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Abstract

Content

Introduction

Thanks to the current breakthrough of technologies in the field of accumulation, processing and transmission of information, a modern person has access to various ways of obtaining all kinds of knowledge accumulated over the years of painstaking work. In comparison with the previous methods of information exchange, modern technologies allow this exchange to be carried out faster and better. One of the outstanding achievements in this field is the creation of the Internet.

However, progress does not stand still and continues to grow exponentially, depending on the current level of technology development. Therefore, there are various branches in the way of using available technologies. Thus, instead of simply accumulating and transmitting information, people began to use Internet resources in everyday life. Consequently, the rapid development of information technologies and their introduction into the social sphere of the population has become a pretext for creating many web resources aimed at automating various kinds of processes.

One of these web resources are online stores. Like any information system, online stores have their own life cycle, which is determined depending on its specifics and customer orientation. When creating an online store, most developments focus on preliminary analysis, design and the creation of an online store itself, but the most important stage in this case is the further maintenance and development of the product. Which entails the expediency of collecting information regarding the possible improvement of the resource and its promotion in a competitive market.

1. Theme urgency

This type of web resource as an online store is quite widespread and one of the most relevant today. The trend of development of this system originates almost from the creation of the Internet itself and continues to develop rapidly.

There are many methods of promoting and optimizing the content of online stores in order to increase their convenience and competitiveness in the market. However, the methodology of creating these resources is an established process that has been established through many experiments, followed by an analysis of their effectiveness. Therefore, leading companies for the development of these web resources use various functional innovations based on the maintenance of the online store itself.

The main problem of online store support is proper management of the list of products and services provided. Given that the main engine of demand is the consumer, it can be concluded that the user is the determining figure in the formation of the list of goods. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to take into account the preference of buyers by collecting user information.

The main problem of online store support is proper management of the list of products and services provided. Given that the main engine of demand is the consumer, it can be concluded that the user is the determining figure in the formation of the list of goods. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to take into account the preference of buyers by collecting user information.

2. Goal and tasks of the research

The purpose of this work is to construct a method for determining the relevance of a product based on the comparative characteristics of user activity. This method will improve the accuracy of comparative analysis, and also provides an opportunity to pay attention to certain aspects of building the structure of the product card that require changes or additions. These actions will help to increase the popularity of this product, as well as to form the most effective model for building a list of products.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to implement the following tasks:

  1. Collecting information about the user's time on the site and on each product card separately.
  2. Analysis of the received information and finding patterns of session duration and reasons for its interruption.
  3. Finding preferred options for the quantity and placement of information based on the specifics of the product and the results obtained.
  4. Formation of its own method for structuring and filling the product card.
  5. Construction of an algorithm that automates the process of subsequent collection and analysis of information, followed by its application in the developed method.
  6. Combining and adapting the method to existing methods of designing and maintaining online stores.

The object of research of this work is the study of the structure of an online store.

The subject of the study is the study and analysis of the impact of the user session duration on the relevance of the product.

As a result of the work carried out, it is expected to obtain a method that allows for a detailed comparative analysis of each product individually and groups of products grouped into categories, based on the time required for the user to familiarize himself with the products. This analysis will determine at what stage the user decides to make a purchase or close the product page. Taking into account this information, it becomes possible to draw up rules for the formation of a product card in order to attract the user, which contributes to increasing future sales and improving existing products.

3. Research and Development Overview

The presented topic studied in this thesis is a turn of the general subject area for the creation and promotion of information web resources. In a more detailed consideration, this topic touches on the methods of building and promoting online stores. Many foreign and national articles have been devoted to this problem and a large number of methods have been proposed that are indirectly or directly related to the topic under study.

A set of methods for promoting an online store at the maintenance stage were considered by Shchetnina U.V., Lan U.O. and Ryndina S.V. [1]. In this paper, general methods of improving the search capabilities of an online store, conditioned in practice, were given.

In the work of Grigoriev K.T., Shestukhin A.V.. and Pushchin M.N. [2] A simulation model is being developed to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of a personalized recommendation system for information management systems, made on the example of an online store model. Also, the methods of search engine optimization of the content of the website of the online store were considered in the work of Semakhin A.M. and Kozhevnikov S.A. [3]

Pulatov U.G. [4] considered in detail the problem of collecting information about goods from online store sites, and also showed solutions with a detailed description of the regular expression toolkit.

The study of the effectiveness of the structure of the online store regarding user behavior was presented in detail in the work of Lagerev D.G., Savostin I.A., Gerasimchuk V.U. and Polyakovaй M.S. [5]

Among the foreign sources , the work should be highlighted T. Christophersen and U. Konradt [6], where the principles of the relationship between the structure of the online store and its content with the convenience of its use were described in detail. Also, a detailed analysis of the segmentation of online consumers of online stores was given in the study of C.W. Phang [7].

Among the works of the masters of DonNTU there are also topics aimed at researching problems and finding methods for building and developing online stores.

One of these is the work of Pavlenko A.I. [8], which examines the prerequisites for creating an online store, the principles of its functioning, as well as the features of its design. Also, the article by Zaruba K.U. and Koshachkina A.I. [9] presents an analysis of the activities of online stores, which was compared with the market analysis.

