Understanding identity resolution in Sitecore Personalize
This topic introduces identity resolution. Identity resolution is the process of identifying anonymous guests for use in personalization and decisioning.
Sitecore Personalize uses identity rules to identify guests who interact with your brand over different online channels and devices.
Identity rules are specific for each tenant. Identity rules are based on your organization's requirements. We recommend you consult with your data privacy team and other stakeholders to determine your organization's identity rules before you start configuring them.
Your organization can configure identity rules to check for a matching unique identifier that is internal to your organization, for example, a loyalty number or unique ID from a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) system. This configuration can be used by organizations that use either the Sitecore Personalize 2.0 data model or the 2.1 data model.
Organizations send data to Sitecore Personalize using either the 2.0 data model or 2.1 data model. All new tenants use the 2.1 data model.
Some organizations use Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to identify guests.
Real-time identity resolution
Sitecore Personalize Stream API can perform real-time identity resolution for each guest that interacts with your organization's web-based applications.
The following steps explain the process Sitecore Personalize uses for real-time identity resolution using the Sitecore Personalize Stream API:
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When a guest visits your organization's web-based application and interacts with a tagged webpage, it can trigger the sending of an IDENTITY event to Sitecore Personalize. Most organizations tag their website to send
IDENTITYevents from webpages that capture guest data such as the sign-in page, subscription popup window, and checkout page. TheIDENTITYevent contains data that enables Sitecore Personalize to perform identity resolution. When Sitecore Personalize receives theIDENTITYevent, it runs a linking algorithm in an attempt to match guest data from separate guests, based on your organization's identity rules. The following can occur after the linking algorithm runs:-
If a matching guest is found, behavioral and transactional data for the guest's current session is attributed to the guest. Because the guest is identified, the guest has a guest type of customer.
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If no matching guests are found or if a guest is browsing incognito, Sitecore Personalize automatically creates a new guest with a guest type of visitor.
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If the guest continues to interact with tagged webpages during the web session, Sitecore Personalize can receive several more
IDENTITYevents. Each time Sitecore Personalize receives anIDENTITYevent, it runs the linking algorithm that can result in the following options:-
If no matching guests are found, but the unidentified guest provides enough identifying information to meet your organization's identity rules, Sitecore Personalize updates the guest type from visitor to customer, signifying the guest is identified. This can happen when an unidentified guest visits your website for the first time and makes a purchase, triggering an
IDENTITYevent from the checkout page that meets the criteria of your organization's identity rules. -
If no matching guests are found and the visitor does not provide enough identifying information to meet your organization's identity rules, Sitecore Personalize retains the guest with the guest type of visitor.
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If a matching guest is found, Sitecore Personalize migrates current session data to the guest with a customer guest type. Sitecore Personalize then retires the guest with the visitor guest type.
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