Release Summary - Sep 07, 2023

Enhanced Localization: Returning Language-Specific Values with Language Parameter

In this release, we've introduced an enhancement that enables the system to return localized values when a language parameter (lang) is set. This means that product names, descriptions, URLs, category names, and other attributes using language as the localization type will now be displayed to end-users based on their selected language. This feature applies to various APIs, including recsForPlacements, recsForPlacementsContext, p13n, and recs in email.

This update ensures a consistent and seamless user experience, allowing you to cater to a diverse audience by delivering content in their preferred language.

Jira: ENG-25805

Streamlined Client Whitelisting

We've improved our client readiness process by streamlining domain whitelisting through Akamai. Previously, each client site required manual whitelisting, potentially causing delays. In this release, we've automated the process for our QA and Production environments, reducing wait times. We've also explored alternative whitelisting methods for client sites, enhancing flexibility and efficiency in onboarding.

Jira: ENG-25992

Exclude Specific Sites from Visit Drop Alerts

In this release, we've enhanced our alerting system to provide more precise and relevant notifications. To ensure you receive only pertinent alerts, we've introduced an exclusion criteria for sites. This means you can exclude certain sites, like those in sales or listen mode, from the alerting process, ensuring your alerts remain focused on the most critical areas.

We've also improved the alerting logic. Now, we compare the average visits over the last two weeks with the average visits on the same day over the last five weeks. An alert is triggered only when both criteria show a 50% drop, providing more accurate and actionable alerts. Furthermore, we've made alerting configurations more flexible, allowing you to customize alerts for drops in both visits and attributable sales.

Jira: ENG-26304

Template for Applying Social Proof to Recommendations

We have introduced an enhancement that empowers eCommerce product managers to further engage users and boost click-through rates through the inclusion of social proof messaging within product recommendations.

This feature enables you to show more than one social proof message on the same page type, ensuring that users see messages relevant to their current journey. The importance of these messages is determined by placement type and template, allowing you to deliver a customized experience.

Configuring Social Proof Messaging is simple, with templates aligned with your existing list page configurations. You can specify where messages are applied by entering placement names, ensuring precise control over message placement. This enhancement empowers you to provide users with context-aware content, improving their shopping experience and increasing engagement.

Jira: ENG-23288

Improved Rule Editing

In this release, we've enhanced the rule editing experience by making it more intuitive. For existing rules created before version 23.18, you will now see tab names like "Group 1," "Group 2," and so on, clearly indicating where to click to edit your Rec Group definition. This improvement ensures a smoother and more user-friendly rule management process, helping you fine-tune your personalization strategies effortlessly.

Jira: ENG-26304

Filter and refine content by tag in Personalize API

With the Personalize API, you now have the ability to filter results using tags. This feature enables Engage to deliver content based on dynamic inputs. This enhancement simplifies content delivery, reducing the need for numerous context-specific campaigns.

For instance, consider a list page where the shopper is viewing the shoes category and has applied filters for women's shoes and the Nike brand. You want their personalized content to match all these interests (shoes + women + Nike). If no content covers all these themes, we can drop some preferences, like Nike, to find matching content (e.g., content matching shoes + women).

To implement the above example, you can use the new "tagFilter" and "tagRefinement" parameters with the Personalize API. Assuming the themes mentioned are available as tags, use "tagFilter" for mandatory tags and "tagRefinement" for optional ones. Multiple tags can be passed into both parameters using the pipe (|) as a separator.

tagFilter=shoes|women&tagRefinement=Nike

The content selection logic will follow the existing rules defined by the Priority setting for the campaigns. However, if a higher-priority campaign yields no content due to the "tagFilter" parameter, a lower-priority campaign with matching content will be used.

Note: "tagRefinement" will only be applied when "tagFilter" is being used. Currently, this feature is not available in client-side p13n_generated.js integrations.

Jira: ENG-26564

Social Proof - Add Inventory Messaging

This feature allows clients to add Inventory messaging to social proof strategies, alongside views, Add to Cart (ATC), and purchases metrics. Clients need to include inventory quantity and inventory updated date-time in their catalog feed for real-time inventory calculations.

Inventory Messaging introduces a new "Inventory" message type, enabling clients to trigger messages when inventory drops below a defined threshold (default is 10). Customizable message text and headings enhance user engagement.

Jira: ENG-23956

Enhanced Reporting Menu

In this release, we've enhanced the reporting menu by adding two new reports:

Recommendation Type Analysis Report: Gain insights into recommendation types.

Sessions Report: Track user sessions conveniently.

These reports are placed in alphabetical order for easy access, improving your data analysis capabilities.

Jira: ENG-26776