API Controls to Disable Merchandising Rules

To holistically quantify the uplift of Bloomreach’s powerful Algorithms on your site’s product discovery, you might want to AB test the Bloomreach Algo-driven search/category experiences. However, in some cases, merchandising rules enabled in the background may influence the test results.

You can disable all or some of these merchandising rules via API parameters for such AB tests. This empowers you to strategically tweak the search/category experiences and test our new algorithms or algorithm enhancements with ease.

We currently support disabling the following merchandising rules:

  • Product Merchandising rules: Merchandising rules that impact the ranking and recall of individual products.
  • Group Merchandising rules: Merchandising rules that impact the ranking and recall of product groups.

Product Merchandising Rules Scope

The following merchandising rules can be disabled by passing the specified parameter values:

Recall merchandising rules:

  • Product Block

  • Product Add to recall

  • Include Only

  • Exclude

Ranking merchandising rules:

  • Product Boost

  • Product Bury

  • Product Slot

  • Attribute Boost

  • Attribute Bury

Product Merchandising Rules Parameters

The following table lists the Parameter values to pass on the Frontend API Call:

Parameter name and valueParameter description
merchandising_rules.disable=allDisables all merchandising rules that affect product ranking or product recall. These merchandising rules are usually added on Dashboard via Search ranking rules, Category Ranking Rule, Global Ranking rule, Global category ranking rule, and Global search ranking rule:
  • Product Block
  • Include Only
  • Exclude
  • Product Add to recall
  • Product Boost
  • Product Bury
  • Attribute Boost
  • Attribute Bury
  • Product Slot
Recall merchandising rules
merchandising_rules.disable=recallDisables all merchandising rules that affect product recall. These merchandising rules are usually added on Dashboard via Search ranking rules, Category Ranking Rule, Global Ranking rule, Global category ranking rule, and Global search ranking rule:
  • Product Block
  • Product Add to recall
  • Include Only
  • Exclude
merchandising_rules.disable=product_block
  • Disables all Product Block.
  • Maps to PID Block (Product -> Block).

  • block
    merchandising_rules.disable=product_add_to_recall
  • Disables all Product Add to Recall rules.
  • Maps to PID Add to Recall (add to recall toggle on each product card).

  • recall
    merchandising_rules.disable=attribute_include
  • Disables all Attribute Include Only rules.
  • Maps to Product Description Attribute rule (Create New Attribute Rule -> Product Description Attributes -> Include Only).

  • recall
    merchandising_rules.disable=attribute_exclude
  • Disables all Attribute Exclude rules.
  • Maps to Product Description Attribute rule (Create New attribute rule -> Product Description Attributes -> Exclude).

  • recall
    Ranking merchandising rules
    merchandising_rules.disable=rankingDisables all merchandising rules that affect product ranking. These merchandising rules are usually added on Dashboard via Search ranking rules, Category Ranking Rule, Global Ranking rule, Global category ranking rule, Global search ranking rule:
    • Product Boost
    • Product Bury
    • Attribute Boost
    • Attribute Bury
    • Product Slot
    merchandising_rules.disable=product_boost
  • Disables all Product Boost rules.
  • Maps to PID Boost (Product -> Boost to Top)

  • recall
    merchandising_rules.disable=product_bury
  • Disables all Product Bury rules.
  • Maps to PID Bury (Product -> Bury to Bottom)

  • recall
    merchandising_rules.disable=product_slot
  • Disables all Product Slot rules.
  • Maps to PID Slot (Product -> Lock Position #. This also includes the drag and drop capability to Slot the product.)

  • recall
    merchandising_rules.disable=product_seq_lock
  • Disables all the Sequential lock rules that could be set up either through Search ranking rules, Category ranking rules.
  • Maps to ☸ Settings > Sequential Lock.

  • recall
    merchandising_rules.disable=attribute_boost
  • Disables all Attribute Boost rules.
  • Maps to Product Description attribute and Numeric attribute rules (Create New Attribute Rule -> Product Description Attributes /Numeric Attributes -> Boost).

  • recall
    merchandising_rules.disable=attribute_bury
  • Disables all Attribute Bury rules.
  • Maps to Product Description attribute and Numeric attribute rules (Create New attribute rule -> Product Description Attributes -> Bury).

  • recall

    Notes:

    1. Group Merchandising rules will not be affected by the above parameter values.
    2. We support comma-separated parameter values. This means that you can pass multiple values in a single parameter. Example: merchandising_rules.disabled = product_block, product_add_to_recall

    Group Merchandising Rules Scope

    The following group merchandising rules can be disabled by passing the specified parameter values:

    Group Recall merchandising rules contain:

    • Group Block

    Group Ranking merchandising rules include:

    • Group Boost
    • Group Bury

    Group Merchandising Rules Parameters

    The following table lists the Parameter values to pass on the Frontend Group Merchandising API Call:

    Parameter name and valueParameter description
    merchandising_group_rules.disable=allDisables all group merchandising rules that affect product ranking.
  • [Group] Block
  • [Group] Boost to top
  • [Group] Bury to bottom

  • recall
    Recall Group Merchandising rules
    merchandising_group_rules.disable=recallDisables Group Block.
    merchandising_group_rules.disable=group_blockDisables all Group Block rules.
    Ranking Group Merchandising rules
    merchandising_group_rules.disable=rankingDisables all group merchandising rules that affect product ranking.
    • Group Boost
    • Group Bury
    merchandising_group_rules.disable=group_boostDisables all Group Boost rules.
    merchandising_group_rules.disable=group_buryDisables all Group Bury rules.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    1. Is there any additional charge to get this feature?
      No.
    2. Does this feature support both Search as well as Category?
      Yes, you can choose to pass the parameters both for Search and Category experiences.
    3. Does this feature support Pathways?
      No.
    4. How are incorrect parameter values handled?
      Wrong parameter values will be ignored.
    5. Can the rules only be disabled at the global level and not the query level or vice versa, i.e., can I choose to keep global rules, but disable query-specific rules?
      No, this isn't supported.