How to Set up Custom Recommendations Rules
Plans: All Plans Platforms: Shopify
AfterShip Personalization enables you to set up custom recommendation rules for your checkout and post-purchase page. In simple terms, you can configure rules and conditions based on which the product recommendations will be shown to the customer during the pre and post-purchase scenarios to keep the shopping experience clean, targeted, and precise.
In this article, we will show you:
Custom recommendations rules setup
“Exit if matched” function
Conditions for setting up custom rules
Actions for checkout custom rules
FAQs
Custom recommendation rules setup is the same for all the pre and post-purchase scenarios. In this tutorial, we have taken checkout page to help you understand the set up process.
Go to your AfterShip Personalization admin
Select the scenario where you want to set up condition based rules to trigger product recommendations. Custom recommendations rules are available for smart checkout and smart upsell widgets.
To Edit an existing smart offer, click Edit
On the widget editor page, move to Product settings > Recommendation rules > Custom rules > Add rules
Set up Rules and configure the corresponding Conditions and Actions
Save the changes
Set the rules in order of priority with a simple drag-and-drop
There is no limit to the number of rules you can create
You can set the priority of the rules with a simple drag-and-drop
Each rule requires conditions and product attributes to trigger an action
You can set up custom conditions that will trigger an action
You can choose what action will be triggered when the conditions are matched
The selected action (product recommendations) will only be displayed when all the predefined conditions are met
By checking Exit if matched all the rules configured afterward will be ignored if the current rule is matched
CASE I: If the ACTION configured for RULE I is ITEM 1 and must contain Product tags women and “Exit if matched” is enabled, our system will only show ITEM I as a product recommendation on the order checkout page if the condition is matched. RULE 2 and its respective CONDITIONS and subsequent ACTION will be ignored.
CASE II: If the ACTION configured for RULE I is ITEM 1 and must contain Product tags women and “Exit if matched” is enabled. If the condition does not match for RULE I, RULE II will be checked if its conditions are matching the existing checkout scenario. If the condition does not match for RULE II, and “Exit if matched” is enabled, RULE III, if applicable, will be checked and the corresponding action will be triggered if matched.
CASE III: If the ACTION configured for RULE I is ITEM 1, ITEM 2, ITEM 3 and must contain Product tags women, and for RULE 2, the product recommendation type is Best sellers and must contain Product tags women. Say the conditions of both the cases are the same and “Exit if matched” is not enabled for either of the rules. Based on the priority of the rules, in this case, the manually selected items for RULE I and Best sellers both will appear if RULE I is matched. RULE II will automatically match since the conditions were the same for both. First the product recommendations of RULE I will appear and then your store's Best sellers (RULE II) will appear. So the products that will be displayed on the order checkout page would be (ITEM 1, ITEM 2, ITEM 3) and (Best sellers). The items of each rule can appear in any order among themselves.
CASE IV: If the ACTION configured for RULE I is ITEM 1 and RULE 2 it’s ITEM 4, ITEM 5, ITEM 6. Say the conditions of both the cases are different and “Exit if matched” is not enabled for either of the rules. If the condition(s) of RULE I does not match, RULE II will be checked and the corresponding action will be triggered if matched. If matched, the products displayed on the order checkout page would be ITEM 4, ITEM 5, ITEM 6.
CONDITIONS are triggers based on which a certain action will set off. You can set up Cart and Product conditions based on which selected action will be taken
The UTM conditions allow you to set up custom product recommendation rules based on specific parameters in a URL and suggest products accordingly. The UTM parameters are tags added to the URLs to track the progress, effectiveness and source of tracking of the marketing campaigns like email and SMS.
UTM conditions work only with Attentive integration. The UTM parameters in the URLs of the Attentive email campaigns and the same ones used to defined UTM specific custom rules in the smart upsell widget will help AfterShip Personalization decipher from where the customer has landed on the URL given in the email and what type of product recommendations needs to be shown to them. Without the Attentive integration, the UTM conditions will not work.
Example: For example, show Best sellers on the checkout page when the utm_source is attentive or when the utm_campaign is welcome_email.
This is the example of a link visited by a customer from the welcome email sent by Attentive with the UTM paramters added.
https://antiquevase.myshopify.com/? utm_campaign=welcome_email& utm_content=VASE& utm_id=6060453& utm_medium=email& utm_source=attentive& utm_term=VASE
There is no limit to the number of conditions you can set up
There are two LOGICS based on which CONDITIONS will trigger an ACTION
A. IF {condition A1} AND {condition A2} are matched, an ACTION will be triggered
Meaning: Both the conditions A1 and A2 should match for an action to set off.
B. IF {condition A1} AND {condition A2} OR IF {condition B1} AND {condition B2} is matched, an ACTION will be triggered
Meaning: One of the conditions, either A1+A2 or B1+B2, should match for an action to set off.
ACTIONS are responses, in this case, product recommendation type, that will be displayed on the checkout page when the conditions are matched.
Product property
To narrow the selection of product recommendations during different pre and post-purchase scenarios, you can apply additional product conditions like product type, tags, and collections on the product recommendation type opted to be displayed when the pre-defined conditions are matched.