4. Description of the online store data optimization method

Due to the rapid pace of technology development, most human relationships are reaching a new level. This process also affected trade relations, ranging from simple purchases that do not differ from going to the store, ending with large financial transactions. Thus, the phenomenon of electronic commerce appears in everyday life.

E-commerce is an electronic system that allows the buyer to communicate with the seller using a computer. The buyer can also choose a product from the available catalogs, i.e. without communicating with the seller. E-commerce is carried out through virtual stores, also called «Online stores»[10].

Virtual (from Lat. virtualis - possible, i.e. such as can or should appear under certain conditions) an enterprise is a community of geographically separated employees who exchange the products of their labor and communicate exclusively by electronic means of communication, with minimal or completely absent personal contact[10].

A virtual store, like a regular store, has a trading floor. The server acts as a trading floor. Server (from the English serve - to serve) - a representative of an economic entity (firm, enterprise, etc.) on the Internet [10].

Online commerce has become an integral part of the economy of any state. If a few years ago people were wary of buying goods over the Internet, now it is difficult to find a person who would not use an online store at least once. The indicators of the number of operations in this area are growing incredibly fast, and it is having more and more impact on the global economy [11].

Sales volume of online stores in the world

Figure 1 – Sales volume of online stores in the world

The main problem of online store support is proper management of the list of products and services provided. Given that the main engine of demand is the consumer, it can be concluded that the user is the determining figure in the formation of the list of goods. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to take into account the preference of buyers by collecting user information.

There are many methods of collecting and analyzing customer information to build a user representation model. The data can be not only the user's personal data, but also information about his sessions. This information will allow you to determine the behavioral characteristics of the user and his needs.

The information obtained will allow you to determine the structure of both the page of the product itself and the online store as a whole. This is necessary to increase sales, optimize information content and increase the final conversion to purchase. After all, on average, only 1.94 percent of visits to e-commerce sites turn into a purchase [12].

Average conversion per purchase

Figure 2 – Average conversion per purchase
(animation: 7 frames, 5 repetition cycles, 50 kilobytes)

Determining the popularity of a particular product, in most cases they manage by counting unique users in a certain period of time, the total amount of time spent on the product page and the final result, as well as whether the product was added to the cart or not. This method will allow only a superficial assessment of the conformity of the goods to the needs of the buyer, however, if we consider these data more carefully, we can draw a more accurate conclusion and develop a scheme to increase the popularity of the goods.

This technique involves an accurate analysis of the user's session time spent on specific actions on the card of a certain product. The page of each product of most online stores is conditionally divided into the following functional blocks: product name, product images, short description, detailed description and price. At the stage of viewing any of the above blocks, the user can decide in favor of buying the product or close the page and continue the search.

Taking into account the time spent on the product card and breaking it down depending on the required amount to view each block, we can conclude at what stage the user decided to make a purchase or close the page. This information will help to accurately identify the disadvantages and advantages of each card, depending on the total number of purchases at each stage.

Depending on the information received and the work done to change the product data, depending on the result of the study, there is a high chance of increasing sales and improving the search for the necessary product.

This solution will also reduce the likelihood that the user will simply drop the basket while making purchases due to the poor location of the goods and their descriptions. This phenomenon is quite common and is one of the main problems of e-commerce, because about 69.57% of shopping baskets are abandoned [12].

Percentage of abandoned carts

Figure 3 – Percentage of abandoned carts
(animation: 7 frames, 5 repetition cycles, 58 kilobytes)

In the features of the data obtained by the study, it is necessary to take into account the complexity in calculating the time required to view each functional block. This complexity lies in the number of graphic and textual materials of each block. Therefore, to begin with, it is necessary to conduct a study aimed at identifying the necessary amount of time for the user to view the image and perceive the technical text.

There is an alternative solution to this problem. With the correct division of functional blocks on the product card, it is possible to clearly identify which processing the user is currently in. This distribution is set by correctly positioning the content on the page or providing access to some information through certain actions, such as clicking on a button, expanding a list, etc.

The developed method can also be used to compile a general characteristic of a certain category and identify the most important criteria when building a product card of this category. Before making a purchase, in most cases the user analyzes several products of the same category and makes a choice in favor of the one that he considers more profitable. Calculating the time that the user spent comparing different blocks of products of the same category, it is possible to determine the most optimal content of each of them and take into account when adding new ones.

Conclusion

The considered method, based on determining the user's preferences, taking into account the time of his session, makes it possible to significantly simplify the task of modeling the structure of an online store and its individual pages. Also, this method sets the rules for the ergonomic arrangement of blocks and quantitative characteristics of the input information.

In the provided material, the main directions of development and the problems of the online store as a web resource as a whole were considered, and the basic principles of the approach to taking information about the user's session for future research were identified. The main ways of comparing the results of individual and general variants of the user's stay on the site were also considered, and the features that need to be taken into account when preparing the final comparison results were also indicated.

In a further study, it is planned to conduct a general analogy of the application of this method in order to identify a common model that can be used at the stage of creating an online store. It is also planned to conduct a practical application of the method on a specific example in order to fix its effectiveness.

This master's work is not completed yet. Final completion: June 2022. The full text of the work and materials on the topic can be obtained from the author or his head after this date.

References

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