Predictive Product Bundling

Who can use this feature?

This feature is available to any Athos Commerce customer as an add-on to your existing plan. If you're interested in taking advantage of it, please reach out to your customer success manager.

Note that product bundling does not apply any additional discounts to the featured products. The purpose of bundling is to help shoppers discover more products and quickly add them to their carts. If the products already have a discount applied, that discount will display in the bundle; the bundle itself is not discounted further.

Click here to see a demo of predictive product bundling.

You can see detailed analysis of bundling use in your store via the Bundle Recommendations report.

Introduction

Merchandisers now have the ability to automatically present bundling options for items that users often purchase together. When a shopper is looking at the product detail page for an item, an optional bundle can be displayed near the "Add to Cart" button, and it will show the current item (the "seed" product) with additional items that can all be added to the cart with a single click. In the example shown below, the orange sweatpants are the seed product, shown with two complementary products to create the bundle.

Below is an example of how this might be configured in the Athos console, with the bundle profile filtered by collection_handle of "hers":

The Recommendations API is aware of the exclusion status for each product, so if a bundle is requested and the seed product is excluded, then no results will be returned. This prevents the store from showing a bundle that cannot be added to the cart.

The recommendation service already prevents excluded items from being recommended, but it doesn't block them from being a seed item. That is by design, because it is valuable to show recommendations (especially similar items) when the shopper is looking at the product detail page (PDP) for an item that is not available.

Note: This feature only affects bundles, since bundles are cross-sell recommendations with the seed product included as the first item.

Setup

Setup is simple. In the Athos console, navigate to "Personalization" and select "Bundles".

To create a new bundle profile, click "Add New Profile".

Select the page placement. In this example, we are choosing "Product Detail Page" for the bundle page location. The system will open the next selection window automatically.

Select the bundle type, then click the "Create Profile" button in the bottom right corner. In this example, we'll choose "Cross-sell Bundle".

Options include the following:

• Session Bundle = Recommend products based on the individual shopper's recent activity
• Cross-sell Bundle = Recommend products that go well with the product being viewed
• Cart Cross-sell Bundle = Recommend products that complement items that are already in the shopper's cart
• Search Cross-sell Bundle = Recommend items that are complementary to products in search
• Trending Bundle = Recommend popular product bundles based on site, category, or brand trends
• Custom Bundle = Curate a filtered list of products based on the criteria of your choice
• Handpicked Bundle = Choose specific products to pin; only the pinned items will appear in the bundle profile.

In the Bundled recommendations page, the Profile Editor will appear.

Click the "Template" drop-down menu to select the bundle template. Once this is selected, the system will auto-populate the Title field, but you can change the title of this profile to any name you prefer.

Title

Configure the name of your bundle profile in the Title field.

Precision tab

Click the Precision tab to configure how specific recommendations are. This value dictates how many conditions the system uses to find recommended products. Broad precision will expand the recommendations algorithm to ensure that products can be recommended even when shopper data is sparse. Narrow precision will restrict recommendations to prevent the algorithm from defaulting to related products or top sellers. This could result in bundles not being displayed for certain seed products.

Precision selector

Drag the slider to select the precision. As the precision gets broader, it includes all recommendations from narrower precision settings. Note: Depending on the recommendations type you have chosen, some of the options below may not be available. In the example above for cross-sell bundle recommendations, the "Trending" option is not available.

• Curated = Curated recommendations will be limited to the products set in Product Rules. If the seed product does not have one or more products associated with it in a rule, no recommendations will be returned. For example, if merchandisers want to create a "Complete the Look" experience, they would set the precision filter to "Curated" so the recommendations carousel would only show the pinned products.
• Cross-sell = Cross-sell recommendations are used on a page to recommend products that go well with the product that the shopper is viewing. 
• Similar = Similar recommendations are products that a shopper should consider buying as an alternative to the product they’re currently viewing.
• Trending = Trending recommendations are popular product bundles across a rolling window of time. This recommendation type supports either site-wide trending or trending within a category or brand.

Filters tab

Use the Filters tab to limit which products are allowed to appear in the bundle. The fields used here must first be enabled in the Recs Filter column on the Field Settings page.

