Changing the name of commands used in behavior rule matching.

Performance considerations

To improve storefront performance, a site administrator can configure JSP caching a certain way so that the e-Marketing Spot JSP snippet is refreshed only once a day. See Setting up JSP snippet caching for best seller and top browsed lists.