The 'Populate products via product feeds' feature is designed to facilitate delivery of personalized product recommendations through email campaigns. In essence, by means of leveraging this feature, you can dispatch bespoke campaigns to your customers, tailored specifically to showcase products in which they expressed purchase interest i.e., either by viewing them on the brand's official website or by adding them to their online shopping cart.

Prerequisites

There exist certain prerequisites that you need to fulfill in order to use the aforementioned feature of the software. The foremost prerequisite is to have 'Product Feed(s)' configured and saved within your NotifyVisitors account's database. You can create 'Product Feed(s)' from within the panel itself.

However, in order to configure a 'Product Feed', you will need:

1. A 'Product Catalog' synced within the software, either from your own e-commerce store i.e. the online shopping platform linked to your NotifyVisitors account or from some other store.
2. Three events namely 'Product View', 'Add to Cart' and 'Order Place' (having 'Product ID' as an attribute), configured and mapped within the software, for the synced 'Product Catalog'.

Additionally, in case you use any of the e-commerce platforms for which we offer direct integration, then:

• Via an on/off toggle switch, you may conveniently choose whether to automatically sync your store's catalog data within the software's database.
• If you choose to sync data, then the software will also automatically configure the events viz. 'Product View', 'Add to Cart' and 'Order Place' (with 'Product ID' as an attribute) for the catalog.
• Moreover, by means of on/off toggle switches, you'll be provided with the functionality to 'disable' and 're-enable' the mapping, configuration and tracking of each of the aforestated events, at any given time.

However, in case you use an e-commerce platform other than the ones we offer direct integration for i.e. you choose to sync a custom catalog via an API to generate product recommendations, then you will have to manually map and configure the above-stated events in the manner described in the article titled 'How to sync a custom catalog'.

• Hereinafter, we will succinctly explain how to fulfill the preconditions required to use the 'Populate products via product feeds' feature, by way of an example:

Suppose your organization uses the Shopify e-commerce platform and has the same integrated to its NotifyVisitors account. Then, you must enable 'catalog synchronization' for your store from within the panel in order to sync and save a 'Shopify Catalog' in the software's database, which can in turn be used to create a 'Product Feed'.

To check whether 'catalog synchronization' is enabled or not:

1. Simply navigate to Settings > Store Integration > CMS.
2. Click on the 'Configure' button present adjacent to the 'Shopify Integration' option. 
3. Next, scroll down to the bottom and make sure that the 'Sync Catalog Data' option is 'enabled'. In case it isn't, enable it in order to sync and save the catalog within the software's database.

Once you have successfully synced your 'catalog', you'll notice that a catalog entry has been added by default under Brand Assets > Catalogs (check the screenshot below for illustration).

Now, with your synchronized catalog in place, you can either use our classic or precreated 'default feeds' directly or create new 'dynamic ones' based on various parameters such as best-selling products, most-selling products etc.

Kindly proceed as follows to generate a 'Product Feed':

1. Navigate to Brand Assets > Product Feed.
2. Click on the button titled 'Create Product Feed'.
3. Upon doing so, a new frame would appear on-screen wherein you can configure your new 'Product Feed'. Please enter a desired name for the feed in the very first field.
4. Then, select the 'Shopify Catalog' you just synced from the dropdown present right below it.
5. Next, via the following two dropdowns you may granularly filter and configure which specific products i.e. best selling, recently viewed etc. should be displayed first to the customers.

There are 'eight distinct criteria' divided into 'two categories' for creating 'Product Feeds' viz.

• Classic

• Newest Products: Recently launched items that have just been added to the store’s inventory.
• Random Products: A selection of products displayed without a specific order or category
• Best selling products: Items with the highest sales volume, indicating their popularity among customers.
• Most viewed products: Products that have received the highest number of views from customers.
• Both best selling and most viewed products: Items that are both popular in terms of sales and frequently viewed by customers.

