Searchspring employs beacons to track and analyze customer behavior for both reporting and personalization purposes. From the beginning of a shopper's product search journey, beacons keep track of their clicks, product views, and purchases, which are then used by our Personalization Engine to calculate their preferences. Our Personalized Recommendation and Email Recommendation features use this information to provide tailored product recommendations based on the shopper's preferences. The data is also processed by our Reporting System to evaluate user engagement throughout the site.
To put it simply, beacons are like pins that are strategically placed throughout your store. This article will provide you with an overview of where these pins are placed and how they are utilized.
Beacon Tracking for Recommendations
Product recommendations tailored to a shopper's personal preferences are known as Personalized Product Recommendations, and they rely on the use of beacons to determine those preferences. Personalized Product Recommendations can be implemented on any webpage, as demonstrated in the picture below. However, for the purpose of this article, we will walk through a shopper journey with recommendations on the Product Detail Page (PDP), as an illustrative example.
Before the shopper sees recommendations
Suppose a shopper is starting their shopping experience on your store and lands on a Product Detail Page (PDP) that features a recommendation profile. Even before the shopper scrolls down to view the recommendation profile, three beacons are placed on the page: a product beacon, a profile render beacon, and a product render beacon.
Product Beacon
When the Product Detail Page (PDP) loads, a product beacon is automatically generated. This beacon signals our system that the shopper is interested in a specific product. The information obtained from the beacon enables our Personalized Recommendation and Email Recommendation services to analyze the shopper's preferences, resulting in more targeted and personalized product recommendations.
Profile Render and Product Render Beacons
These two beacons are sent simultaneously when the Product Detail Page (PDP) is loaded. A profile render beacon informs us that the recommendations profile has loaded, while an accompanying product render event signals that the products within the profile have been loaded as well.
By providing this information, these events contribute to the impression rate in the Personalized Recommendation report, indicating whether recommendations have been rendered or not.
After the shopper sees recommendations
Once recommendations are brought into view, the shopper can drop four additional beacon pins. Two are triggered automatically to indicate that the shopper viewed the recommendations, and the other two are triggered when the shopper clicks on a recommended product. Let’s take a closer look at the process.
Profile Impression and Product Impression Beacons
These beacons are both triggered when a shopper scrolls down to bring the recommendations into view. A profile impression beacon informs merchandisers about how many shoppers actually see their recommendations. When this occurs, an accompanying product impression event is also be sent.
These events together notify our system that the product recommendations have been viewed, which is then incorporated into the Personalized Recommendation report to compute Views, Impression Rate, and Revenue. This information is valuable in assessing the effectiveness of the recommendation placement on the page and understanding whether shoppers are actually seeing the recommendations.
Profile Click and Product Click Beacons
Suppose the shopper finds a recommended product that sparks their interest, prompting them to click on it to take a closer look. This triggers a profile click beacon and an accompanying product click beacon. Together, these events let our system associate a clicked product with a recommendations carousel. This information is then included in the Products Clicked and Click Through Rate metrics in the Personalized Recommendation report, which inform merchandisers about the level of engagement with a recommendation profile.
Starting a Purchase
Cart Beacon
Assuming the shopper likes the product they are currently viewing, they decide to add it to their cart. As they proceed to check out, a cart beacon is dropped when they navigate to the cart.
The cart beacon is only triggered if a shopper views a cart that has product recommendations in it and serves to inform us whether a recommended product was successfully added to the cart. These events are processed by the Personalized Recommendation and Email Recommendation services to assess shopper preferences.
Completing a Purchase
When the shopper attempts to complete the purchase, they are prompted to log into their account, triggering a login beacon. The second beacon is triggered when a purchase is completed. Let’s walk through it together.
Login Beacon
When the shopper attempts to check out, they are prompted to log into their account rather than continuing as a guest. When the shopper logs in, it triggers a login beacon event.
Logins are used for Personalized Recommendations and Email Recommendations. While shoppers can express their preferences even before logging in, tracking logins is essential to link those preferences to their account once they do log in. This allows us to reliably calculate shopper preferences and avoid overlooking valuable insights simply because their actions occurred before logging in.
Transaction Beacon
After the shopper logs into their account and completes their purchase, they are directed to an Order Confirmation Page, which triggers a transaction beacon event.
Searchspring tracks transactions to determine the engagement of a recommended product. These events are required for Conversion Rate and the Revenue in the Personalized Recommendations report, and are also processed by the Personalized Recommendation (PR) / Email Recommendation (ER) services to assess shopper preferences.
Summary of Beacon Events
| Event | Trigger | Purpose |
| Product | View a Product Detail Page (PDP) | Calculate shopper preferences for PR / ER |
| Profile Render | View a page with recommendations on it | Calculate Impression Rate in PR Report |
| Product Render | View a page with recommendations on it | Associate products with a rendered profile |
| Profile Impression | View a recommendation profile | Calculate Impression Rate in PR Report |
| Product Impression | View a recommendation profile | Calculate Click Through Rate, Conversion Rate and Revenue in PR Report |
| Profile Click | Click a recommended product | Associate Product Clicks with a profile |
| Product Click | Click a recommended product | Calculate Products Clicked, Click Through Rate in PR Report |
| Cart | View cart with product recommendations in it | Calculate shopper preferences for PR / ER |
| Login | Shopper logs into account | Calculate shopper preferences for PR / ER |
| Transaction | Shopper completes an order | Calculate shopper preferences for PR / ER, and calculate Conversion Rate and Revenue in PR Report |
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