Management Center: Creating a web activity that displays catalog entries

Create a web activity that displays catalog entries
We can create a web activity that displays one or more catalog entries (products, SKUs, bundles, or kits) in an e-Marketing Spot on a store page. For example, we can display featured products, cross-sells, up-sells, best-selling or top-browsed products, or a list of a customer's recently viewed products.

Before beginning

Ensure that a site administrator configures the site to support Management Center marketing features. See Configure marketing for Management Center.

Ensure that the catalog entries to display in the e-Marketing Spot exists in Management Center in the catalog.
To display predefined cross-sells, up-sells, accessories, or replacements for products, we must have merchandising associations setup in the catalog.
To target a specific customer segment in the web activity, the customer segment must exist in Management Center.

Procedure

Open the Marketing tool.
From the toolbar, click the arrow on the right side of Create New; then select Web Activity. The New Activity From Template window opens.
In the right pane, double-click one of the following web activity templates:

Option Description
Catalog Entry Recommendation Displays a list of catalog entries that you specify.
Merchandising Association Recommendation Displays predefined merchandising associations that are set up in the catalog for specific products.
Display Best Sellers Displays a list of the most sold products in a category.
Display Top Browsed Displays a list of the most browsed products in a category.
Display Recently Viewed Products Displays a list of the products that a customer viewed recently while shopping.
The Activity Builder opens. The top half of the page is the work area. The bottom half of the page is the properties view.
In the properties view, set the following properties for the activity:

Property Description
Name Enter a name. This name displays in the Activities - List page, and identifies the activity.
Description Enter a description. This description displays in the Activities - List page, and it explains what the activity is intended to do. This description helps business users understand the activity at a glance without having to open the Activity Builder.
Priority Optionally, assign the activity a priority with this list. The priority can be assigned with a number between zero and 1000. The higher the number, the higher the priority. When multiple activities are scheduled for the same e-Marketing Spot, they are evaluated in priority sequence.
Start date Specify a start date and time for the activity. If you do not specify a start date, the activity is available on the storefront as soon as it is activated.
End date Specify an end date and time for the activity. If you do not specify an end date, the activity runs indefinitely.
Repeatable Specify whether the activity is repeatable. This means that a customer who views the e-Marketing Spot multiple times can see the content each time. This behavior is generally desirable for Web activities.
Campaign To organize this activity under a campaign, specify the campaign.

Select the e-Marketing Spot in which to display the content:

In the work area, click the E-Marketing Spot element. The properties view for the e-Marketing Spot displays in the lower half of the page.
In the E-Marketing Spots table, specify one or more e-Marketing Spots in which to display the catalog entries.

In the work area, click the action element to display its properties. For example, for example, Recommend Catalog Entry or Display Merchandising Associations.
Complete the instructions in the row of the following table that corresponds to your action element:

Option Description
Recommend Catalog Entry To specify a list of catalog entries:

In the Catalog entries table, specify one or more catalog entries.
To use search or set criteria for the marketing engine to recommend catalog entries:

Select a Recommendation method.
Complete the fields that display for the recommendation method.

Display Merchandising Association

Select the Action option upon which to base the recommendation.
Select the Association type from the list.
If you chose Use specific catalog entries as the source of the merchandising association, specify the catalog entries in the Catalog entries table.

Display Best Sellers

In the Categories table, specify one or more categories for which to display the best-selling products.
From the Display list, choose the appropriate option.
In the Maximum number field, specify how many catalog entries to display in the list.
In the Time frame in days field, specify how many days' worth of orders to base the best-seller list on.

Display Top Browsed

In the Categories table, specify one or more categories for which to display the top-browsed products.
From the Display list, choose the appropriate option.
In the Maximum number field, specify how many catalog entries to display in the list.
In the Time frame in days field, specify how many days' worth of browsing activity to base the top-browsed list on.

Display Recently Viewed

From the Type of list list, choose Catalog entries.
In the Maximum number field, specify the maximum number of recently viewed catalog entries to display in the list.

