The Digital Product Advisor Plugin
- Goran Vidaković (Unlicensed)
- Pavlos Tsulfaidis
The Digital Product Advisor Plugin primarily allows Smartstore webshop owners to intuitively present and filter product categories and products to the customers on their webshops.
Namely, the Digital Product Advisor Plugin is a more developed and intuitive version of the standard product filters found on most of the standard webshops, and it helps customers to find the right products for their needs without having to click through hundreds of product groups.
Instead of selecting standard filter options, the Digital Product Advisor Plugin using a questionnaire - question sets, questions, and answers, navigates the customer through the shopping process - filtered product categories and products, showing the final product or more of them, best matching the customer's answers to the questions asked.
The Plugin is especially useful in situations where the customer does not have detailed knowledge of the product he wants to buy. By asking general but clear questions, the Plugin filters products and navigates according to what suits the customer the most. The customers can also skip questions and don't need to go through the whole questionnaire.
The Digital Product Advisor Plugin on the frontend
On the front end, the Digital Product Advisor Plugin changes the way the products are presented and enables more intuitive filtering of product categories and the products that interest the customer. Using question sets that are consisted of questions that the customer answers, the Plugin navigates the customer through product categories to the final selection of one product or more products.
The Digital Product Advisor Plugin consists of Advisors for different product categories. One Advisor can be associated with one or more categories.
Single Advisor consists of:
• Question - Up to n questions
• Question set - Several questions can be grouped in one Question Set
• Answer - The question consists of up to n offered answers
AND & OR
The Advisor flow (navigation through questions) can be fixed or dynamic (depending on the customer's answer). Each answer is associated with one Rule or more Rules (ProductRuleProdvider) from SmartStore Rule Builder.
The overall query consists of a set of Rules from SmartStore Rule Builder connected with operators - AND, OR.
At the first question presented to the customer, the overall query is empty (or the webshop owner can choose an option in which all the products are visible). Each time a user answers a question, a new rule(s), connected to that answer is/are added to the overall query. By default, the rule(s) are added to other rules with the AND operator (which can be changed in the settings). Based on the rules, the products that match the rules are filtered.
Choice or Multiple choice
Digital Product Advisor Plugin allows 2 answer options on the questions asked in advisor flow. The answers can be Choice or Multiple Choice.
Choice means that only one answer is allowed.
Multiple choice allows up to n answers. When Multiple Choice is selected, each selected answer also has a built-in SmartStore rule that applies to it. These rules can mutually also be linked with AND or OR operators. The whole advisor comes down to gradually building queries along with the operators (example in the picture above).
Finally, depending on the number of filtered products, the best match is displayed (if one product is filtered) or/and the matches selection (if more than one product is filtered) to the customer.
Question sets and display order
Multiple questions can be grouped into a question set. You can use the question set to group several questions to be displayed simultaneously. The questions of the same question set are displayed one below the other in the frontend. The user then navigates through the question sets using the Next button (after answering the questions). The display order affects the order in which the questions sets, questions within the same question set, and answers for one question are displayed to the user when the Advisor runs on the frontend. Whenever you add a new entity (question, question set, or answer within a question) in admin, that entity is displayed at the end of the list. In all editing grids (either question, question complexes, or answers within a question) you can change the order by clicking the Move Up button.
Intelligent Product Assistant Plugin on frontend
Elements
The Plugin has several elements - from the top to bottom:
Progress bar
The Progress bar shows the customer how many steps (questions sets) need to be passed in order for the Plugin to filter the final product or more of them that suit the customer the most.
Question and question sets
The Plugin questionnaire is made up of question and question sets that, according to the customer answers, navigates him step by step
Navigation buttons (Back, Next, Start over)
Navigation buttons help the customer to navigate through the Question sets. The Next button guides the customer to the next step (Question set), the Back button returns the customer step back, and the Start over button clears all parameters from the address bar and restarts the Advisor (guides the customer to the beginning). If no answer is answered on the current question, the Next button automatically goes to the result display (display of all the products).
Product list
The product list shows the products filtered accordingly to the customer's answers to the questions asked.
Category page
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HomePage
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Topic page
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Digital Product Advisor Plugin on administration
After installation, the Digital Product Advisor Plugin can be located in the marketing group of plugins - entry points (Plugins> Digital Product Advisor Plugin).
The basic structure of the Plugin is divided into Advisor and Options. Under the Advisor link, the webshop owner can find the basic guidelines and functionality of the Plugin, an option to add a new Advisor, a list of all created Advisors, and a quick review of the following information about the existing Advisors: Name of the Advisor, Category scope, Number of questions, Question navigation type (fixed or dynamic), Widget zones, and info if the Advisor is "Is enabled" (green ✔ for YES, red X for NO).
Editing of the Advisor settings is possible by clicking on the EDIT button, while the Advisor can be deleted by clicking on the DELETE button.
Options
After the changes are made, it is necessary to click on the orange SAVE button in the upper right corner of the system.
Log
During the final presentation of the advisor's results, the customer's id, as well as the answers he/she gave is saved. Logs can be viewed on the link System > Log.
An on/off option is available to save the customer logo.
Default frame & border theming options
The values that a webshop owner inserts are used as default values when creating a new question. They have no effect on already existing questions. The options part of the Plugin allows the owner to customize and personalize the design and presentation of his questionnaire (questions, question sets and answers). Options enable, for example, different colors of photo or text borders on the questions and answers.
Adding / editing Advisor
Editing Advisor is possible through an Edit button located on the right side of the Advisor list.