Note: Adding filters to a profile may result in fewer results. This may cause the profile not to appear on all pages.

Click the "Add Filter + " button to create a new filter.

Click the "Choose" drop-down menu to select a filter. Then click the selector button to determine the formula: "is", "is not", etc. In the example shown above, the filter is for "collection_handle", the selector is set to "is", and the product type is "outerwear".

Configure any other filters you would like to apply, or click the "x" at the right of the filter definition (in black) to remove the filter. You may also click the red minus (-) sign at the top right to remove the filter.

When you are done, click the blue "Save Profile" button at the bottom right of the window to save your changes and close the Profile Editor.

Presets tab

The Presets tab allows you to control the default behavior for the selected bundle profile. Note that the presets options will differ for each type of recommendation. Merchants can specify brands, categories, or search terms using a recommendation profile, rather than opening a support ticket to have Athos Commerce custom code these values to a page in your store.

Presets provide you with a great amount of leeway to "set it and forget it". For example, a preset bundle recommendation profile for the home page could be updated once a month: swimwear in July, back-to-school in August, and autumn/Halloween for September.

In contrast, a regular (not preset) "category trending" recommendation profile for the category results page would display different products for each category page the shopper visits.

Presets give you the option to set the following:

• If results in this profile are deduped from other profiles on the same page
• Limits on the maximum number of items to show in the profile
• Items blocked from being shown in the selected profile
• Specific categories to use in a category trending profile
• Specific brands to use in a brand trending profile
• Search terms to use in a dynamic custom profile

Note: Front-end settings can override presets configured here. If you configure a limit of 10 presets but the front-end has a limit of five, the system will show five to a shopper. If you wish to configure presets but there are already preset configurations in place on the front-end, these will need to be removed by Athos via a support ticket request.

Dedupe Results toggle

Click (enable) this toggle to prevent the same results from displaying in other profiles on the same page.

Limit

Enter a number between 1-20 to limit how many items are included in this profile.

Blocked Items

Click the drop-down list to select products to block. You can also use this field as a search box to find a particular item. Once an item is added, simply click the "x" at the far right to un-block the selected product.

Pins tab

Use the Pins tab to assign specific products to fixed positions in the bundle recommendation profile. Note that items pinned here are associated with the overall profile, not the seed product/category/brand entered in the search bar (at the top right of the page). If you do wish to pin by product, category, or brand, modify the personalization setting's similar or cross-sell rules.

Items can be pinned to any position, and if a specific slot (position) is selected, you can determine if the pin should only show when the slot is available. For example, if there are only four recommendations but a product is pinned to slot #8, setting the pin to "float" would have the product display at the end of the four recommendations. If the pin is set to "fixed", then it will not display if there are less than eight recommended items.

To pin an item, search for it in the search box at the top of the panel, then click the pin icon at the top left. Confirm the pin position by clicking the green checkmark. You can also type in a different number for the position if that location does not already have a pinned item assigned to it.

From any tab, you can pin an item in the Recommendation Preview on the right side of the page; you can also drag-and-drop an item to pin it in a different position.

Sorts tab

The sorting rule forms the lowest-level order for the items displayed in the profile. It is applied as a subordinate to any boost rules that may have been applied. For example, you could sort by the most sales to elevate popular items, or sort by the lowest days-since-published to elevate new items.

These sub-sorts are called "tie-breaker rules" and help the system determine which products to give priority in recommendations if they match in all other aspects, such as filters and boost rules. Click the "Add Tie-breaker Rule" button to set up a sort.

Tie-Breaker Rule

You may add a standard tie-breaker rule based on product characteristics. In the example below, we have added a rule prioritizing the newest items. Those with the fewest days since their creation will be shown first.

Performance Tie-breaking Rule

You may add tie-breaker rules that are related to a product's performance. In the example below, we have added a sort that will show items with the most clicks over the past 30 days.

Boost Rules, Sorts, and Filters (for Custom Recommendations)

If you've selected the Custom recommendations type, you can select the products to be recommended by applying boost rules, sorts, and filters.

Boost Rules

Just as with Boosting Rules in Visual Merchandising, boosting allows you to create rules that will dynamically boost products with certain attributes to the top of your recommended products. These rules will continue to stay in effect and re-group your products in real time as their information changes.

