Ranking Rules let you choose which products users see first in a Portfolio. Each rule boosts the products that match a condition, such as a new collection, a featured brand or a list of SKUs, so they rise to the top of the product gallery and of search results. This article shows you how to add, adjust and remove Ranking Rules, and how they change what users see.
You need the Administrator role to configure Ranking Rules. They are set for each Portfolio and are available on every Digital Showroom plan.
How Ranking Rules work
A Ranking Rule reads like a sentence: If a product matches a condition, Then boost it by a given strength. Products that match no rule keep their usual place, after the boosted ones.
- Each Portfolio can have up to 3 Ranking Rules.
- A condition works like a product filter: you pick an Attribute, an operator and a value. It can use any Attribute supported in product filters, even one that is not in the Portfolio's Attribute selection.
- The strength goes from 0 to 100. The stronger the boost, the higher the matching products appear. A rule at 0 is off.
- A product that matches several rules gets all their boosts combined, so it ranks above products that match only one.
The strength is shown as a level next to the slider:
| Level | Strength |
|---|---|
| Off | 0 |
| Light | 1 to 33 |
| Medium | 34 to 66 |
| Strong | 67 to 100 |
Example
Brightwave Lighting, a fictional lighting wholesaler, launches its Spring 2027 collection and wants its retail buyers to see it first. Its administrator sets three Ranking Rules on the "Retail partners" Portfolio:
- If Collection is any of Spring 2027, then boost by 90 (Strong).
- If Brand is any of Lumio, then boost by 50 (Medium), to support a partner brand.
- If SKU is any of a pasted list of 40 best sellers, then boost by 20 (Light).
When buyers open the gallery, Spring 2027 Lumio products come first, because they match two rules. Other Spring 2027 products follow, then the remaining Lumio products and best sellers. The rest of the catalog comes after, in its usual order.
Add a Ranking Rule
- Go to Admin > Portfolios and click the Portfolio you want to configure.
- Click Ranking rules in the left sidebar.
- Click Add a rule.
- In the If line, select an Attribute in Select attribute, then an operator, then the value.
- In the Then line, drag the boost the matching products by slider to set the strength. A new rule starts at 50.
- Check how many products the rule boosts, for example "120 of 2,400 products match."
- Click Save.
The counter next to Rules, for example "(2 / 3)", shows how many rules you use. When you reach 3 rules, Add a rule is disabled.
The operators available depend on the Attribute type, as for product filters. See Portfolio settings and Attribute selection for the full list.
A rule must have a value before you can save. If a value is missing, the message "This rule needs a value. Fill it in or remove the rule." appears and Save stays disabled. A rule with no Attribute selected is discarded when you save.
Boost a list of products
To promote specific products, such as a seasonal selection or clearance items, boost them by identifier.
- Click Add a rule and select an identifier Attribute, such as your SKU or EAN Attribute.
- Keep the is any of operator.
- Paste your identifiers, separated by commas, semicolons, tabs or line breaks. A column copied from a spreadsheet works as is.
- Set the strength and click Save.
A rule holds up to 1,000 identifiers. Matching is exact and case-sensitive: sku-1 does not match SKU-1.
Adjust, turn off or remove a rule
- Adjust a rule: change its condition or move its slider, then click Save.
- Turn off a rule temporarily: drag its slider to 0. The message "This rule is off. Drag the strength up to enable it." appears. The rule is kept but boosts nothing.
- Remove a rule: click the X icon at the top right of the rule card, then click Save.
If an Attribute used in a rule is deleted from the PIM, Digital Showroom removes the rule automatically and shows a System changes detected banner at the top of the Portfolio's pages.
What users see
Ranking Rules change the order of products when users sort by Relevance, in the product gallery and in search results.
- Relevance becomes the default sort. As soon as one rule has a strength above 0, the Relevance option appears first in the gallery's sort dropdown and the gallery opens on it.
- Browsing the gallery: boosted products come first, the most boosted at the top. The other products follow in the usual order, by product label or by identifier.
- Searching: results are always sorted by Relevance. Ranking Rules raise the boosted products among the results, but how well a product matches the search still counts. A product that matches the search very closely can stay above a boosted product that matches it poorly.
- Other sort options: if a user sorts by label or identifier instead, Ranking Rules do not apply.
- Private Showrooms: the rules also apply to the Private Showrooms created from this Portfolio, when guests browse or search the shared products.
Conditions on Attributes whose values vary by Locale or Channel read the Portfolio's Channel, in the Locale the user browses in. The matching product count on the Ranking rules page uses the Locale of your interface.
For how users experience the sort order, see Browse products.