Troubleshoot Algorithm Issues

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If you encounter any issues with Smart Recommender Algorithms, you can refer to the following troubleshooting:

Algorithms Enablement

Make sure that the relevant algorithms are enabled for your account. If you require additional assistance, contact the Insider One team.

Feed Management Type

The feed management type determines how the website is structured and which algorithms can be used effectively. Check below the mandatory attributes of each management type:

Algorithm

Feed Management Types

User-Based

Stock-revenue

Viewed Together

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

Purchased Together

Stock-revenue

Most Popular Items & Most Popular Items of the Category

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

Top Sellers & Top Sellers of the Category

Stock-revenue

Location-Based Top Sellers

Stock-revenue

Highest Discounted Products

Stock-revenue

New Arrivals

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

Trending Products

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

Checkout Recommendation

Stock-revenue

Manual Merchandising

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

Mixed Strategy

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

Chef

Stock-revenue

Most Valuable Products

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

Substitute Products

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

Complementary Products

Stock-revenue

Published Time-based feed

Start-end time-based feed

Availability-based feed

System Rules

  • Insider maps the products and assigns an item ID for each product. These item IDs should match the line item numbers if you have already integrated Web SDK Purchase Event Tag. Refer to the Purchase Event Tag to see the key and property format for the ID. Item IDs should be appropriately matched to see the correct revenue in the InOne platform.

  • Insider maps the products with different sizes, and a variant ID is assigned for each size. The unique product ID should be the same for each product. The item ID should not be changed according to the size of the product. For example, if one product has a Medium and large size, this product should have only one Item ID, and the size should be defined as a variant by Insider. Pay attention to this if you have products that have size options by following the Purchase Event Tag instructions.

Reach out to the Insider One team via Insider Help Center (Ticket type: Integration Support > JS, SDK, IO (Insider Object), and performance issues) if you need any assistance.

  • Insider maps the add to cart button rule by using website scraping, if this rule is not integrated via Web SDK. This rule might not work as desired when any change happens on the add to cart button. In this case, you should submit a request (Integration Support > JS, SDK, IO (Insider Object), and performance issues) on Insider Help Center and inform the Insider One team.

  • Insider maps the pages on which you can place Smart recommender by using website scraping. If this rule is not integrated via Web SDK, when any changes occur on the product page, it might not work as desired. You should submit a request (Integration Support > JS, SDK, IO (Insider Object), and performance issues) on Insider Help Center and inform the Insider One team.

  • Insider maps the price and stock information using website scraping. If this rule is not integrated via Web SDK, when any changes occur on the product page, it might not work as desired. You should submit a request (Integration Support > JS, SDK, IO (Insider Object), and performance issues) on Insider Help Center and inform the Insider One team.

The Number of in_stock Products

  • Check the number of in_stock products. If the number of in_stock products is less than 100, the algorithms do not work. For complementary and substitute algorithms, Insider needs 100 products with category information. 

  • Check if the in_stock products have analytics attributes.

    • Get 100 for the in_stock items.

    • In the results, search for “analytics”.

    • In analytics, the presence of a field indicates that the algorithms requiring data can function. For instance, if there are pageviews, it suggests that algorithms like the most popular items algorithm can operate effectively (assuming there are enough in-stock products). 

    • Refer to the table below to view the number of events or available products needed for each algorithm type:

Algorithm

Number of Events

group_name

Viewed Together

1000

product_page

100

available_products

Purchased Together

100

success_page

100

available_products

User Based

1000

product_page

100

available_products

Highest Discounted Items

100

products_with_price

100

available_products

New Arrivals

100

available_products

Trending Products

1000

product_page

100

available_products

Most Valuable Products

1000

product_page

100

products_with_price

100

available_products

Substitute

100

products_with_category

100

products_with_price

100

available_products

Complementary

100

success_page

100

products_with_category

100

available_products

Top Seller

100

success_page

100

available_products

Most Popular Items

1000

product_page

100

available_products

product_page refers to the Product Page View event, and success_page refers to the Success Page event.

Algorithms API

If there's a genuine issue, the algorithm API shouldn't produce recommendations or resort to the fallback algorithm for all results.

Check the "types" field in the response body, which contains abbreviations and numbers. When the fallback returns, it returns an answer with the abbreviation of the fallback algorithm, so this area doesn't stay empty. You can tell whether the response came from the main algorithm or the fallback by the abbreviation in the "types" field. This indicates that the algorithm is functioning correctly. 

Always verify the type of product feed management. Not all algorithms are compatible with every kind of feed management.