Only 1 action will be triggered for the {n} number of conditions defined
For manually selected product recommendations, you can choose as many products as you want from your catalog
Product displayed at checkout will be determined based on the combination of custom rules, product property(ies), product type pinned, and excluded products
Yes, no matter the number of custom rules you have configured for checkout order bump and post-purchase offer, the pinned product will always appear first, followed by the product recommendations.
Example: If the result (ACTION) of RULE I is ITEM 1 + ITEM 2 + ITEM 3, and the pinned product is ITEM 4, the product recommendations on the checkout and post-purchase page would be,
{pinned product} + {product recommendations of RULE I} = {ITEM 4} + {ITEM 1 + ITEM 2 + ITEM 3}
The products you have selected to be excluded from being recommended for checkout upselling will not show on the checkout and post-purchase page, even if they are the result of the custom rules set up by you.
Example: If the result (ACTION) of RULE I is ITEM 1 + ITEM 2 + ITEM 3, and the excluded product is ITEM 1, only ITEM 2 + ITEM 3 would show on the checkout page.
Reach our support team should you have any questions.
Overview
AfterShip Personalization enables you to set up custom recommendation rules for your checkout and post-purchase page. In simple terms, you can configure rules and conditions based on which the product recommendations will be shown to the customer during the pre and post-purchase scenarios to keep the shopping experience clean, targeted, and precise.
What you’ll learn
In this article, we will show you:
Custom recommendations rules setup
“Exit if matched” function
Conditions for setting up custom rules
Actions for checkout custom rules
FAQs
Steps to setup custom recommendations rules
Custom recommendation rules setup is the same for all the pre and post-purchase scenarios. In this tutorial, we have taken checkout page to help you understand the set up process.
Go to your AfterShip Personalization admin
Select the scenario where you want to set up condition based rules to trigger product recommendations. Custom recommendations rules are available for smart checkout and smart upsell widgets.
To Edit an existing smart offer, click Edit
On the widget editor page, move to Product settings > Recommendation rules > Custom rules > Add rules
Set up Rules and configure the corresponding Conditions and Actions
Save the changes
Set the rules in order of priority with a simple drag-and-drop
Important things to remember when setting up custom rules
There is no limit to the number of rules you can create
You can set the priority of the rules with a simple drag-and-drop
Each rule requires conditions and product attributes to trigger an action
You can set up custom conditions that will trigger an action
You can choose what action will be triggered when the conditions are matched
The selected action (product recommendations) will only be displayed when all the predefined conditions are met
By checking Exit if matched all the rules configured afterward will be ignored if the current rule is matched
How does the “Exit if matched” function work?
CASE I: If the ACTION configured for RULE I is ITEM 1 and must contain Product tags women and “Exit if matched” is enabled, our system will only show ITEM I as a product recommendation on the order checkout page if the condition is matched. RULE 2 and its respective CONDITIONS and subsequent ACTION will be ignored.
CASE II: If the ACTION configured for RULE I is ITEM 1 and must contain Product tags women and “Exit if matched” is enabled. If the condition does not match for RULE I, RULE II will be checked if its conditions are matching the existing checkout scenario. If the condition does not match for RULE II, and “Exit if matched” is enabled, RULE III, if applicable, will be checked and the corresponding action will be triggered if matched.
CASE III: If the ACTION configured for RULE I is ITEM 1, ITEM 2, ITEM 3 and must contain Product tags women, and for RULE 2, the product recommendation type is Best sellers and must contain Product tags women. Say the conditions of both the cases are the same and “Exit if matched” is not enabled for either of the rules. Based on the priority of the rules, in this case, the manually selected items for RULE I and Best sellers both will appear if RULE I is matched. RULE II will automatically match since the conditions were the same for both. First the product recommendations of RULE I will appear and then your store's Best sellers (RULE II) will appear. So the products that will be displayed on the order checkout page would be (ITEM 1, ITEM 2, ITEM 3) and (Best sellers). The items of each rule can appear in any order among themselves.
CASE IV: If the ACTION configured for RULE I is ITEM 1 and RULE 2 it’s ITEM 4, ITEM 5, ITEM 6. Say the conditions of both the cases are different and “Exit if matched” is not enabled for either of the rules. If the condition(s) of RULE I does not match, RULE II will be checked and the corresponding action will be triggered if matched. If matched, the products displayed on the order checkout page would be ITEM 4, ITEM 5, ITEM 6.
Conditions
What are the conditions you can configure to customize checkout recommendations?
CONDITIONS are triggers based on which a certain action will set off. You can set up Cart and Product conditions based on which selected action will be taken
1. Cart conditions
| Type | Logic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Cart value | >, <, =, ≥, ≤ | The total sum of all products purchased during an order process |
| Number of products in cart | >, <, =, ≥, ≤ | The total number of products in the shopper’s existing cart |
| Products in cart | Contain any of, Do not contain | Specific products in the shopper’s existing cart |
2. Product conditions
| Type | Logic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Product types | Contain any of, Do not contain | Product types as defined in your Shopify store will display here |
| Product tags | Contain any of, Do not contain | Product tags as defined in your Shopify store will display here. You can also reach out our support team to unlock popular AI-generated product tags for free. |
| Product vendors | Contain any of, Do not contain | Product vendors as defined in your Shopify store will display here |
| Product collections | Contain any of, Do not contain | Product collections as configured in your Shopify store will display here |
3. UTM conditions
The UTM conditions allow you to set up custom product recommendation rules based on specific parameters in a URL and suggest products accordingly. The UTM parameters are tags added to the URLs to track the progress, effectiveness and source of tracking of the marketing campaigns like email and SMS.
