We’re excited to bring you the next upgrade to our Catalog-based Product Recommendation module — say hello to Collections!
Let me walk you through a scenario. You’re running a festive campaign (Diwali, in this case) — a standard play for e-commerce brands, and one that’s designed to surface your best recommendations. Naturally, you want those recommendations to be personalized. Take these two user personas as an example.
Rina — Budget-conscious, looking for gifts under ₹1,500
Arjun — Abandoned a cart with premium formal shirts last night
Both get your “Diwali Offers” email. Despite your best intent and the recommendation algorithms at play, Rina sees premium products worth ₹8,000 and Arjun sees standard discounted items. Neither engages any further.
Most recommendations are either too generic (Top Items) or too opaque (Personalized). More often than not, marketers find themselves looking at their recommendation widgets and thinking: “This doesn’t feel relevant. And I can’t even explain why it showed up.”
Top Items and Personalized Recommendations are both useful in their own way, but they miss a core theme — they aren’t context-aware. Personalized recommendations excel at behavioral patterns, but they’d deliver the same results whether it’s Arjun in Mumbai or Simone in London. Collections makes your recommendations location-aware. With Collections, you can recommend popular items within a price range in a specific geography, popular restaurants in a certain area, or coupon codes redeemable at shops near the user.
Hello, Collections
Collections is a real-time curation layer that works alongside your existing recommendations. While Top Items and Personalized Recommendations continue driving discovery and behavioral patterns, Collections adds campaign-aware, context-driven control to your recommendations.
Think of it as moving from “What users generally prefer” (Top Items) or “What similar users liked” (Personalized) to “What would be absolutely relevant for THIS user, in THIS campaign, at THIS moment, based on their recent behavior” (Collections).
How do Collections work?
Let’s go back to Rina and Arjun. Start on your Recommendations screen.
Choose Collections and set up dynamic rules that filter your catalog in real time.
We’ve essentially exposed every column in your catalog as filterable criteria you can match against user demographics and behavior — seasons, tags, locations, stock levels, prices and more. Collections makes all of this data usable in real time, with no engineering overhead.
Summary of recommendation features
| Feature | Best For | What Collections Adds |
|---|---|---|
| Top Items | Discovery, trending products | Campaign-specific filtering and business rules |
| Personalized Recommendations | Behavioral patterns | Marketer-controlled context and real-time rules |
| Collections | Campaign-driven curation | Transparent rules that adapt per user, per session |
When to use what?
- Top Items: Homepage discovery, “What’s trending now”
- Personalized Recommendations: “You might also like”, behavioral nudges
- Collections: Campaign-specific offers, festive sales, clearance events, geo-targeted promotions and customized rules when you want control
They work better together. Use Collections when you need precise control over what shows up in a specific campaign or context.
Benefits of Collections
- Design campaigns around business goals — festive sales, clearance, geo-specific offers
- Apply rules by season, location, behavior or any custom user attribute
- Complete transparency — no mysterious algorithms
- Reuse Collections across all channels — email, push, in-app, web and more
- Multi-sort and randomization to keep experiences fresh
- Mix automated rules with manual overrides when needed
Collections in action, by industry
| Industry | Use cases for Collections-based recommendations |
|---|---|
| 🛒 Retail & D2C Stop losing cart abandoners |
The challenge: Someone abandons a cart. By the time your next campaign goes out, they’ve forgotten about it. With Collections: User abandons formal shirts → Instantly see “Formal Shirts, Same Brand, In Stock, Price ≤ Cart Value” User browses Diwali deals but hasn’t bought in 90 days → Get “Ethnic Wear, Discount ≥ 25%, High Stock” Impact: Instant, behavior-aware nudges the moment they interact. |
| ✈️ Travel Capture last-minute urgency |
The challenge: Travel decisions happen fast, and “top hotels” lists ignore urgency. With Collections: Mike searches Goa beaches today → Instantly see “Beach Resorts, Goa, Rating ≥ 4.5, Pool = Yes, Available This Weekend” John books flights for tomorrow’s Delhi meeting → Get “Business Hotels, ≤ 5km from Airport, Tonight Available = True” Impact: Real-time trip context powers same-session conversions. |
| 🎬 OTT Match the mood, right now |
The challenge: Viewer moods shift daily, and static “Top 10” rows feel stale. With Collections: Zoe finishes three thrillers this week → Homepage updates to “Latest Thrillers, Rating ≥ 4, Released ≥ 2022” Emma logs into the Kids’ profile → Sees “Family Movies, Age Rating = U, Duration < 90 mins” Impact: The homepage refreshes the moment behavior shifts. |
| 🍔 QSR Time, place and appetite |
The challenge: Cravings are momentary, and static menus ignore time and location. With Collections: 1pm in Mumbai → “Paneer Specials, Discount ≥ 15%, In Stock” 10pm in Bangalore → “Chicken Specials, Fast Delivery < 30 min” Impact: Menus adapt instantly to time of day, city and stock levels. |
| 🎟️ Events Create real-time discovery |
The challenge: Event discovery is time-sensitive, and static newsletters miss the urgency. With Collections: Dave views an Arijit Singh concert → The next email curates “Similar Artists, Same City, Next 30 Days” Rahul browses comedy → Homepage shows “Comedy in Bangalore, Price < ₹500, This Weekend” Impact: Recommendations that match how quickly event decisions get made. |
| 💊 Healthcare When urgency matters most |
The challenge: Health needs can’t wait, and static medicine lists miss context. With Collections: User adds paracetamol → Instantly see “Fever Relief, In Stock, Same-Day Delivery” User searches diabetes → Get “Diabetes Panel, Price ≤ ₹1,000, Appointment Slots = Next 48h” Impact: Real-time context builds trust and drives urgent conversions. |
Ready for a demo? Ask your Account Manager to schedule one — our experts will have this module set up and activated for your account.
