Operate > IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce > Marketing tool > Work with Web and Dialog activities


Web activities

Create Web activities to control what displays in predefined e-Marketing Spots on the store pages. When a customer views a store page, the Web activity determines what to show the customer at that point in time. Web activities can display advertising content, merchandising associations, and recommendations from the store catalog. You can target different sets of customers within Web activities, which allows you to personalize what the customers see in an e-Marketing Spot.

Here are some examples of Web activities you can create using the Marketing tool:

You create Web activities in a graphical editor called the Activity Builder. For the first example in the previous list, the Web activity looks like this:


What Web activities can display

Web activities can display catalog or marketing data in e-Marketing Spots. Your options include:

Catalog entry recommendation

This is a recommendation of a specific catalog entry from the store catalog.

Category recommendation

This is a recommendation of a specific category from the store catalog.

Content recommendation

This is typically marketing content designed to advertise a product, or increase a customer's awareness about store activities, or increase brand awareness.

Merchandising association

This is a predefined static merchandising association defined by the team responsible for the catalog and inventory.

Promotion recommendation

This is typically an advertisement for a promotion that has a promotion-related click action. For example, the click action could add a promotional coupon to the customer's coupon wallet.

Recently viewed list

This is a list of catalog entries or categories that the customer has previously viewed while shopping.

In the Activity Builder, the option you choose is represented as an icon, known as an action, in the activity flow. In the previous image of a Web activity, Recommend Content is the action element for the example.


Web activity scheduling

You can schedule more than one Web activity to display in the same e-Marketing Spot at the same time. When you do, the server evaluates the Web activities in a specific sequence to determine the catalog or marketing data to display to the customer. A Web activity will return data to display if the customer reaches the action element in the activity flow. If the activity flow contains target elements before the action element, the customer must meet the target criteria before the Web activity returns data to display.

The server determines which Web activity to display to a customer according to the following rules:

  1. The server evaluates Web activities with the highest priority value first. In the Marketing tool, you can assign each Web activity a priority value from 0 to 1000; the higher the number, the higher the priority.

  2. The store page JSP file containing the e-Marketing Spot can specify the maximum number of items (categories, catalog entries, and content) to display:

    • If the JSP file does specify this information, then the server evaluates Web activities until the maximum number of items allowed in the e-Marketing Spot has been met by Web activity actions.

    • If the JSP file does not specify this information, then the server evaluates Web activities until one Web activity returns data to display.

  3. If you assign the same priority to two Web activities, both Web Activities will return data to display.

Here is an example:

The e-Marketing Spot in the third row of the home page can display two ads. There are currently four Web activities scheduled to run in this e-Marketing Spot at the same time:

Web activity What it displays Contains a target? Priority setting
A Ad 1 Yes, a Customer Segment target set to Female Customers. 1000
B Ad 2 No 500
C Ad 3 No 1
D Ad 4 No 1

When two different customers view the e-Marketing Spot, the server evaluates the scheduled Web activities for each customer according to the rules. As a result, each customer sees a different combination of ads:

Customer viewing the e-Marketing Spot What the customer will see
A customer who belongs to the Female Customers customer segment Ad 1 and Ad 2
A customer who does not belong to the Female Customers customer segment Ad 2, and either Ad 3 or Ad 4


Personalization IDs and Web activities

Web activities can be directed at specific groups of customers. You specify which customers to target when you create the activity by selecting a target type and then defining the target properties. Customers are tracked using their personalization ID. This means that the Marketing tool can effectively target all types of customers (generic, guest, and registered). Here are some examples:

Example 1

Consider a customer who buys a shirt as a guest user and then closes the browser. Later, the same customer returns as a generic customer. The Purchase History target is able to consider the shirt that the customer purchased as a guest.

Example 2

Consider a customer who buys a shirt as a guest user and then closes the browser. Later, the same customer buys shoes as a guest user, that is, with a different guest user ID than for the shirt purchase. The Purchase History target is able to consider the shirt purchase made under previous guest user ID. Again, the customer closes the browser, and later still, the customer returns as a generic user. The Purchase History target is able to consider the shirt and shoes purchases made as different guest users.

Example 3

Finally, consider a customer that registers on a site, makes a purchase of socks, and then closes the browser. Later, the same customer returns as a generic user. The Customer Segment target can consider the registration information of the user. Also, the Purchase History target is able to consider the socks purchase. Finally, if the customer adds something to their cart, they get a new guest user ID. The Customer Segment target is able to consider the registration information of the user, and the Purchase History target is able to consider the socks purchase.


Map between Web activities in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator and the Management Center

There are several changes in behavior in Web activities with the move to the Management Center. If you have used the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator in the past to manage Web activities, you can review this section to understand the differences.

WebSphere Commerce Accelerator differences Management Center differences What this means to you
You can create product recommendations based on suggestions generated from clickstream analysis, or based on custom filters. This method of recommending products is not currently supported in the Management Center. Any Web activities that recommend products based on this method will no longer work properly if you choose to enable the Management Center.
You create activities by entering data into the forms in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator. You create Web activities using a drag-and-drop interface called the Activity Builder. This helps simplify understanding how customers will experience the activity.

Furthermore, Web activities incorporate experiments directly.

Web activities created with the Activity Builder are more flexible and easier to create.


Related concepts

Comparison of Web activities and Dialog activities

Dialog activities

E-mail activities

Personalization ID

Targets in marketing activities

Marketing tool

Campaigns


Related tasks

Create a Web activity

Activating or deactivating an activity

Test Web activities

Changing a Web activity

Create a Dialog activity

Changing the priority of a Web activity

View the Web activities scheduled for an e-Marketing Spot

Migrate marketing from WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to Management Center v7

Configure marketing for Management Center


+

Search Tips   |   Advanced Search