A customized
catalogue will be immediately generated for him.
From then on, the history of his purchases, preferences and
responses to feedback questionnaires will be accumulated and
added to a database.
Each catalogue generated for him will come replete with order
forms. Once the user concluded his purchases, his profile will
be updated.
There is no technological obstacles to implementing this
vision today - only administrative and legal ones. Big retail
stores are not up to processing the flood of data expected to
arrive. They also remain highly sceptical regarding the
feasibility of the new medium. And privacy issues prevent data
mining or the effective collection and usage of personal data.
The virtual catalogue is a private case of a new internet off-
shoot: the "smart (shopping) agents". These are AI
applications with "long memories".
They draw detailed profiles of consumers and users and then
suggest purchases and refer to the appropriate sites,
catalogues, or virtual malls.
They also provide price comparisons and the new generation
(NetBot) cannot be blocked or fooled by using differing
product categories.
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