Ranking Rules Video Tutorial

 

 

 

Video tutorial transcript:

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to this short video introducing ranking rules.

This video demonstration will familiarise you with ranking rules and how they are set up in Fredhopper’s Merchandising Studio.

Please be aware that test data is used throughout this demo, and you should refer to your own data sets when applying this functionality.

What are ranking rules?

Ranking rules are strategies developed at category and sub-category level, which govern the relative sequence of products returned to a shopper.

These can influence purchase decisions to meet your eCommerce strategy.

Ranking rules underpin search or category lister pages.

So how do we set up a ranking rule in the Merchandising Studio? Let’s use a scenario to implement this.

This demo scenario is to rank products on sale across our women’s dresses lister page, using inventory and discount percentage both set high to low.

How to demo

Using your credentials open your Merchandising Studio. This will open on the campaigns tab by default.

From the navigation bar, click on Rankings tab, then click on Ranking rules:

Next, click on New.

Give the rule a name that is recognisable to the strategy you want to achieve, like Dresses Sale.

Select your Scope.

We always recommend labelling any configurations you create.

Click on the Select trigger dropdown (for more information on triggers see 'Getting Started with Ranking rules'.):

In this scenario we want the rule to apply in the women’s dresses lister page, so we need to add a location trigger:

Click on Add Location.

This will take you to your preview site, so navigate to Women then Dresses. 

To set this as our trigger location click on Select location:

Next, add the Action, this is where you choose the attributes to rank the rule by.

In this scenario, we want to promote products using the attributes for Inventory followed by Percentage discount.

Let’s add Inventory first, followed by Discount percentage:

Check your rule configuration is accurate and click Save.

It’s best practice to check the rule is firing as expected, so go to Preview.

Now, navigate to the Women’s dresses page to see that the ordering of the products has changed.

If you are happy with the rule, go back to the Merchandising Studio tab and send the rule for Publication:

Once the rule is published it will trigger according to your cache process.

Best Practices

• Maintain at least two default ranking rules.
• Maintain category ranking rules.
• Use labels.
• In compound ranking rules, start with the attribute with fewer possible values.
• Use numbers rather than text to flag items.
• Use caution when ranking by historical data.
• If possible, use predictive data.
• Retire ranking rules that are not live or currently in use.
• Remember to check which scope a rule is applied to when troubleshooting.

Thank you for watching this demo video, we hope you have enjoyed this quick introduction to ranking rules.