Customised Electronic Commerce with Intelligent Software Agents

Abstract

This chapter describes a conceptual framework for designing and developing software agents that will enable customized electronic commerce (CEC) and highlights several important constructs as well as their interrelationships within the framework. In particular, it examines the enabling technologies under two categories, namely, on-line cataloging and recommendation. In order to demonstrate some of the key characteristics of customized electronic commerce, this chapter also presents three prototyped software agents, namely, ETA (Electronic Tour Agent), EPA (Electronic Property Agent), and EAA (Electronic Auction Agent).