Combining configuration and recommendation to define an interactive product line configuration approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces an interactive configuration approach that combines configuration and recommendation techniques to assist customers in customizing complex product lines in e-commerce.

Contribution

It proposes a novel method that integrates configuration and recommendation to improve customer guidance for complex product line customization.

Findings

Supports complex product line configuration in e-commerce

Organizes configuration as a series of partial configurations

Uses recommendations to guide decision-making

Abstract

This paper is interested in e-commerce for complex configurable products/systems. In e-commerce, satisfying the customer needs is a vital concern. One particular way to achieve this is to offer customers a panel of options among which they can select their preferred ones. While solution exists, they are not adapted for highly complex configurable systems such as product lines. This paper proposes an approach that combines two complementary forms of guidance: configuration and recommendation, to help customers define their own products out of a product line specification. The proposed approach, called interactive configuration supports the combination by organizing the configuration process in a series of partial configurations where decisions are made by the recommendation.