Towards three-stage recommender support for online consumers: Implications from a user study

Abstract

In this paper, a three-stage recommender support was implied from a user study. The purpose of the user study was to understand how to best utilize different types of social information (e.g., product popularity, user reviews) for facilitating online consumers' decision-making process in the e-commerce environment. Through both of in-depth tracking users' objective behavior and qualitative interviewing their reflective thoughts, we have not only refined a traditional two-stage decision process into a more precise three-stage process, but also identified at each stage what information users are inclined to seek for. Based on the study's results, suggestions were made to related recommender systems about their practical roles in the three-stage framework and how they can more effectively support users' information needs. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.