Although we show only the first 20 items in a recommendations profile, you can use Product Boosting Rules to elevate specific products to the top of the list. Each Boost rule separates products into an elevated group that meets the rule and a deprecated group that does not. Additional rules create sub-groups within the first set.

The higher the rule is positioned in the list, the greater impact it will have on the results. Boost rules are not required.

Previewing Recommendations

On the right half of the window, you can preview the results that will be shown on your site.

• For custom bundle profiles, the preview will show you the actual product results matching your boost and filter selections.
• Similar, Cross-Sell, Cart Cross-Sell, and Search Cross-sell bundle profiles require a product seed for the preview.
• Category and Brand Trending bundle profiles require a category or brand to be selected, and you can search for the appropriate input to see the results for that selection.
• Handpicked will show the specific items you have pinned to the bundle profile.
• The system will display placeholders for up to 20 products. Before a seed item is entered or a category/brand is selected (for all but custom profiles), the preview will show an empty space with a generic product icon.

To see a preview, simply search for a seed item at the top (using the search bar) and instantly see results that show which products would be recommended based on that seed product. The preview will update in real-time.

Note: These are only previews. When the profile is placed on your site, the seed product, category or brand will be captured from variables on that page and sent in the request.

Placeholders in the preview

Before items are pinned, or before you search for a seed item/category/brand, the system will show a generic image for each position in the preview. These represent slots where you can pin recommendations as needed. Once products are populated in the preview, you can pin items into specific positions from any tab within the Profile Editor.

Product Details

Click the "View Details" button under any product shown in the recommendation preview. This will open a sidebar with information about the product's brand, category, and tags. It will also provide information about the product's position within the recommendations.

Note: Previews are not supported for Personal, Session, and Recently Viewed bundle recommendations, as they are entirely dependent on an individual shopper’s behavior.

When you click on a recommended product, it will show the details of that product and provide context on why that product has been recommended. For example, on a similar or cross-sell bundle profile you will see:

• Total Sales and Total Views for the recommended product
• Common Sales or Common Views between the recommended product and the seed product
  • Common Sales will be shown for Cross-Sell recommendations while Common Views are used for Similar recommendations.
  • Common Views are calculated over 26 weeks. 
  • Common Sales are calculated over 18 months and measure how often a product is repurchased by the same shopper. The repurchase does not necessarily need to be on the same order to qualify as a common sale. 
• The Brand and the Categories associated with the recommended product
  • The preview will highlight the categories that the recommended product shares with the seed product

This preview will not exactly match what shoppers will see once the bundle profile is implemented on your site. Depending on the individual shopper’s behavior, the order of recommended products will change to provide a personalized experience.

Integration instructions

At the bottom left of the Profile Editor, no matter which tab you have open, the system will display the "Show Integration Instructions" button. Click this button to see integration instructions for your particular installation.

A new window will appear, where instructions will be displayed for your integration type. You will see a link for the instructions specific to your integration.

API Integration

API sites will be provided with a link to our API reference guide.

Snap Integration

Snap and Snap Template sites will select from two options to see instructions for an initial profile or an additional profile, as shown below.

Click an option:

• First time building a profile
• I have more than one profile

Once you have selected the appropriate choice, click the "Next" button at the bottom right.

If this is your first time building a profile, you will see two sections of code to copy and paste into your site: one section for the Head Script (for your header or global layout file) and another section of code for the Placement Div (where you want the widget to appear). Click the "Copy Code" button at the top right of each section to copy the code, then paste it into your store's code.

If this is an additional profile, you will need to click the drop-down and select the position of the new profile before you click the "Next" button at the bottom right.

You will see a highlighted block of code in each section; click the "Copy Code" button in the first section to copy only this highlighted text, which you will insert into the existing header text within your store's header or global layout code.

Click the "Copy Code" button in the Placement Div section to copy the text that you will place in your store's code.

When you are finished updating this integration code in your store, click the "Done" button at the bottom right of the window, or click the "x" in the top right corner to close this window.

Note: If the Integration Instructions window is blank, ask your customer success manager or your professional services consultant to set the integration type for your store. If the type is not selected, the system will display "Unknown", and no instructions will appear on the recommendations profile.