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m_alcantara
m_alcantara
Level 4
September 4, 2026
Solved

Need guidance on setting up products for Target Recommendations

  • September 4, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 46 views

I’m in the midst of setting up Target Recommendations. We do not have an ecommerce site. Our use case is to recommend articles that visitors might want to read based on previous behaviours (e.g. previously viewed article categories, etc).

I have reviewed the steps to set up the Catalog, i.e. Feeds, and currently working on that. This post is about the next step - Capturing user behaviour. I am using these instructions:

How Do I Implement Recommendations Activities? | Adobe Target

How Do I Use Adobe Analytics with Target Recommendations? | Adobe Target

products | Adobe Analytics

From reviewing these and other instructions, I believe that I need to set up the products variable. We are using Wen SDK.

Questions:

  • I believe I need to add something to the schema to receive information about articles that visitors are reading. Which Field Group do I need to use?

Commerce Details (Description: Commerce data such as product information (SKU, name, quantity), and standard cart operations (order, checkout, abandon).

OR 

Adobe Analytics ExperienceEvent Commerce (Adobe Analytics ExperienceEvent Commerce fieldgroup.)?

  • Do I add this Field Group to the Web Events Data schema? This is the schema used for web events (behaviour) and is tied to Tags/Analytics.
  • In Tags, when a visitor goes to an article page, I believe I need to send the products variable and map it to the appropriate XDM Object. There’s sample code on products | Adobe Analytics. {

  "xdm": {
    "productListItems": [{
      "productCategories": [{
        "categoryID": "Men's"
      }],
      "name": "Hiking boot",
      "quantity": 1,
      "priceTotal": 49.99
    },
    {
      "productCategories": [{
        "categoryID": "Camping"
      }],
      "name": "Hunting blind",
      "quantity": 3,
      "priceTotal": 699.69
    }]
  }
}
 

  • Can I simply repurpose this code and send it on article page views? This example is for ecommerce. I would either remove or send blanks to certain fields like quantity and priceTotal, any field that isn’t relevant for my use case.

 

Thank you.

Best answer by PrasanthV

Hi ​@m_alcantara,

Here is the step-by-step guidance on how to set up non-ecommerce article tracking via Web SDK (AEP Web SDK) for Adobe Target Recommendations.

Question 1: Which Field Group should you use?

You should use Commerce Details (or Product Details).

  • Why: The Commerce Details field group contains the standard XDM object array productListItems, which Adobe Target’s Recommendations engine scans to extract entity IDs (e.g., Article ID) and category paths for behavioral algorithms (like "Users who viewed this article also viewed...").

  • Do not rely solely on Adobe Analytics ExperienceEvent Commerce, as that field group is heavily optimized for legacy Analytics mapping rather than direct Target Recommendations extraction at the edge.

Question 2: Do you add this Field Group to your main Web Events Schema?

Yes. You must add the Commerce Details field group directly to your primary ExperienceEvent Web Events Data Schema (the schema linked to your Web SDK datastream and Adobe Tags setup).

This allows every pageview event on an article page to stream the article entity information directly into Target via the Web SDK payload.

Question 3: Can you repurpose the productListItems XDM code for Content/Articles?

Yes, absolutely. Adobe Target Recommendations does not care if an item is a physical product or an article—it treats any item in productListItems as an Entity.

You can strip out price, quantity, and total fields entirely. Target only requires the SKU / Entity ID (which maps to entity.id) and optional Category (which maps to entity.categoryId).

Corrected XDM Payload for Article Pageviews:

JSON

 

{
  "xdm": {
    "productListItems": [
      {
        "SKU": "article-12345", 
        "name": "How to Setup Target Recommendations",
        "productCategories": [
          {
            "categoryID": "Digital Analytics"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Key Mapping Rules for Web SDK & Target Recommendations

For Adobe Target Recommendations to automatically capture the article view into its visitor profile algorithms:

  1. SKU Maps to entity.id: Target uses the SKU string as the master primary key. Make sure this SKU matches the exact Entity ID specified in your Target Catalog CSV/Feed.

  2. productCategories[0].categoryID Maps to entity.categoryId: This allows algorithms like "Top Viewed Items in Current Category" to function automatically.

  3. No Ecommerce Fields Needed: Omit quantity, priceTotal, and currencyCode. Target will ignore their absence for non-commerce entities.

1 reply

PrasanthVAccepted solution
Level 4
September 16, 2026

Hi ​@m_alcantara,

Here is the step-by-step guidance on how to set up non-ecommerce article tracking via Web SDK (AEP Web SDK) for Adobe Target Recommendations.

Question 1: Which Field Group should you use?

You should use Commerce Details (or Product Details).

  • Why: The Commerce Details field group contains the standard XDM object array productListItems, which Adobe Target’s Recommendations engine scans to extract entity IDs (e.g., Article ID) and category paths for behavioral algorithms (like "Users who viewed this article also viewed...").

  • Do not rely solely on Adobe Analytics ExperienceEvent Commerce, as that field group is heavily optimized for legacy Analytics mapping rather than direct Target Recommendations extraction at the edge.

Question 2: Do you add this Field Group to your main Web Events Schema?

Yes. You must add the Commerce Details field group directly to your primary ExperienceEvent Web Events Data Schema (the schema linked to your Web SDK datastream and Adobe Tags setup).

This allows every pageview event on an article page to stream the article entity information directly into Target via the Web SDK payload.

Question 3: Can you repurpose the productListItems XDM code for Content/Articles?

Yes, absolutely. Adobe Target Recommendations does not care if an item is a physical product or an article—it treats any item in productListItems as an Entity.

You can strip out price, quantity, and total fields entirely. Target only requires the SKU / Entity ID (which maps to entity.id) and optional Category (which maps to entity.categoryId).

Corrected XDM Payload for Article Pageviews:

JSON

 

{
  "xdm": {
    "productListItems": [
      {
        "SKU": "article-12345", 
        "name": "How to Setup Target Recommendations",
        "productCategories": [
          {
            "categoryID": "Digital Analytics"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Key Mapping Rules for Web SDK & Target Recommendations

For Adobe Target Recommendations to automatically capture the article view into its visitor profile algorithms:

  1. SKU Maps to entity.id: Target uses the SKU string as the master primary key. Make sure this SKU matches the exact Entity ID specified in your Target Catalog CSV/Feed.

  2. productCategories[0].categoryID Maps to entity.categoryId: This allows algorithms like "Top Viewed Items in Current Category" to function automatically.

  3. No Ecommerce Fields Needed: Omit quantity, priceTotal, and currencyCode. Target will ignore their absence for non-commerce entities.

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