Control output & ranking in recommendation blocks

Output

Output settings determine how recommended items are ranked and how many items the block returns.

Recommendations based on the parent product

Parent items let you organize catalogs with hierarchical relationships—such as shows with seasons and episodes, or base products with color variants. Using parent items, you can recommend at the parent level rather than at the individual variant level.

For example, if a customer watches episodes from a comedy series, you can recommend other comedy series (parent items) rather than the next episode of the same series. Similarly, a retailer with many color variants of the same base item can recommend the base product.

Parent items apply in three areas of the recommendation block:

• In Inputs — Change the Item dropdown from Item in Event to Parent Item so the parent item of the event item is considered. To consider both the item and its parent, add a separate event row for each.
• In Event-based exclusions — Change the Item dropdown to Parent Item to exclude parent items. To exclude both the item and its parent, add a separate exclusion row for each.
• In Output — Check the Parent Items checkbox in the Output section. The parent items of the final results are recommended in the block.

Handle empty recommendations

When Fail if empty is checked on a block, messaging is suppressed for users if the block returns no items. The recommendation is not executed, and an error code is sent to prevent the message from being sent.

Use this in conjunction with the Do not message users if any of the recommendation blocks are empty option in your messaging template. Combining both settings gives you precise control over when messages are sent.

Example: How settings affect message delivery

Consider the following scenario to understand how the selected options affect message delivery.

User Jane Smith qualifies for Campaign A with an email trigger that uses Template Y. Template Y uses Recommendation Scheme X with two recommendation blocks, B1 and B2.

The outcome depends on three settings: whether Fail if empty is checked on each block, and whether Do not message users if any of the recommendation blocks are empty is enabled on the template. The following six combinations cover all permutations, each showing four product availability scenarios (both blocks have items, only B1 has items, only B2 has items, neither has items).

Combination 1: Fail if empty = On or Off (both blocks), Template suppression = On. The template suppresses the message whenever either block is empty, regardless of the Fail if empty setting on individual blocks.

Combination 2: Fail if empty = Off (both blocks), Template suppression = Off. No suppression is configured, so the message is always sent regardless of product availability in either block.

Combination 3: Fail if empty = On (B1), Off (B2), Template suppression = Off. Only B1's emptiness is caught. The message is suppressed when B1 is empty but still sent when only B2 is empty.

Combination 4: Fail if empty = Off (B1), On (B2), Template suppression = Off. Only B2's emptiness is caught. The message is suppressed when B2 is empty but still sent when only B1 is empty.

Combination 5: Fail if empty = On (both blocks), Template suppression = Off. Fail if empty alone is sufficient to suppress the message when either block is empty — template suppression is not required.

Combination 6: Fail if empty = On (B1), Off (B2), Template suppression = On. B1's emptiness is caught by Fail if empty. B2's emptiness is caught by template suppression even though Fail if empty is off on B2. The message is suppressed when either block is empty.