SBIR Phase I: Predicting Behavior in Electronic Commerce Environments

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is investigating the creation of a single multi-dimensional score that accurately predicts the preference of a consumer within an electronic commerce environment, allowing the owner of the electronic commerce environment to deliver personalized content. The intellectual merit of the proposed innovation is the aggregation of actual consumer consumption behavior from a variety of ecommerce domains to form a holistic view of the consumer and create a highly predictive model to predict the content or offer that is most likely to elicit a desirable consumer response. The broader social implication for the proposed innovation is to positively impact those engaged in electronic commerce (consumers and providers). Consumers will benefit by receiving highly personalized content and offers that is relevant to their actual consumption patterns which improves their interaction or experience and removes unwanted or irrelevant content. This experience change positively influence consumers' satisfaction and loyalty to the ecommerce provider. The ecommerce provider benefits from increased satisfaction and participation on behalf of their customers which translates into short and long term economic value. If successful, the project could provide a framework from which to build additional value-added service products and have significant commercial impact.