E-commerce 3.0: shops of the future know what customers want
With the semantic Web comes the semantic product
Intelligent e-shop systems recognise the context of search requests
Shopping on the Net is becoming more and more intelligent
Shopping on the High Street of the Internet is set to become a more real experience in the near future. Instead of searching for the product you want using a series of keywords as we do today, online shoppers will be able to formulate their requests properly. Future intelligent shop systems will then interpret the meaning from the context of the enquiry. For example, they will be able to deduce the occasion for which a customer needs a suit, and suggest other products whose colours match it. Female shoppers, for instance, will be able to find out which of the shop’s dresses is best suited to a night at the opera, and whether that dress goes well with the black high-heeled shoes. This will generate many more successful hits, and the technology will also make the shopping experience more real. So far e-shopping systems and search engines of this kind based on semantic Web technology are still in the realm of theory. Yet the IT service provider novomind believes they will soon become enormously important.
Semantic Web enables meaningful interfaces between man and machine
The idea of a semantic Web is fuelling the ongoing development of Internet shopping. It will make it possible to provide the meaning of something—a search term used in the normal way, for instance—in a form which computers can read. This will enable different search terms to be placed in relation to one another. New technologies will understand the relationship between different search terms and recognise the meaning of the question asked.
Today’s Web shops contain product and customer data; Web shops understand their significance
Transferring this idea to the world of virtual shopping could enable products to be linked with one another via the semantic Web. Conventional product databases already contain a lot of static information such as product names, prices and colours. They also contain images, detailed descriptions, product groups, and sales volumes to date. Since the advent of Web 2.0 they have even begun to include reviews and recommendations from other Internet users. Semantic product databases will use all of these product attributes to ascertain the significance of a product to the user. For example: is a jacket more suitable for formal occasions, or does its design also go well with a pair of blue jeans? Semantic databases also take into account customers’ personal preferences.
Semantics bring light to the data-jungle of the Internet
This evolution of the semantic Web will in future enable simpler and more accurate search engines. The ShoppingBots that are currently in fashion will be able to focus with more precision on the product preferences of Internet users. They will automatically point out other products that suit the customer’s tastes. Big marketplace platforms such as Amazon and Otto.de will then also be able to offer comparable product descriptions from different manufacturers and retailers. This will make the Net more transparent. Users and potential customers will find what they are looking for more quickly.
novomind at the German Mail Order Congress
novomind AG will be attending this year’s Deutscher Versandhandelskongress & Mail Order World on 24 and 25 October 2007 in Wiesbaden. The Hamburg-based software company will be exhibiting tried-and-tested solutions for mail order retailing at booth 170 in hall 1 of the Rhein-Main halls. The presentation will focus on the Services division’s product range.
novomind AG: innovative software for professional customer communications
novomind is a software developer in Hamburg and the fastest-growing company in the field of electronic customer communications and mail management. As the leading provider of innovative solutions for digital customer communications, novomind AG provides software for service-oriented and personalised customer dealings. The software not only optimises efficiency in customer administration significantly, it also gives the user a faster return on investment. The portfolio of the Products division includes the novomind Self-Service Suite™. The software package contains all the communication modules necessary for a customer service centre on a central knowledge basis: e-mail management, virtual customer consulting and systems for interactive, real-time communication. The novomind AG Services division implements complex e-business applications. More than 40 major companies have already decided in favour of novomind technology, among them Citibank, Otto, Yello Strom and the German pension institution Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund. Club Bertelsmann, EnBW and Mexx as well as public-sector users, such as the German Bundestag (parliament) and the German Department of Trade and Industry, have already successfully introduced novomind systems to optimise their customer communications, turnover and PR.