In order to link a Blacklist with a widget, the rule chain of that widget must include the Blacklist rule. For more information, see Rule settings for recommendations.
To learn more about widgets and the rule chain, see Widget Configuration.
What is this feature about?
In the Control Desk, you can create a Blacklist and add individual products with specific attributes from your product catalog to it. You can then link the Blacklist to any number of widgets in the online shop. The products selected in the Blacklist will be excluded in the selected widgets.
You can create the following Blacklists:
- Global Blacklist: The Blacklist affects all widgets in the online shop.
- Inspire Blacklist (Blacklist for onsite recommendation widget): The Blacklist affects selected recommendation widgets in the online shop.
- Connect Blacklist (Blacklist for offsite recommendation widget): The Blacklist affects selected email widgets.
Only one global blacklist can be created per country code.
Only one blacklist can be assigned per widget.
How to define the result set of a Blacklist
Inside the Control Desk, in the editor of the Blacklist, you can define the products you want to exclude.
The left side shows the product catalog with its fields and attributes prepared by epoq. On the right side you can see the result set, based on the selected attributes of the left side.
- Click on the edit icon to add individual products, categories or attributes to the Blacklist.
- Select any number of attributes to define the result set.
- Click save.
The result set displayed corresponds to the products of your Blacklist. The blacklisted products are now no longer recommended for the selected placement (global, onsite, offsite).
If several attributes are selected within one field, the OR link is valid, e.g.: Category "Outdoor" + Category "Ski" Outdoor and Ski products are output.
If attributes from different fields are selected, the AND link applies, e.g.: Brand "Puma" + Category "T-Shirt" > Only T-shirts of the brand Puma will be output.
This applies to all attributes, except for the products added via Product ID. These are "OR"-linked with each other, e.g.: Brand "Puma" + Category "T-Shirt" + ProductID "302" -> All T-shirts of the brand Puma and a special Puma shoe will be output.
How do I manage the feature in the Control Desk?
You can find the feature Blacklisting in the Control Desk under Services > Inspire/Connect > Features. After you have configured and linked the Blacklist, the entry appears in the overview.
There you can activate/deactivate, configure, edit or delete an entry.
The symbols used in the Control Desk are explained here.
Examples of Use
You can find some general Use Cases here.
How to exclude a category in a certain recommendation widget in the online shop
You run an online shop for sports equipment and would like to exclude the category Snowboard Bags in the recommendation on the homepage.
To do this, create a blacklist, link it to the appropriate Inspire widget and add the category Snowboard Bags to the result set in edit mode.
This is how the widget looks before creating the blacklist:
After you create the blacklist, the Snowboard Bags category will no longer appear in the widget: