Future Trends

New technologies offer to e-commerce sites the possibility of creating enhanced and highly personalized user experiences, increasing the site potential to attract more e-shoppers. One issue that has to be settled in this context is the time to adapt—that is, how much time elapses from the instant that some user behavior is observed to the instant that the system changes the user environment. In the proposed architecture, the environment will change only when a new VR-world is requested. Some users may find this reaction delayed; most users, however, have been found to react negatively to constant changes in their environment (e.g., items disappear to be replaced ones considered to be more interesting to the user (Schneidermann, 1997)). A viable approach to a more timely reaction would be use of navigation clues that will direct users to an interconnection point (where change of environment is expected); navigation clues may appear when the system decides that the user’s environment should be changed. In order to support either form of a more timely reaction, certain portions of adaptability mechanisms have to be executed at the client side, eliminating the requirement for creation and transmission of new content. The use of more sophisticated methods for item selection, with possible integration of AI techniques, is also an interesting research direction. Finally, the possibility of allowing multiple users to simultaneously enter a VR-mall and interact with each other while shopping will be investigated.