UTM conditions work only with Attentive integration. The UTM parameters in the URLs of the Attentive email campaigns and the same ones used to defined UTM specific custom rules in the smart upsell widget will help AfterShip Personalization decipher from where the customer has landed on the URL given in the email and what type of product recommendations needs to be shown to them. Without the Attentive integration, the UTM conditions will not work.
Example: For example, show Best sellers on the checkout page when the utm_source is attentive or when the utm_campaign is welcome_email.
| Type | Logic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Is any of, Is none of | Identifies the source of the traffic. In this case Attentive. |
| utm_medium | Is any of, Is none of | Identifies the medium or channel used, such as email and SMS. |
| utm_campaign | Is any of, Is none of | Tracks the name of the email or SMS campaign. |
| utm_content | Is any of, Is none of | Identifies what someone clicked on to get to your site when there are multiple links pointing to the same URL in the email. |
| utm_term | Is any of, Is none of | Track paid keywords you're targeting with your email campaign. |
| utm_id | Is any of, Is none of | Tracks a unique identifier that can be appended to URLs in Attentive to track campaign performance in Google Analytics. |
This is the example of a link visited by a customer from the welcome email sent by Attentive with the UTM paramters added.
https://antiquevase.myshopify.com/? utm_campaign=welcome_email& utm_content=VASE& utm_id=6060453& utm_medium=email& utm_source=attentive& utm_term=VASE
Important things to remember when setting up conditions
There is no limit to the number of conditions you can set up
There are two LOGICS based on which CONDITIONS will trigger an ACTION
A. IF {condition A1} AND {condition A2} are matched, an ACTION will be triggered
Meaning: Both the conditions A1 and A2 should match for an action to set off.
B. IF {condition A1} AND {condition A2} OR IF {condition B1} AND {condition B2} is matched, an ACTION will be triggered
Meaning: One of the conditions, either A1+A2 or B1+B2, should match for an action to set off.
Actions
What are the actions you can configure to customize checkout recommendations?
ACTIONS are responses, in this case, product recommendation type, that will be displayed on the checkout page when the conditions are matched.
| Type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Frequently bought together | Product suggestions that are often bought together to fulfill a joint demand |
| Complements | Complementary items purchased at the same time by a large number of previous customers |
| Same product upsell | Similar products, cheaper or more expensive than the ones the shopper has bought |
| Similar products | Carousel or list of products that have similar attributes to the primary product, like color, price, size, etc |
| Bestsellers | The products from the store that have been sold the most |
| New arrivals | The products that have just been added to the store for sale |
| Manual selection | Manually choose the products from your catalog to be displayed as recommendations |
Product property
To narrow the selection of product recommendations during different pre and post-purchase scenarios, you can apply additional product conditions like product type, tags, and collections on the product recommendation type opted to be displayed when the pre-defined conditions are matched.
| Type | Logic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Product types | Contain any of, Contain all of | Product types as defined in your Shopify store will display here |
| Product tags | Contain any of, Contain all of | Product tags as defined in your Shopify store will display here. You can also reach out our support team to unlock popular AI-generated product tags for free. |
| Product collections | Contain any of, Contain all of | Product collections as configured in your Shopify store will display here |
| Product price | >, <, =, ≥, ≤ | The price of the products that will be recommended |
Important things to remember when setting up conditions
Only 1 action will be triggered for the {n} number of conditions defined
For manually selected product recommendations, you can choose as many products as you want from your catalog
Product displayed at checkout will be determined based on the combination of custom rules, product property(ies), product type pinned, and excluded products
FAQs
1. Will the pinned products appear first despite the predefined custom rules?
Yes, no matter the number of custom rules you have configured for checkout order bump and post-purchase offer, the pinned product will always appear first, followed by the product recommendations.
Example: If the result (ACTION) of RULE I is ITEM 1 + ITEM 2 + ITEM 3, and the pinned product is ITEM 4, the product recommendations on the checkout and post-purchase page would be,
{pinned product} + {product recommendations of RULE I} = {ITEM 4} + {ITEM 1 + ITEM 2 + ITEM 3}
2. How does the exclusion rule work for the custom rules?
The products you have selected to be excluded from being recommended for checkout upselling will not show on the checkout and post-purchase page, even if they are the result of the custom rules set up by you.
Example: If the result (ACTION) of RULE I is ITEM 1 + ITEM 2 + ITEM 3, and the excluded product is ITEM 1, only ITEM 2 + ITEM 3 would show on the checkout page.
Reach our support team should you have any questions.
Updated on: 06/09/2024
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