Automated Rematches

This material features a reference for the automated rematch service and its configuration options. 

In this article (~9 min read):
1. The purpose of and logic behind automated rematches
2. Page structure and layout
3. The way to configure automated rematches
4. Automated rematches statistic

The purpose of and logic behind automated rematches

The automated rematch service prevents clients of Competera from losing grip on the market and makes it possible for them to remain competitive in terms of pricing by ensuring quality periodic rematches at the needed frequency and at low or entirely no cost. The service is powered by an automated algorithm, which enables a separate user to activate and configure automated rematches for those products, for which matches weren’t found. 

Although using the automated rematch service truly makes sense and is consistent only in case your product feed or import file supplies such unique product identifiers as barcodes or product models (e.g., UPC, EAN, MPN, ASIN, ISBN, etc.), furthermore the online stores you monitor support search by these identifiers. 

Get a sneak peek at the automated rematch service from the 3 facts below:

1. The service reinvents and revolutionizes the matching process converting it from the manual search, which involves the assistance of data managers, to the automated algorithm.

2. Based on the service plan, the former rematch strategy either didn't allow for flexibility in terms of the frequency (one rematch in 30 days, 3 attempts available) or enabled a user to manually request rematches of not found products by adding them to the rematch bucket. The automated rematch service suggests 3 options for the frequency of rematches: "every 21 days" (free of charge), "every 7 days" and "every day" (at additional cost) both for all categories (i.e., campaign-wide) and separate ones.

3. We additionally verify each product match found by the automated algorithm. Thus, not being sure of a 100% correspondence, we won't let a product be in the list of those for which matches were found. 

All these factors bring the increase in quality, speed, and cost-effectiveness of product matches. 

Hence, the Automated rematches page serves two purposes: a) to let users configure the frequency and coverage of such rematches, b) to display the results and their statistic allowing to analyze the efficiency of the automated rematch service. 

Page structure and layout

Start with navigating to Data delivery > Automated rematches. The page you'll access allows customizing the frequency of submitting not found products for rematch along with product categories/subcategories to be rematched.

Monthly statistic cards for last and current month on top of the page display the total number of processed automated rematches (i.e., the total number of not found product matches), the number of product matches found by means of the automated algorithm (i.e. those with 100% confidence of success), and their ratio in percentage. Every card enables a drilldown into a more detailed report, which contains the automated rematch statistic by category for the corresponding month – see a more profound review of this in the Automated rematches statistic section. 

Below are tables with the following data both campaign-wide and by category: 
- the total number of products (clickable and leads to the Matches list),
- the number of not found product matches,
- the number of products with UPC,
- the number of products with MPN,
- the selected frequency of automated rematches. 

Toggling to the advanced view with the corresponding tool in the top-right corner expands the tables above making them useful for more experienced users. 

The way to configure automated rematches

Automated rematch service is configurable both campaign-wide (for all categories) and for separate categories/subcategories. However, its setup is available either to your campaign administrator (or a user with the permission to change the campaign settings in particular) or the Customer Success Manager/Operational Support Manager upon user's request. 

The campaign-wide frequency of automated rematches extends to every category in a case when the latter doesn't have its own selected frequency, which has a higher priority. Thus, to simplify the configuration process, we recommend to start with setting up the frequency of automated rematches campaign-wide and make it more specific for selected categories afterward.

1. To set the frequency of automated rematches campaign-wide (for all categories) hover over the area marked with an arrow in the image below and click on it.

2. From the drop-down list, select the most suitable of the 3 suggested options for the frequency of automated rematches. Then specify whether you'd like to use the automated algorithm for price comparison websites (PCW), and select one if there is any available for your country in the list. Finalize the configuration by clicking on the "Request" button. 

3. Editing the selected frequency can also be done by hovering over the current value. 

Similarly to this, set the frequency of automated rematches by category in the corresponding table. 

Competera price analysts recommend setting the frequency of automated rechecks at "every day" for products with volatile characteristics, such as consumer electronics or household appliances, and at least at "every 7 days" for more stable categories.

The category name is clickable in case there are subcategories in it – it is possible to configure a specific frequency of automated rematches for them as well. 

N.B. If product matches weren't found by means of the automated algorithm, they aren't subject to manual rematches, but are returned back to Competera with the status "Not found" and are subject to another automated rematch according to the specified schedule.

Let's see how the "Advanced view" toggle in the top-right corner changes the tables on this page.  

It expands both tables by adding intelligence about the automated rematch algorithm: 
- whether or not the algorithm for price comparison websites is selected (which websites if yes),
- the number of stores in monitoring for which data spiders are programmed and supported (campaign-wide), and the number of stored with supported data spiders and mapped categories (by category),
- the number of stores for which data spiders are not supported yet. 

Automated rematches statistic

Evaluate the efficiency of the automated rematch service for your campaign: navigate to the "Efficiency statistic" page by clicking on the "Show more" button on a monthly statistic card. 

N.B. Automated rematches are triggered at 00:00 UTC, and the data in the monthly statistic cards is updated progressively once in 6 hours (as automated rematches are a Pay-Per-Use service and are billed per each product), while the data in Efficiency statistic is updated in real time. The number of attempts to find the product match constitutes the price for the service.

The table of efficiency statistic contains data about the number of not found product matches (i.e., the number of attempts to find them), matches found by means of the automated algorithm, and cost. As you hover over the name of each category the button "Details" appears – clicking on it expands the sidebar with the current statistic for the selected category by dates when rematches were processed.

If there is a subcategory inside a category, you can find similar statistic for it as well by clicking on the category name first. 

Make on-the-spot decisions about the use of the automated rematch service for separate categories and subcategories in view of the dynamic and up-to-date efficiency statistic.

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