Abstract :
If you trust the postal system enough to shop online this year, the chances are that several of the places you go to buy presents will have multiple recommendations on what else to add to your shopping trolley. According to a report issued by analyst Forrester Research last year, at least 30 per cent of larger Internet retailers ?? etailers ?? employ some sort of system to recommend related products to online customers. Indeed, this feature of online selling has proved to be a highly effective way of boosting the number of items that get added to virtual shopping trolleys as presents lists are ordered, or inspiration is sought for gift for those ´difficult´ recipients. However, although there is some smart programming involved in these systems, there are varying levels of sophistication in the underlying technologies that drives these recommenders. For instance, Pontus Kristiansson, CEO and co-founder of Avail Intelligence, reckons this number includes manual systems where the retailers have hand-picked products to show to customers; automated systems that analyse and respond to consumer behaviour are a little more expensive to implement, and therefore rarer.