Optional: Add target elements to your activity. Targets define what more criteria a customer must meet to see the information you specified for this e-Marketing Spot.

From the Targets section in the palette, drag a target element onto a flow connector in the work area to the left of the action element to target.
Click the target element to display its properties in the properties view.
Complete the properties for the target element.

Optional: Add branch elements to your activity. A branch element splits a single path in the activity into two or more paths. We can then use different target and action elements on each path within the same activity.

From the Branches section in the palette, drag the Branch element onto a flow connector at the point where we want to split a single path into multiple paths.
If we want more than two paths, right-click the Branch element in the work area; then click Add Path.
Click the Branch element in the work area to display its properties in the properties view.
Complete the properties for the Branch element. See Use the branch element in web and dialog activities.
Make our changes to the elements on the paths that extend from the Branch element. These changes can involve adding or changing targets and actions on each path until we get the result we want.

Optional: Add additional branches, targets, and actions to complete your activity. We can right-click on any element to open a context-sensitive menu that has tasks that we can perform. This menu includes an option to Delete unwanted elements.
Click
Save and then click Close.

Results
The new activity is created in the Inactive state.

What to do next

We must activate the web activity to make it available in the storefront.
We can also test the web activity to make sure that it works as expected before you move our changes to the production environment.

Related concepts
E-Marketing Spot widget

Related tasks
Creating page-specific e-Marketing Spots for the E-Marketing Spot widget

Option	Description
Catalog Entry Recommendation	Displays a list of catalog entries that you specify.
Merchandising Association Recommendation	Displays predefined merchandising associations that are set up in the catalog for specific products.
Display Best Sellers	Displays a list of the most sold products in a category.
Display Top Browsed	Displays a list of the most browsed products in a category.
Display Recently Viewed Products	Displays a list of the products that a customer viewed recently while shopping.

Property	Description
Name	Enter a name. This name displays in the Activities - List page, and identifies the activity.
Description	Enter a description. This description displays in the Activities - List page, and it explains what the activity is intended to do. This description helps business users understand the activity at a glance without having to open the Activity Builder.
Priority	Optionally, assign the activity a priority with this list. The priority can be assigned with a number between zero and 1000. The higher the number, the higher the priority. When multiple activities are scheduled for the same e-Marketing Spot, they are evaluated in priority sequence.
Start date	Specify a start date and time for the activity. If you do not specify a start date, the activity is available on the storefront as soon as it is activated.
End date	Specify an end date and time for the activity. If you do not specify an end date, the activity runs indefinitely.
Repeatable	Specify whether the activity is repeatable. This means that a customer who views the e-Marketing Spot multiple times can see the content each time. This behavior is generally desirable for Web activities.
Campaign	To organize this activity under a campaign, specify the campaign.

Option	Description
Recommend Catalog Entry	To specify a list of catalog entries: In the Catalog entries table, specify one or more catalog entries. To use search or set criteria for the marketing engine to recommend catalog entries: Select a Recommendation method. Complete the fields that display for the recommendation method.
Display Merchandising Association	Select the Action option upon which to base the recommendation. Select the Association type from the list. If you chose Use specific catalog entries as the source of the merchandising association, specify the catalog entries in the Catalog entries table.
Display Best Sellers	In the Categories table, specify one or more categories for which to display the best-selling products. From the Display list, choose the appropriate option. In the Maximum number field, specify how many catalog entries to display in the list. In the Time frame in days field, specify how many days' worth of orders to base the best-seller list on.
Display Top Browsed	In the Categories table, specify one or more categories for which to display the top-browsed products. From the Display list, choose the appropriate option. In the Maximum number field, specify how many catalog entries to display in the list. In the Time frame in days field, specify how many days' worth of browsing activity to base the top-browsed list on.
Display Recently Viewed	From the Type of list list, choose Catalog entries. In the Maximum number field, specify the maximum number of recently viewed catalog entries to display in the list.