item_id should always match your product catalog and system rules to maintain the quality and functionality of your Smart Recommendation system and analytics. Mismatches in the item_id can lead to several issues that directly impact your business outcomes and the user experience:
- Recommendations might not be generated, or low-quality recommendations could be made. For example, if you incorrectly map the best-selling products, your top sellers might differ from those identified by Insider's top sellers.
- Analytics on products (such as purchases and page views) can’t be matched with the feed. Analytics are based on the item_id collected from system rules and passed to the hit. If this item_id does not match the XML item_id, you will have ghost products in the feed that were updated from the XML without any analytics.
To resolve these issues, update your XML feed to ensure the item_id aligns with Insider's system rules. Once updated, the analytics for your products will correctly attribute to the products from the XML feed, enabling your algorithms to function effectively and drive meaningful insights.