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Product Information Retrieval on the Web: An Empirical Study

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The 8th International Conference on Knowledge Management in Organizations

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Complexity ((SPCOM))

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the consumers’ perception of on-line product search using a questionnaire-based survey. We identify that the information retrieval activity of the purchase process can be performed with three Web applications: a search engine, a price comparison service, and a Web shop. The study underlines the need for linked product data as proposed by the Semantic Web. We argue that linked data will result in easier product search on the Web for the consumer.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics, NL-3000 DR, 1738, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Sabri Bouzidi, Damir Vandic, Flavius Frasincar & Uzay Kaymak

Authors
  1. Sabri Bouzidi
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  2. Damir Vandic
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  3. Flavius Frasincar
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  4. Uzay Kaymak
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sabri Bouzidi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, Staffordshire University, Stafford, United Kingdom

    Lorna Uden

  2. College of Management, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Taiwan

    Leon S.L. Wang

  3. and Control Faculty of Science, Universidad Salamanca Department of Computing Science, Salamanca, Spain

    Juan Manuel Corchado Rodríguez

  4. National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Hsin-Chang Yang

  5. Department of Information Management, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Taiwan

    I-Hsien Ting

Appendix

Appendix

Questionnaire

The table below contains the questions from the survey. For questions 1−6, for each product group the subjects indicate whether they agree with the statement on a five-point Likert-scale, with 1 being `strongly disagree’, 3 being `neutral’, and 5 represents `strongly agree’. The questions 1−3 refer to the ease-of-search, while questions of 4−6 relate to the use of the information retrieval tools. Questions 7−9 are intended for the identification of characteristics of the respondents.

Questions

Variable

1.

When i dont know exactly what to buy, i find it easy to locate the relvant product information when searching for:

Clothing(locate product information, low need specificity)

Smart –phone(locate product information, low need specificity)

Vacations(locate product information, low need specificity)

2.

When i do know what product to buy,i find it easy to locate the relevant product information when searching for:

Clothing(locate product information, low need specificity)

Smart –phone(locate product information, low need specificity)

Vacations(locate product information, low need specificity)

3.

When i do know what product to buy,i find it easy to locate the shops that sell it when searching for:

Clothing(locate shops)

Smart-phones(locate shops)

Vacations(locate shops)

4.

I use a search engine(e.g., Google)when searching for:

Clothing(Search engine)

Smart-phone(Search engine)

Vacations(Search engine)

5.

I use a price comparison service(e.g.,Google shopping)when searching for:

Clothing(price comparison service)

Smart-phone(price comparison service)

Vacations(price comparison service)

6.

I use a specific web store that i know of when searching for

Clothing (Web shop)

Smart-phone(Web shop)

Vacations(Web shop)

7.

Your gender

Gender

8.

Your age

Age

9.

Your education level

Education

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Bouzidi, S., Vandic, D., Frasincar, F., Kaymak, U. (2014). Product Information Retrieval on the Web: An Empirical Study. In: Uden, L., Wang, L., Corchado Rodríguez, J., Yang, HC., Ting, IH. (eds) The 8th International Conference on Knowledge Management in Organizations. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7287-8_35

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7287-8_35

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7286-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7287-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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