Personalization

How it works

Personalization allows you to specify the conditions for displaying the item catalog and applying promotions only for certain authorized users.

It gives you an opportunity:

• to offer items and promotions that are most relevant to particular users
• to motivate users to make their first in-game purchase

The following personalization options are available:

• Xsolla side personalization. The personalization rules and logic are configured and stored on Xsolla’s side. The partner sends user attributes to Xsolla, and then Xsolla creates the catalog according to the configured logic.
• Partner side personalization. The personalization rules and logic are configured and stored by the partner, who then passes a catalog for a specific user to Xsolla.

Who can use it

• Partners who have integrated the In-Game Store and configured at least one of the following item types:
  • virtual currency
  • virtual items
  • bundles
• Partners who want to use Xsolla’s personalization of the item catalog for users, or their own personalization.

Prerequisites

Before personalizing the item catalog, integrate the In-Game Store product.

Xsolla side personalization

User flow

1. Unauthorized user goes to the item catalog and sees items that haven’t been set up for personalized promotions.
2. The user clicks Log in and authorizes through Xsolla Login.

3. Xsolla requests user attributes through Xsolla Login.
4. Xsolla displays a personalized catalog based on the rules of the availability of items and promotions created on Xsolla side, and user attributes obtained from Xsolla Login.
5. The user selects an item from the personalized catalog and clicks Buy Now.

6. At the time of purchase, Xsolla requests the user's attributes again and compares them with the personalization rules:
   • If an item is no longer available to the user, the user receives a message that the item cannot be purchased.
   • If the item is available, the user proceeds to payment.

Setting up a personalized item catalog

To use Xsolla’s personalization of the item catalog for users:

1. Set up user attributes in the Login product.
2. Set catalog display rules.

Catalog display rules

Catalog display rules allow you to customize the display of the catalog based on user attributes.

A rule can contain an unlimited number of items of the following types:

• item
• bundle
• package of currencies
• game keys

You can create multiple conditions with the same user attribute in one rule.

Creating a catalog display rule

To create a catalog display rule:

1. Open your project in Publisher Account.
2. Click Store in the side menu.
3. In the Catalog Management pane, click Configure.

4. In the Catalog display rules pane, click Configure.

5. Click Create rule.

6. Specify the name of the rule and set the conditions for displaying the item in the catalog.

7. Select the items to which the rule will apply.

8. Check your settings. If necessary, click the Edit button to make changes.

9. Click Save and Exit.

To edit and delete rules, click on the ••• icon and select the menu item. To activate or deactivate a rule, click the switch and select the item.

You can use Publisher Account or API methods to manage the rules that specify how the catalog is displayed. This includes the set and quantity of items and the conditions that will be applied to these items.

Setting up personalized promotions

You can set up personalized promotions, such as giving discounts on purchases of virtual items to users who are at least a certain level in the game.

You can set one or more conditions. Please note that while the promotion is active, you cannot change it. Read Set up promotional campaigns for more information about promotion types and settings.

To set up personalized promotions:

1. Set up user attributes in the Login product.
2. Set up a promotional campaign with bonuses or campaign with discounts. Set the Trigger promotion only for specific users switch to On and specify the conditions.

Partner side personalization

You can send a request to your Customer Success Manager or email to csm@xsolla.com if you want to personalize the catalog on your side. This feature is useful when you implement advanced personalization logic on your side and do not want to set rules and specify attributes on Xsolla’s side.

User flow

1. Unauthorized user goes to the item catalog and sees all the items.
2. The user clicks Log in and authorizes through Xsolla Login.

3. Xsolla sends a webhook that requests items by user ID.
4. The response from the partner returns a list of item SKUs available to this user.
5. The user selects an item from the personalized catalog and clicks Buy Now.

6. On Xsolla’s side, step 3 and 4 of this script are executed to check the availability of items at the time of purchase:
   • If an item is no longer available to the user, the user receives a message that the item cannot be purchased.
   • If the item is available, the user proceeds to pay for the items.

Setting up a personalized item catalog

1. Contact your Customer Success Manager or email to csm@xsolla.com to connect the personalization.
2. Open your project in Publisher Account, go to Settings > Webhooks and enter the URL to send webhooks. This step is optional if you already have webhooks set up.
3. Set up Catalog personalization on partner side webhook processing:
   1. Xsolla will send a webhook that contains the user and project parameters to the webhook URL when a user interacts with the item catalog.
   2. You should return a list of item SKU that are available to the user in response. In this case, you can also include information that a particular user can buy a certain item a specified number of times. This feature allows you to control the number and type of items that the user can add to the cart and buy.

Each request to Xsolla to retrieve the catalog generates a new request from Xsolla to the game server. Xsolla uses data caching to reduce the number of requests to the game server and sends the partner_side_catalog webhook upon the expiration of the cache’s lifespan.

If the cache is not yet complete, the partner_side_catalog webhook is sent with each request to Xsolla. For example, Xsolla receives multiple catalog requests simultaneously and the game server responds with a delay.

To test the webhook, you can query the item catalog. You will receive a webhook at the configured URL in response.

Change variant of the personalization

Last updated: October 3, 2024