Manage widgets

  • Updated

Widgets in Optimizely Product Recommendations are components used for presenting product recommendations on your website. Each widget can have its own strategy to support the key performance indicator (KPI) you want to impact.

Optimizely Product Recommendations provides a set of pre-defined widgets that you can edit to personalize the product recommendations.

Widgets are composed of details (name, number of recommendations, channel, and so on) and algorithms, which determine the products that the widget recommends. Algorithms each have pre-defined logic where you can define the maximum number of products to recommend, then optional quick filters and optional advanced filters that let you add additional logic. They also must each have a fallback product set to ensure your algorithm returns recommendations. Advanced filters let you apply rules in visual mode (UI-based ) or code mode (code-based).

The pre-defined logic is the base for what the algorithm recommends. For example, the Most viewed products algorithm recommends products that customers have viewed the most. The quick and advanced filters let you apply rules (in visual or code mode) to further personalize the product recommendations that the algorithm generates.

Configure a widget

When editing a widget, you can continue making changes to each component of the widget without saving each change individually. At any point during editing, you can preview your changes to the widget. When you are done, save them all at once.

  1. Go to Configuration > Widgets.
  2. Click Edit (or the widget's name) for the widget that you want to personalize. To duplicate the widget so you can maintain the original and personalize a new widget, click More (...) > Duplicate.
  3. Complete the following settings on the Details page:
    • Name – Enter a name for the widget. This is only used to label the widget internally and is not visible to the customer on your site.
    • Alias – (Optional) Enter an alias for the widget. This only displays internally in merchandising campaigns.
    • Number of Recommendations – Enter the total number of product recommendations you want the widget to return.
    • Channel – Select the channel where you want this widget to be available.
    • Recommendation Expected – Select whether or not you always expect this widget to return recommendations.
    • Position – Select the position on the page where you want this widget to return recommendations.
  4. Drag and drop the algorithms to reorder them and edit, add, and delete algorithms on the Algorithms page. When you edit or add an algorithm, you can add filters to further refine the product recommendations. You can add a maximum of 11 algorithms to a widget.
  5. Select the Fallback Product Set to ensure your widget returns recommendations when the algorithms do not return any. You should always have a fallback algorithm that is guaranteed to return recommendations when the other algorithms with more specific filters do not return a recommendation.
  6. (Optional) Preview the recommendations at any point while editing the widget.
  7. Click Preview & Save. Complete the preview settings to view a preview of recommendations. Make sure you click Save again after previewing.

Edit or add an algorithm

Algorithms determine which products a widget recommends. See the list of available widget algorithms. You can add a maximum of 11 algorithms to a widget.

You should always have a fallback algorithm that is guaranteed to return recommendations when the other algorithms with more specific filters do not return a recommendation.
  1. Click to edit an algorithm that is already included in the widget, or add an algorithm. The Configure Algorithm window displays.
  2. Configure the following:
    • Number of recommendations – Adjust the maximum number of products that the algorithm can recommend. Cannot be more than the widget's total number of recommendations which is defined on the widget's Details page.
    • Quick Filters – Click Add Filters and select up to ten filters to apply to the algorithm, entering parameters as required. When done, click Save. To remove a quick filter, click More (...) > Delete.
    • Advanced Filters – Build your own filters using Visual Mode or Code Mode.

Activate a widget

After you configure a widget, you need to add it to a page to turn it on and begin generating recommendations.

  1. Go to Configuration > Activation.
  2. Search for and select widgets for each page where you want product recommendations.
  3. Drag and drop to adjust the order of the widgets.

Product Recommendations generates recommendations for widgets sequentially, meaning recommendations are generated for the first widget in the list, then the next, and so on until all recommendations are generated.

For a single pageview and across widgets, there are no duplicated recommendations. If a product is recommended for the first widget in the list, it cannot be recommended for any other widgets in the list.

Deactivate a widget

To stop or pause recommendations for a widget:

  1. Go to Configuration > Activation.
  2. Locate the widget you want to stop or pause.
  3. Click More (...) > Delete to stop displaying recommendations from that widget on the corresponding page.

If you want to resume recommendations for the deactivated widget, you must add it to the page again, as described in the Activate a widget section.