Collaborative E-commerce

【Abstract】Searching tool is one of the most important methods for individuals to get information，A new generation of web collaborative searching systems is introduced with the increasing development of computer technology.On account of the diversity of each users knowledge backgrounds，problems such as searching tags cant describe products that users are finding may occur during searching process.Considering developing collaborative searching systems for the specific domains could be pointed for later research，some user study cases in online retail shopping are analyzed in this paper.The advantages and existing problems are evaluated.

【Key words】E-commerce; Collaborative searching system; online shopping; searching tool

【作者簡(jiǎn)介】胡曼妮（1994-），女，江西南昌人，江西工業(yè)職業(yè)技術(shù)學(xué)院，研究方向：電子商務(wù)。

1. Research Background

The ACM conference research paper that Im working on is about collaborative e-commerce，which means users are able to shop together and search together online.In the past decade，the searching tool has developed in a variety of directions.Result from the rapidly growing user searching task communications，new searching approaches are urgently needed.

However，existing searching engines and web browsers often lack effective support to search together. Collaborative searching systems came into existence from this situations.

2. COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGY

2.1 Collaborative E-commerce

Collaborative e-commerce is an operating strategy based on the web development，it highlights the symbiosis between suppliers，customers and cooperative partners.This kind of operating strategy means two or more people engaged in and working? with each other in a same shopping task，it occurs when organizations adopt real-time collaboration tools to sell their products and offer service to the consumers directly.

2.2 Collaborative Searching

2.2.1 Implicit collaborative searching

Searching tools are able to capture key words and search relative information for users.Seen from this perspective，collaborative searching is the further development of the personalized web searching and socialized web searching.In general，this kind of collaborative searching make full use of user information and improve user searching experience by cooperating with other users information.

2.2.2 Explicit collaborative? searching

This type of search tools always provide functions such as users communication and allocate searching tasks.In a certain working environment，users are permitted to share ideas interactively.The main feature of this approach is to support the collaborative search behavior.Users are in a collaborative working team and participate in parts of the searching tasks，they are the center of explicit collaborative searching.

3. CASE STUDY IN ONLINE RETAIL SHOPPING TASK

3.1 System Development

In the relative ACM conference research paper，a collaborative searching system was developed.There are four main sections：user interface，search section，collaboration section and product database.The most important part to realize the collaborative searching function is collaboration section.In this section，query history，chat room，clipboard and shopping cart are designed to provide an interactive communication environment for users.

3.2 Case Study Process

Three college students（called group member A，B，C in later research） who are familiar with each other were invited to participate the research study.The organizer designed an online retail shopping scenario that was complex enough to encourage collaborative searching.

A is invited to an outdoor undergraduates party in the department.There are lots of important people in the party and the party requires participators to wear in business casual style.A is worry about the appropriate clothes for this occasion and cant search fitting clothes and accessories.In this situation，A want B and C to help her searching for suitable clothes together.

The collaborative searching system allows them to communicate with each other when they are searching.They can share products in clipboard that they feel good and make comments on the products that shared by the other two group members.The searching result will be perfect when all group members reach an agreement.

3.3 Result Analyze and Evaluation

The statistic result shows that three participators used ten unique keywords and reviewed about 400 products in total during the online shopping searching process.At last they added four products to shopping cart.From the primary collaborative searching task，it can be seen that collaboration is of crucial importance when searching for such the experience products.

Compared with traditional searching tools，collaborative searching system means a great deal to improve search efficiency. Collaborative searching is not only the combination of directness and indirectness，but the wholeness of information resources.The costs used to obtain information will be reduced.Furthermore， users can give comments to each other.The search purpose is more specific.To a certain extent，it transforms the implicit knowledge in peoples mind to the explicit knowledge. However， the collaborative searching system still need to be improved. The accuracy of searching result cant be guaranteed because of lacing effective evaluation.And users may spend lots of time to discuss useless comments.

4. CONCLUSION

Along with the flourishing of the applied computing，the concept of freedom and openness is encouraged.The role of web users are changed from the Internet visitor to constructor.Users no longer receive Internet information passively，they can create information actively.So that collaborative E-commerce become the research focus gradually.

The emergence of collaborative e-commerce provide a platform for users to share resources and find shopping partners who have same interests. Researchers plan to give a more accurate evaluation by using qualitative and quantitative approaches.What need to be explore is the detailed process of the whole collaborative searching system.Only in this way researchers are able to know more about collaborative model and put forward new schemes to improve it. Therefore， collaborative searching system will be introduced and adopted more widely.

References：

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[2]Barry Smyth， Evelyn Balfe， Oisin Boydell and Keith Bradley[J]. A live-user evaluation of collaborative web search，2005.

[3]Gunjan Samtani. B2B Integration： A pracyical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce[J].2003.

[4]Sergey Brin. The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hyper textual Web Search Engine[J].1998.