Books by Peter MacDonald

Effectively connecting and marketing products to on- line consumers is one of the challenges faced by businesses today. This platform is designed to educate and assist users with the product selection process and provide for personalization in a domain where expert knowledge is important for matching customer needs with product characteristics. The system utilizes several strategies designed to engage the user in order to retain and progressively stimulate interest in the product area. The intelligent system matches users with appropriate product recommendations while adaptive eLearning enhances product understanding providing an interactive and evolving user experience. Aspects of social networking are incorporated into the product matching and recommendation process. The modular design of the platform allows for an application independent extension to existing ecommerce systems. The target area for the platform is the wine consumer industry where education and knowledge are important factors in the product selection process due to the high level of product complexity.