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Multi-Objective Optimization

Multi-objective optimization balances multiple business goals simultaneously—conversion, revenue, profit margin, inventory turnover, and customer experience—rather than optimizing for a single metric.

Overview​

Real-world ecommerce requires balancing multiple objectives. Multi-objective optimization finds the optimal balance between competing goals, ensuring you don't sacrifice one important metric for another.

How Multi-Objective Optimization Works​

Multi-objective optimization is configured through global rules in the merchandising console. The system optimizes based on default signals (purchases and conversion), and you can optionally add additional features to fine-tune the optimization.

Default Optimization Signals​

By default, multi-objective optimization uses:

  • Purchases: Products that customers actually buy
  • Conversion: Products that convert from search to purchase

These default signals ensure that optimization is grounded in actual customer behavior and business results.

Configuring Multi-Objective Optimization​

  1. Navigate to Merchandising → Merchandising Controls
  2. Select Global Rules (applies to all searches or all collections)
  3. Enable Multi-Objective Optimization:
    • Toggle Multi-Objective Optimization to On
  4. Configure default objectives (optional):
    • Adjust weights for Purchases and Conversion if needed
  5. Add optional features:
    • Click Add Feature to include additional optimization signals
    • Select from available features or create custom features:
      • Sponsored: Boost sponsored or vendor-funded products
      • Gross Margin: Optimize for products with higher profit margins
      • Size Brokenness: Prioritize products with better size availability (fewer broken sizes)
      • Inventory Level: Promote products with higher inventory
      • Revenue: Optimize for higher revenue per product
      • Custom features: Add any other product attributes or business metrics
  6. Set feature weights:
    • Use sliders to adjust the weight of each feature
    • Higher weights mean that feature has more influence on rankings
  7. Set constraints (optional):
    • Minimum conversion rate threshold
    • Minimum customer experience score
    • Maximum inventory level to promote
  8. Save and activate the global rules

Optional Features​

You can add any of these optional features (or create custom ones):

  • Sponsored: Boost products that are sponsored or vendor-funded
  • Gross Margin: Prioritize products with higher profit margins
  • Size Brokenness: Favor products with better size availability (fewer broken sizes)
  • Inventory Level: Promote products with higher inventory levels
  • Revenue: Optimize for higher revenue per product
  • Custom Features: Add any other product attributes or business metrics that matter to your business

Each feature can be weighted independently, allowing you to create a custom optimization strategy that matches your business priorities.

Best Practices​

  1. Start with defaults: Begin with purchases and conversion, then add features as needed
  2. Add features strategically: Only add features that meaningfully impact your business goals
  3. Monitor performance: Track how adding features affects overall performance
  4. Set weights carefully: Higher weights have more influence—use them judiciously
  5. Use constraints: Set minimum thresholds to ensure critical objectives don't fall below acceptable levels
  6. Test changes: Use A/B testing to validate that feature additions improve business outcomes
  7. Review regularly: Periodically review whether all features are still needed and weights are appropriate