Customize slots

Slots provide a means of content variation similar to stacks, however, only a single variant of a slot will be returned to the visitor’s browser based on server-side rules.

Slots enable you to integrate with experiments for A/B testing, allowing a number of content variations to be defined in a page and resolved by the Experiments application.

See Understand Oracle Experiments for more details.

Create and manage experiment slots

You can add an experiment slot to a layout, or use an experiment slot to run experiments at a region/widget level. It is advisable to use only one experiment slot per layout.

Note: If an experiment status is ‘In Progress’, the system prevents the user from adding or removing variants, or changing the variant name. Avoid making changes to layouts or widget instances being used by an experiment as this may impact the results.

To create a widget based experiment using slots:

1. Open the Design page, and click the Layout tab.
2. Navigate to any layout by using the filter options.
3. Select your preferred layout and click the Grid View icon.
4. Locate the relevant section where you would like to create an experiment and highlight an existing region.
5. Either:

   Select an existing region and ensure all widgets are removed so that just the region itself remains.

   OR

   Add a new row (which contains regions) using the arrows on the row menu bar.

6. Open the Components menu, select Experiment Slot and drag to the empty region. You will see a default experiment slot containing a control (or default) variant and an unnamed variant.
7. You can now perform one of several options within the slot, as described below:
   To configure your experiment:

   • Click the Create Experiment flask icon to display the configuration options with the Details tab open as default.
   • Enter your experiment name and description details in the Details tab.
   • You can click on the View Experiment button in the Details tab to open the selected experiment in Oracle Commerce Experiments directly.
   • Select an audience and set your traffic allocation for the Control and Variant targets in the Target tab.
   • Select from a set of default goals in the Goals tab, or create custom goals by selecting Add Goal and providing the required information, such as, Goal Name, Goal Type, Commerce Event Goals, and URL. Note: The URL is required only when the goal type is Page View.
   • Start the experiment immediately by selecting the Start Now option from the Start drop down menu. You also have an option to Start on Schedule which, when selected, prompts you to enter start and end dates.
   • Once the experiment is created you can see the dashboard with the Results tab displayed. You have options to refresh, export, stop, and schedule the experiment. You can also click the View Detailed Results link to open the full details of the experiment in Oracle Commerce Experiments.

   Note: You can click Delete Experiment in all configuration tabs to delete the selected experiment.
   To customize the experiment slot, click the:

   • Add variant ‘+’ button on the far right to add up to a maximum 5 variants, these can be easily re-ordered via drag and drop.
   • Remove variant ‘x’ button to the right of each variant name to remove it. You must have at least one variant to create an experiment.

     Note: You should not remove a variant if an experiment is scheduled, or in progress.

   • Variant name to open the Variant Label box where you can rename each one as required.
   To configure your experiment slot settings:

   • Click the Settings icon to display the configuration options.
   • Choose your slot name and description details.
   • Click Save to confirm your settings.
8. Save your options.
9. Drag and drop widgets from the Components menu to the control variant or renamed variant(s) as required.
10. Preview your changes before publishing.

    For more information on creating this type of experiment, you can filter for Experiments topics on Cloud Customer Connect where there are several How-To examples explaining step-by-step configurations, such as, Use Case #8 - Mobile Experiments.

Configure audience-based content slots

You can create several versions of your store content in order to reach a variety of target audiences. For example, content images may be based on gender, or age, categories.

To do so, you can add a Content Variation Slot to any layout.

To configure audience-based content:

1. Click the Design icon and display the Layout tab.
2. Navigate to any layout by using the filter options.
3. Select your preferred layout and click the Grid View icon.
4. Locate the relevant section where you would like to place a Content Variation Slot and highlight an existing region.
5. Either:

   Select an existing region and ensure all widgets are removed so that just the region itself remains.

   Or

   Add a new row (which contains regions) above or below using the arrows on the row menu bar.

6. See Work with layout components for details on adjusting a region’s width settings, and removing widgets.
7. Open the Components menu, select Content Variation Slot and drag to the empty region. You will see a control (or default) variant, and an unassigned variant.
8. Drag and drop widgets from the Components menu to the default variant, as required.
9. Highlight the unassigned variant by clicking its name. You now have several configuration options available for the unassigned variant. These include, customizing the slot, choosing a target audience, or, configuring the slot settings, as described below:

   Note: Audiences are defined when a set of rules are created based on attributes of the shopper profile, and are then used for personalizing the shopper’s experience. See Define Audiences for more details.

