First Tuesday – Ireland

Another project at this year’s Informatics Technology Commercialisation Showcase which might be of interest to people is the E-commerce Recommender System. Here’s the blurb on the Serendipity Engine which is being presented on the day:

The Serendipity Engine is a next-generation e-commerce interactive management technology (IMT) designed to simplify the sourcing of merchandise on-line. The technology is designed for inexperienced online consumers who find it difficult to precisely describe their product needs. The majority of retailers provide a basic product search facility, however there is little tomatch the expertise of an experienced sales assistant when navigating the user through complex product spaces. The Serendipity solution will make the process of choosing a product uncomplicated and significantly improve online retailer conversion rates and revenues.

Despite the fact that online retailing is taking off in a big way, the current search facilities offered on most sites is quite poor. Amazon continues to lead the way as their competitors seem to struggle comprehending the value of the industry leader’s strategy.

Funnily enough it is probably the popularity of sites like Bebo or MySpace that will finally shine the light on the value of improved search engines, but more importantly focus on the underlying psychology of sales. That is as consumers we are influenced by the purchases of those around us – be it through recommendations or basic jealousy.

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