• Personalized for each customer

• Products a customer may also like: Suggested items based on a customer’s preferences or browsing history.
• Products a customer has recently viewed: A list of items a customer has looked at during their recent browsing session.
• Customer's recently added products to cart: Items that a customer has just added to their shopping cart but not yet purchased.

In case you select any parameter from the 'Personalized for each customer' category, then it is imperative to define default product recommendations for customers without a 'purchase history'. This is because these dynamic parameters rely on the customers' browsing history and behavior.

In scenarios where a customer is new and doesn't have a 'purchase history', default recommendations will be sent via email. Once your product feed is generated, you can seamlessly incorporate it into your email campaigns.

Populate products in email campaigns via product feeds

Products from a feed can be populated in both individual and journey-based email campaigns. Henceforth, we will explain how to do so by means of an example:

1. Navigate to Campaigns > Create Campaign > Email.
2. Fill in the input fields with the requisite information and configure settings within the 'Recipients' stage. Then, click on the button titled 'Continue To Content'.

3. Within the next stage i.e. the 'Content' section, you'll notice that there exist 'four distinct options' to design your email campaign's content, one of which will be the 'Drag & Drop Editor'. Kindly click on the same. Next, select an existing email template or create one from scratch.

4. Once you have prepared your template, click on the dropdown present right under the 'Rows' tab and choose the 'Search Products' option, in order to commence the process of adding a 'Product Feed' to the email campaign.
5. Upon doing so a new pop-up titled 'Browse product' will appear on-screen within which you'll find the 'Populate Products From Feed' option. Select that option and then click on the 'Continue' button (process illustrated in the GIF provided above).

6. Upon clicking on the 'Continue' button, you will be presented with a list of saved 'Product Feeds'. Select the desired 'Product Feed' and then click on the button titled 'Continue With Feed'.

7. In the frame that appears next, you can customize the presentation of the dynamically fetched data of the products from the 'Product Feed'. You can configure what information pertaining to the products should or should not be displayed in the campaign, you can define or set their display orientation etc. Configure how you want to display the products and then click on the 'Continue' button.

8. The product catalog will automatically get added under the 'Rows' tab. Simply drag and drop it into the 'email content section' wherever you wish to display the list of products. This would populate your email campaign with various products from within the previously chosen preconfigured 'Product Feed'.

9. Configure the remaining settings (if any) for your email campaign and then click on the 'Save' button located at the top-right corner of the frame. Then, exit the frame by clicking on the 'cross' button located at the top-left corner of the frame.

From here onwards, continue configuring your email campaign following the process described in the article titled 'How to create an email broadcast campaign'.

Populate products in website popups via product feeds

To add products to your website popups, go to the “Onsite Campaigns” tab and select the “Website Pop-up” section. From there, click on the pop-ups tab to either create a new popup or modify an existing one.

This will take you to the drag-and-drop editor. In the editor, find the “Rows” section and select the “Countdown Timer & Search Products” option from the dropdown.

Then, choose the Search Products feature and click on the option to Choose Populate product from feed. The steps from here are similar to what we did above for email. After making your selection, hit “Continue” to move forward.

You’ll then see a list of your created product feeds. Pick the one you want and click on “Continue with feed.”

Next, you’ll see options for display properties, including which fields to include, the CTA button, orientation, number of products, carousel settings, and more.

Make any changes you like and click “Continue.” A row with products will be generated. Just drag and drop this row into your website pop-ups, and you’re all set!

Make any necessary design changes and establish your targeting rules. After everything is configured, feel free to click the preview button at the top to check how your popup will appear on your website or any custom site you prefer.

In the setup window, enter the URL of the website where you want to see the popup, and then click the preview link. Open this link to view how the popup will look.

At last, make your popup live on the site by simply switching the inactive button in the top right corner to active.

Wrap up

Once you have performed the aforementioned steps and successfully dispatched the campaign to your customers, personalized product recommendations will automatically appear based on the formerly configured parameters.

This way via leveraging the hitherto described feature, you can dispatch email/popup campaigns incorporating relevant product notifications and recommendations to your customers, based on their browsing history and purchase activity on your online shopping store.