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 types 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. Depending on the Show items to unauthorized users toggle position, the user sees:
   • items that do not have personalization rules applied
   • all items, including ones with personalization rules applied
2. The user clicks Log in and authorizes through Xsolla Login.

3. Xsolla requests user attributes from Xsolla Login.
4. Xsolla displays a personalized catalog based on item availability rules, promotions set on the 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 checks them against the personalization rules:
   • If an item is no longer available for purchase, the user receives a message that the item cannot be purchased.
   • If the item is available for purchase, the user proceeds to payment.

Setting up a personalized item catalog

To use item catalog personalization implemented on the Xsolla side:

1. Set up user attributes in the Login product.
2. Enable personalization.
3. Set catalog display rules. You can do this either when enabling personalization or in a project in Publisher Account in the Store > Catalog management > Catalog display rules section.

To enable personalization:

1. Open your project in Publisher Account and go to the Store > Personalization section.
2. If personalization is not configured, click Set up personalization.
3. Select the Xsolla side personalization type.
4. Click Next.

5. Create a catalog display rule:
   • If there are no catalog display rules yet, the window to create rules opens automatically.
   • If catalog display rules already exist, in the Catalog display rules section, click Create rule.

6. Specify the rule name and define the conditions for displaying items in the catalog.

7. To make items with applied rules visible to unauthorized users, set the Show affected items to users who haven’t logged in toggle to On.

8. Click Next.
9. Select the items to which the rule will apply.

10. Click Next.
11. Check the settings. If necessary, click the Edit button to make changes.

12. Click Save and exit.

To edit or delete rules, go to the Catalog display rules page, click the ••• icon in the rule’s row, and select the desired menu option. To activate or deactivate a rule, change its status.

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

Choose this type if you use advanced personalization logic implemented on your side and do not want to set rules or specify attributes on the Xsolla side.

To use item catalog personalization implemented on your side:

1. Create an item catalog on the Xsolla side and synchronize it with your catalog. Each item in your system must have a corresponding item_id or sku in Xsolla.
2. Enable personalization in Publisher Account.
3. Set up the processing of the Catalog personalization on partner side webhook.

User flow

1. Unauthorized user goes to the item catalog. Depending on the Show relevant items to users who haven’t logged in toggle position, the user sees:
   • all items in the catalog
   • items that you return in response to the Catalog personalization on partner side webhook

The order in which items are displayed to the user depends on the Get sku order via webhook response toggle setting.

2. The user clicks Log in and authorizes.

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 the Xsolla side, step 3 and 4 of this flow are executed to check the availability of items at the time of purchase:
   • If an item is no longer available for purchase, 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 enable personalization:

1. Open your project in Publisher Account and go to the Store > Personalization section.
2. If personalization is not configured, click Set up personalization.
3. Select the Partner side personalization type.

4. Click Next.
5. Set up item display. To do this, set the corresponding toggles to active:
   • Show relevant items to users who haven’t logged in — to display to unauthorized users only the items returned in response to the Catalog personalization on partner side webhook. If the toggle is inactive, unauthorized users see all items in the catalog.
   • Get SKUs order via webhook response — to display items to the user in the order you pass in response to the Catalog personalization on partner side webhook. If the toggle is inactive, items are displayed to the user in the order set on the Xsolla side. To set or retrieve the item display order on the Xsolla side, use the order parameter in the Admin subsection from the Virtual items and currency group.

6. Click Save changes.

Setting up webhook processing

Xsolla will send a Catalog personalization on partner side webhook that contains the user and project parameters to the webhook URL when a user interacts with the item catalog. Set up webhook processing:

1. In your project in the Publisher Account, go to Project settings > Webhooks and enter the URL to send webhooks. This step is optional if you have already set up webhooks.
2. You should return a list of item SKUs available to the user in response. In this case, you can also include information that a user can purchase a specific item a limited number of times or only within a certain availability period. This feature allows you to control the number and type of items available to the user.

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 personalization type

Last updated: March 19, 2025