Web content personalization and task complexity in e-commerce decision making

Personalization is an increasingly important ingredient of Web applications. Personalization techniques and mechanisms can be used to tailor information services to personal needs of users. Increasing user performance is the goal of personalization. It is motivated by the recognition that a user has needs, and meeting these needs successfully is likely to lead to a satisfying relationship and re-use of the Web services offered. In e-commerce, Web personalization aims to identify and understand customers online, predict their buying patterns, identify what they want or need, and deliver appropriate products/services in personalized formats directly to them. Thus, personalization can create an important source of competitive advantage by providing relevant information to simplify customers' decision processes. Beyond the common goal, however, there is a large degree of variety and diversity in how personalization can be achieved. In this research, we carried out an experimental study to examine how task complexity and levels of Web content personalization influence user's decision quality, decision satisfaction, and decision switching.