   To customize the slot, click the following options:

   • Add variant ‘+’ button on the far right to add up to a maximum 10 variants, these can be easily re-ordered via drag and drop.

     Note: The order of the variants follows a left to right sequence, with the leftmost variant (after the default) having the highest priority.

   • Remove variant ‘x’ button to the right of each variant name to remove it. You cannot remove the default, and you must have at least one variant in addition to that default.
   • Target icon to open the targeting modal, where you can name each variant as required. (This modal can also be opened by double clicking the variant name.)

   To target an audience:

   • Click the target icon to display the target audience configuration options.
   • Enter the name of the variant.
   • Select your target audience name. This can be chosen from a list of predefined audiences as soon as you being typing. You cannot assign an audience to the default variant.
   • Choose your audience from the list of available audiences.
   • (Optional) Select a start and end date.

     Note: Results vary depending on the combination of dates and audiences chosen: you can select a date without specifying an audience, in which case, the default of ‘All Shoppers’ is applied; you can select an audience without specifying start and end dates, in which case, the results are shown for an immediate start date, and an indefinite end date; when a start date is not specified, the results shown relate to an immediate start date; when an end date is not specified, the results shown relate to an indefinite end date.

   • Click ‘Add a Variant’ if you wish to add more variant slots.

     Note: You can reorder the variants by dragging each one to a new position of priority.

   To configure the slot settings:

   • Click the Settings icon to display the configuration options.
   • Choose your slot name and description details.
   • Click Save to confirm your settings.
10. Save your configurations.
11. Drag and drop widgets from the Components menu to the variant(s) as required.

    Note: You can drag a Progress Tracker, Vertical tabs, or an Accordion stack on to the variants of a slot, sometimes referred to as a nested stack.

12. You must ensure that you publish the changes made to your store after assigning audiences to slots, otherwise the personalized content will not be displayed on the storefront.

Configure role-based content slots

When an Agent accesses your store in order to gain insight into a shopper’s perspective, they can view content based on their access role. You can, therefore create several versions of your store where the content is determined by the relevant access role. For example, the role of an Agent Supervisor, Administrator, or an Account Manager may be assumed. See Create new orders for more details.

To configure a role-based content slot:

1. Open the Design icon and display the Layout tab.
2. Navigate to any layout by using the filter options.
3. Select your preferred layout and click the Grid View icon.
4. Locate the relevant section where you would like to add a role-based content slot and highlight an existing region.
5. Either:

   Select an existing region and ensure all widgets are removed so that just the region itself remains.

   Or

   Add a new row (which contains regions) above or below using the arrows on the row menu bar.

6. See Work with layout components for details on adjusting a region’s width settings, and removing widgets
7. Open the Components menu, select the ‘Role Based Slot’ option, and drag to the empty region. You will see a control (or default) variant, and an unassigned variant.
8. Highlight the unassigned variant by clicking its name. You now have several configuration options available for the unassigned variant. These include, customizing the slot, configuring the slot settings, or choosing an Agent access role, as described below:

   To customize the slot, click the following options:

   • Add variant ‘+’ button on the far right to add up to a maximum 10 variants, these can be easily re-ordered via drag and drop.
   • Remove variant ‘x’ button to the right of each variant name to remove it. You cannot remove the default, and you must have at least one variant in addition to that default.
   • Target icon to open the targeting modal, where you can name each variant as required. (This modal can also be opened by double clicking the variant name.)

   To configure your slot settings:

   • Click the Settings icon to display the configuration options.
   • Choose your slot name and description details.
   • Click Save to confirm your settings.

   To select the Agent access role:

   • Click the target icon to display the access role configuration options.
   • Enter the name of the variant.
   • Choose your role from the list of available roles. This can be chosen from a list of predefined roles as soon as you being typing. You cannot assign a role to the default variant.
   • Click ‘Add a Variant’ if you wish to add more variant slots.

   Note: You can reorder the variants by dragging each one to a new position of priority.

9. Save your configurations.
10. Drag and drop widgets from the Components menu to the variant(s) as required.

    Note: You can drag a Progress Tracker, Vertical tabs, or an Accordion stack on to the variants of a slot, sometimes referred to as a nested stack.

11. You must ensure that you publish the changes made to your store after assigning audiences to slots, otherwise the personalized content will not be displayed on the storefront.