A Conceptual Framework for Enhancing Product Search with Product Information from Reviews

Product search today is limited, as users can only search and filter for a restricted set of product features, e.g. 15” and 1TB hard disk when searching for a laptop. The often decision- critical aspects of a product are however hidden in user reviews (“noisy fan” or “bright display”) and are not available until a product has been found. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for the integration of product aspects, that have been mined and derived from consumer reviews, into the product search. The framework structures the challenges that arise in four major fields and gives an overview of existing research for each one of them: Data challenges, user experience challenges, purchase process challenges and business challenges. It may inform researchers from various disciplines to perform target-oriented research as well as practitioners what to consider when building up such an enriched product search

Consumers’ Need for Negative Product Information Before Reading Reviews

Negative product-related information is crucial to consumers in purchase decisions. Consumers perceive negative information stronger than positive, and next to a stronger perception, consumers also have a high demand for negative product aspects, as these show the problem areas of a product and can help avoid losses. But negative product-related information is not available in the product search process until the customer reads reviews at a very late phase of the decision process. Even though we know about a bias in perception of negative information, little is known about the exact need for negative product-related information during the search process. We examine the need for negative product-related information throughout the purchase-decision process for different product types. Insights about the need for negative product-related information can inform ecommerce platform providers how to design a better product search on their site

Impacto da personalização : na qualidade de informações disponibilizadas e no comportamento do consumidor

Diversos avanços na análise de big data permitem que as empresas, de diferentes setores, possam coletar e analisar dados de seus consumidores no ambiente online. Mesmo assim, acompanhado de oportunidades de mercado, estes dados trazem mudanças, desafiando as organizações a adequarem sua comunicação para manter a satisfação dos consumidores. Uma das estratégias encontradas para suprir este desafio foi a de personalização, pois ela permite a coleta e análise dos dados dos consumidores online em tempo real, a fim de entender as preferências e necessidades destes, para ofertar informações (recomendações de produto/serviço, mensagens, etc.). Porém, muitas vezes as informações são entregues sem a preocupação de representam qualidade ou relevância ao consumidor. Em vista disso, este trabalho tem como objetivo medir o impacto da personalização de informação e da sua qualidade na satisfação e no comportamento do consumidor online. Para tal, desenvolveramse dois artigos complementares. O primeiro, uma revisão sistemática de literatura sobre a relação entre personalização e os temas: tecnologia, informação e comportamento do consumidor online. Já o segundo, utilizou os achados do estudo anterior, para dar suporte a uma pesquisa do tipo survey com 315 consumidores online, a fim de verificar o impacto da personalização de informação na entrega de informações de qualidade e no comportamento do consumidor online. Por meio dos estudos, foi possível elaborar debates, sem precedentes na literatura de SI, sobre o tema em questão. Pôde-se resumir a informação como recurso fundamental à personalização, podendo assumir como termo adequado: “personalização de informação”. Também foi possível ilustrar o que ocorre após a aplicação desta estratégia, para que as empresas possam direcionar esforços com o objetivo de manter o alinhamento de insights de mercado e do consumidor, percebendo os recursos tecnológicos necessários e a complexidade de entender um consumidor em constante mudança. Além disso, em sua maioria, os consumidores têm intenção de continuar a usar e receber informações personalizadas; nem sempre enxergam essas informações como confiáveis e entregues no tempo certo; e sentem-se satisfeitos ao recebê-las, pois elas ajudam a economizar tempo ao procurar produtos/serviços ou conteúdos na internet.Different advances in big data collection allow organizations, from different sectors, to collect and analyze data from their consumers in online environment. Even though this data represents market opportunities, many companies are having to adjust their communication to maintain consumer satisfaction. One of the strategies found to meet this challenge was personalization because it allows collect and analyze consumer data online in real time, understanding their preferences and needs, and providing information (products/services recommendations, messages, etc.). However, information is often delivered without the concern of representing quality or relevance to consumer. In view of this, this work aims to measure the impact of personalizing information and its quality on online consumer satisfaction and behavior. To this end, two complementary articles were developed. The first, a systematic review of the literature on the relationship between personalization and topics: technology, information and consumer behavior online. The second, on the other hand, used the findings of the previous study, to support a quantitative survey methodology with 315 online consumers, to verify the impact of information personalization on the delivery of quality information and online consumer behavior. Through studies, it was possible to elaborate debates, unprecedented in the IS literature, on the subject in question. It was possible to summarize information as a fundamental resource for personalization, and it can be used as an appropriate term: “information personalization”. It was also possible to illustrate what happens after the application of this strategy, so that companies can direct efforts in order to maintain the alignment of market and consumer insights, realizing the necessary technological resources and the complexity of understanding a constantly changing consumer. In addition, the majority of consumers intend to continue to use and receive personalized information; they do not always see this information as reliable and delivered on time; and feel satisfied when receiving them, as they help to save time when looking for products / services or content on the internet

INFORMATION QUALITY NEEDS THROUGHOUT THE PURCHASE PROCESS

Information quality (IQ) plays a critical role in ecommerce consumers’ purchase decisions, and prod-uct-related user-generated content (PUGC) is an increasingly important source of information. Never-theless, vendors currently do not take full advantage of PUGC since it is mainly used in later phases of the purchase process to evaluate single products. Integrating PUGC into earlier phases of the purchase process might be promising. However, little is known about which dimensions of IQ consumers evaluate as being most important in different phases of the purchase process. To close this gap, this study com-prises an exploratory survey to investigate the perceived importance of various IQ dimensions in each of the three phases of an idealized purchase process (i.e., screening, filtering, and evaluation). Concep-tually, this study thus extends the concept of IQ to a dynamic perspective. The results indicated that IQ needs are stable throughout the process and that users strongly favor accuracy and believability when using aggregated PUGC extracted from reviews in contrast to timeliness, completeness, and amount of data, which were assessed as the least important IQ dimensions. Practically, the findings can inform the design of ecommerce websites, specifically how to optimize the presentation and integration of PUGC