Volume 2
Volume 2, Number 34 |
May 10, 2004 |
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Michael Drogan
Jeffrey Hsu
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Abstract: The ease and speed with which business transactions can be carried out over the Web has been a key driving force in the rapid growth of e-commerce. The ability to track user browsing behavior down to individual mouse clicks has brought the vendor and end customer closer than ever before. It is now possible for vendors to personalize their product messages for individual customers on a massive scale, a phenomenon referred to as “mass customization” (Mobasher, Cooley and Srivastava, 2000). This paper will explore the topic of web personalization/customization. Simple techniques such as the ability for a user to create a personalized “home page” will be discussed as well as more advanced techniques such as web usage mining that do not rely on user input but instead on user activity. Using such techniques, sites can adapt themselves to user preferences without requiring that users take the time to complete profile information. In addition to individual personalization, this paper will explore the topic of group personalization or ‘adaptive’ web sites. As a web site grows and evolves, its original design may no longer be appropriate. Web servers record data about user interactions and accumulate this data over time. This paper will also cover the topic of “spyware.” The purpose of spyware is to record a web user’s surfing patterns and deliver more personalized and targeted advertising based on those usage patterns. Privacy, government issues, and also the business impact of customization/personalization are also explored.
Keywords: web personalization, web customization, e-commerce, web development
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Recommended Citation: Drogan and Hsu (2004). Enhancing The Web Customer’s Experience: Techniques and Business Impacts of Web Personalization and Customization. Information Systems Education Journal, 2 (34). http://isedj.org/2/34/. ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2003: §3424. ISSN: 1542-7382.)