{"id":586,"date":"2020-11-21T02:55:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T02:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/machine-learning.webcloning.com\/2020\/11\/21\/helping-small-businesses-deliver-personalized-experiences-with-the-amazon-personalize-extension-for-magento\/"},"modified":"2020-11-21T02:55:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-21T02:55:40","slug":"helping-small-businesses-deliver-personalized-experiences-with-the-amazon-personalize-extension-for-magento","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/machine-learning\/2020\/11\/21\/helping-small-businesses-deliver-personalized-experiences-with-the-amazon-personalize-extension-for-magento\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping small businesses deliver personalized experiences with the Amazon Personalize extension for Magento"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This is a guest post by Jeff Finkelstein, founder of Customer Paradigm, a full-service interactive media firm and Magento solutions partner.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many small retailers use Magento<\/a>, an open-source ecommerce platform, to create websites or mobile applications to sell their products online. Personalization is key to creating high-quality ecommerce experiences, but small businesses often lack access to resources required to implement a scalable, sophisticated personalization solution\u2014especially one that is powered by machine learning (ML). An ML-based solution results in better end-user engagement, conversion, and increased sales compared to traditional rudimentary techniques like static rules. With the Amazon Personalize<\/a> extension<\/a> for Magento, we\u2019re now making the same ML personalization technology used by Amazon.com accessible to small businesses that use Magento.<\/p>\n

This is the case with Hoopologie<\/a>, a small hula hoop supply company based in Boulder, Colorado. Founder Melina Rider started the business in 2013 and has an extensive product line of over 1,000 SKUs. For Hoopologie, like many other small ecommerce merchants, creating sophisticated personalized experiences has been out of reach. Hiring ML experts to implement an ML solution isn\u2019t affordable, and using a rules-based system requires a lot of manual maintenance, limiting scale and performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating personalized recommendations for every type of user on the site would take us hours and hours every month. It\u2019s not affordable, and I\u2019d rather have our limited staff help our customers in other ways,\u201d Rider says.<\/p>\n

Hoopologie uses Magento to power their website, and has seen an increase of 40.5% in sales and an average order value increase of just over $50 per order by using the Amazon Personalize extension for Magento. In this post, we show you how to implement the Amazon Personalize extension for Magento to start creating ML-powered personalized experiences for your customers to improve engagement, conversion, and revenue.<\/p>\n

Amazon Personalize for Magento<\/h2>\n

Amazon Personalize is a fully managed ML service that leverages over 20 years of experience at Amazon.com to help you deliver personalized experiences faster. The Amazon Personalize extension allows Magento merchants to take advantage of the benefits of Amazon Personalize and use its algorithms to power a Magento store\u2019s product recommendations. All data and ML models are stored privately and securely in the merchant\u2019s AWS account.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to install the extension on your site, create an AWS account, and authorize the extension to access your AWS account. For instructions, see Amazon Personalize for Magento 2: Installation & Configuration Instructions<\/a>. After you complete those steps, you see the Amazon Personalize extension in your Magento admin area, under Stores<\/strong>, Configuration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Entering configuration details<\/h2>\n

For instructions on configuring the extension, watch the video clip Amazon Personalize for Magento 2: Extension Configuration<\/a> on YouTube.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

On the configuration page, you can provide all the values that tie your Magento site into Amazon Personalize in your AWS account:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \nFor License Key<\/strong>, enter the license key that you received for the extension.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you installed the extension but don\u2019t have a license key, you can start a 15-day free trial.<\/a><\/p>\n

    If your license is active, the License Active <\/strong>field shows as yes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. If the license isn\u2019t activated, add a valid access key.<\/li>\n
    2. \nFor Module Enabled, <\/strong>you can enable or disable the module from the admin area.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      This is helpful if you need to troubleshoot a site, or if you have a copy of the site on a test server.<\/p>\n

      When your Amazon Personalize campaign (an ML-powered recommender trained on your data) is active in Amazon Personalize, Campaign Active <\/strong>shows as yes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

      The system automatically uploads, ingests, and trains the data. This is a read-only display; this isn\u2019t something you can change to turn on or off the campaign.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. For File owner home directory<\/strong>, enter a file directory outside your web root (such as ..\/..\/keys).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Amazon\u2019s security requirements mandate that your AWS credentials not be stored in the Magento database. Instead, your keys need to be stored in a directory outside the web root, usually up a level or two from where your Magento site is stored in your file system.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. For AWS Region<\/strong>, enter the Region where you want the extension to access Amazon Personalize.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Because Amazon Personalize may not be available in all Regions, be sure to enter a Region code where Amazon Personalize is available<\/a> and that is located geographically closest to your Magento server\u2019s physical location.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. For AWS Account Number<\/strong>, enter your AWS account number.<\/li>\n
          2. For Access Key<\/strong>, enter the access key ID for the user that you created in the authorization part of the setup.<\/li>\n
          3. For Secret Key<\/strong>, enter the secret key ID for the user that you created in authorization part of the setup.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            \"\"\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

            For instructions on finding your AWS account number, access key, and secret key, watch the video clip Amazon Personalize for Magento 2: Creating IAM User in AWS<\/a> on YouTube.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Choose Save Config<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              This saves the access information and writes the access key and secret key to a file outside the web root.<\/p>\n

              Starting training<\/h2>\n

              To begin the training process, choose Start Process<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

              \"\"<\/p>\n

              Make sure that your Magento cron is running. If it\u2019s not running, it\u2019s highly likely that the process won\u2019t move from one step to the next.<\/p>\n

              The process includes the following high-level steps:<\/p>\n