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Plan and implement Recommendations

Information to help you plan and implement ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Target Recommendations.

Before setting up your first Recommendations activity in ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Target, complete the following steps:

1. Implement Target

Target Recommendations requires you to implement the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Experience Platform Web SDK or at.js 0.9.2 (or later). See the Target client-side implementation guides for more information.

2. Set up your Recommendations catalog

To deliver high-quality recommendations, Target must know about the products or content that you want to recommend. Catalogs typically include three types of information about recommended items. Suppose you are recommending movies. Include the following:

Target offers multiple integration options to populate your catalog. These options can be used in combination to update different items in the catalog or to update different item attributes on different frequencies.

Most customers should implement at least one feed. You can then choose to complement your feed with updates for frequently changed attributes or items using either the Entities API or on-the-page method.

3. Pass behavioral information and context

The behavioral information and context you should pass to Target depends on the action your visitor is taking, which is often associated with the type of page your visitor is interacting with.

Item views or product pages

On pages where a visitor is viewing a single item, such as a product detail page, you should pass the identity of the item the visitor is viewing. You should also pass the most granular category of the item that the visitor is viewing, to allow filtering recommendations to the current category.

You can also pass certain quickly changing attributes on the product page itself. For example, you can pass the price (value) and inventory/stock level.

Pass price and inventory

<script type="text/javascript">
function targetPageParams() {
   return {
      "entity": {
         "id": "32323",
         "categoryId": "running-shoes",
         "value": 119.99,
         "inventory": 329
      }
   }
}
</script>

Category views/category pages

On a category page, you likely want to restrict your recommendations to products or content within that category. To do so, ensure you pass the identity of the currently viewed category.

Pass current category

function targetPageParams() {
   return {
      "entity": {
         "categoryId": "running-shoes"
      }
   }
}

Cart adds/cart views/checkout pages

On a cart page, you can recommend items based on the contents of the visitor’s current cart. To do so, pass the IDs of all items in the visitor’s current cart using the special parameter cartIds.

Pass items currently in cart

function targetPageParams() {
   return {
      "cartIds": "352,223,23432,432,553"
      }
}

For more information about Cart-Based recommendations, see Cart-Based in the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Target Business Practitioner Guide.

Exclude items already in the visitor’s cart

On pages throughout your site, you can exclude some items from recommendations. For example, you might not want to recommend items that are already in the visitor’s current cart. To do so, pass the IDs of all items you want to exclude using the special parameter excludedIds.

Pass items to exclude

function targetPageParams() {
   return {
      "excludedIds": "352,223,23432,432,553"
      }
}

Purchases/order confirmation pages

When a purchase event occurs, pass the identity of the purchased item or items. See Track Conversions in the the How to Deploy at.js > Implement Target without a tag manager article.

4. Configure global exclusions

Exclude any items on a global level that you never want recommended to a visitor. See Exclusions in the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Target Business Practitioner Guide.

5. Configure Recommendations settings

Use settings to manage your Recommendations implementation.

To access the Recommendations Settings options, open Target in the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Experience Cloud, then click Recommendations > Settings.

The following options are available:

6. (Optional) Administer Recommendations using Admin APIs

See the Use Recommendations APIs hands-on guide to learn how to configure and use the Target admin and delivery APIs for Recommendations.