Adding is possible by clicking on the Add new Advisor button above the Advisor list, and it consists of three tabs:
General (edit info about Advisor entity)
Question sets
Questions and answers (list of question sets, questions and answers)
First, it is necessary to fill in the items in the General section, where the name and description of the advisor are entered, and it enables or disables the Advisor.
Question navigation
Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Question navigation type | Determines how the advisor asks questions. Whether there is a fixed set or the next question depends on the previous answer. Possible values: If the value is set to Fixed then, in the Question entity, the order of the questions is defined by the Display order field. Otherwise, the next question must be stated in each of the answers. This field is locked when there is at least 1 entity attached to the Advisor record. |
Use question sets | Use question sets is visible only if the Question navigation type is Fixed. Questions can be grouped into a set of questions that are all on the same step in the questionnaire. This field is locked when there is at least 1 entity attached to the Advisor record. |
| Is answer confirmation needed? | ? |
| Hide progress bar | Enables show/hide progress bar option throughout the whole questionnaire. |
Product list
Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Show only products from selected categories | Enables a selection of the desired product categories for the Advisor. If a category is not selected, products from all categories are considered. |
| Show products from subcategories | If checked, products from selected subcategories will be included. |
| Hide products before the first rule is applied | Enables the option that at the first step no products are displayed under the Advisor. |
| This product best suits your preferences | Enables a personalization of the title above the list of products when 1 product is filtered (according to questions answered). |
| These products suit your preferences | Enables a personalization of the title above the list of products when more than 1 product is filtered (according to questions answered). |
| Unfortunately, there is no product that suits your preferences | Enables a personalization of the title above the list of products when no product is filtered (according to questions answered). |
Category page
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Display advisor on category page | Enables or disables the display of the Advisor within selected product categories. |
| Display advisor on selected categories | Enables a selection of the product categories within the Advisor will be displayed. |
| Also show the advisor on the pages of all subcategories | Enables a display of the Advisor within product subcategories of the selected product categories. |
| Widget zone | Shows all possible widget zones for the Advisor display. |
| Hide category title on category page | Enables or disables the display of the category title on the category page. |
| Hide subcategory list on category page | Enables or disables the display of the subcategory list on the category page. |
The Advisor can be displayed on the Category page in only one of the following Widget zones:
HomePage
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Display advisor on HomePage | Enables or disables the display of the Advisor within HomePage. |
| Widget zone | Shows all possible widget zones for the Advisor display. |
Only 1 Advisor can be displayed on the HomePage, and only in one of the following Widget zones:
Topic page
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
Display advisor on topic page | Enables or disables the display of the Advisor within the topic page. |
| Display advisor on selected topics | Enables a selection of the topic pages within the Advisor will be displayed. |
| Widget zone | Shows all possible widget zones for the Advisor display. There are 2 widget zones available for the Advisor display: topic_body_before (before the main text) and topic_body_after (after the main text). |
| Hide topic title | Enables or disables the display of the topic title on the topic page. |
Question sets
It is possible to add Question sets to the Questionnaire only if the "Use Question sets" option is selected in the General tab of the Advisor. Also, while using the "Use Question sets" option, if there are no questions entered, at the Question and Answers tab a message about it will be displayed.
The Question sets tab contains options that enable a webshop owner to add Question sets, appoint names to the Question sets, and, using a "Move up" button, determine its display order.
Questions and Answers
In the Question and Answers tab, a webshop owner can add new Questions and new Answers to those questions in all existing Questions sets.
Add new question
By clicking on Add new question button, a new window appears where a webshop owner can insert Question text, Question description and choose in which Question set the new Question belongs.
Operator
In this step, a webshop owner needs to select the AND or OR rule in the Question rules operator. All answers in this question upgrade all rules of previous answers with this operator. If the AND operator is selected, the displayed products must meet the rules of the previous questions AND the rules of the current question. The same rules apply to that for the OR operator.
Answers
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
Answer type | Possible types: If the Choice questions option is chosen, only 1 answer per question is allowed. For multiple choice questions, 2 or more possible answers are allowed. |
| Answer prefix | This option enables adding a prefix with . (dot) before the question on the frontend. Possible values: |
| Maximum answers in a row | The maximum value is 5. The remaining answers are moved to the new line. |
Answer Frame & Shadow
When creating a new question, the default values for the Answer frame & shadow are displayed, which can be edited in Plugins > Digital product advisor item in the Settings tab (for answers that use an image or not).
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Answers use images? | If this field is checked, it is possible to upload an image shown above the question, when editing the answer. |
| Border width | This option enables a selection of a variety of photo or text borders width on the questions and answers. The webshop owner can choose different widths expressed in pixels. |
| Border color | This option enables a selection of a variety of photo or text border colors on the questions and answers. |
| Image corner radius | Enables a selection of a variety of image corner radius so the webshop owner can choose Small, Large, Extra-large, Circle, or Pill radius. |
| Shadow | Enables or disables the display of the shadow of photo or text. |
| Shadow color | Enables a selection of a variety of colors of the photo / text shadow. |
| Shadow size | Enables a selection of a variety of shadow sizes (small, medium, large) of the photo / text shadow. |
| Selected answer overlay color | Enables a selection of a variety of colors of the selected answer color overlay. |
| Use checkmark on overlay | This option enables or disables the display of the checkmark on the overlay of the selected answer. |
| Selected Border color | Enables a selection of a variety of colors of the selected answer border color. |
Add new Answer
By clicking on Add new answer button, a new window appears where a webshop owner can insert the Answer title and description, and also add an accompanying image of the answer. The image is added by uploading it or the drag&drop method.
Rules
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
Selected rule sets | |
| Rule separation operator |