Complementary Product Content Selection for Online Merchants
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Solution Overview
Problem
In online advertising, there is a challenge in providing consumers with opportunities to purchase complementary products or services without jeopardizing the primary merchant's sales, while also allowing secondary merchants to market these products in a way that benefits both parties.
Innovation Solution
The system generates and provides complementary product content by accepting a primary merchant's document, determining relevant secondary products from different merchants based on various scoring factors, and controlling the serving of content to ensure it does not jeopardize the primary merchant's sales, allowing secondary merchants to market these products in an online advertising network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If secondary merchants are allowed to market complementary products on the primary merchant's platform, then consumers gain access to more product options and secondary merchants gain marketing opportunities, but the primary merchant's sales may be jeopardized due to potential competition
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different quality standards to different products by evaluating each complementary product's competitiveness locally. Products that are highly competitive with the primary merchant's offerings are excluded, while non-competitive complementary products are allowed to be displayed. This local evaluation approach allows the platform to maintain product diversity while protecting the primary merchant's core sales.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary evaluation mechanism that assesses the competitiveness of complementary products before allowing them to be displayed. This intermediary layer filters out products that would directly compete with the primary merchant while permitting genuinely complementary products, thus mediating between consumer needs for variety and the primary merchant's need for sales protection.
2Productivity
If the system provides detailed product information and recommendations to consumers, then user engagement and purchase conversion increase, but the system complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-evaluating and categorizing products as competitive or non-competitive before the actual purchase decision process. By pre-computing competitiveness assessments and organizing complementary products in advance, the system reduces the processing burden during real-time consumer interactions while still providing detailed, personalized recommendations that drive conversions.
Data Source
AI summary
When purchasing a product or service from an online merchant (“first merchant”), e-commerce consumers might want to purchase a complementary product and/or service not offered by the first merchant. Such consumers are provided with an opportunity to purchase or otherwise learn about such complementary products and/or services, and secondary merchants are provided with the opportunity to sell or market such complimentary products and/or services in a way that would not jeopardize the first merchant's sale, and indeed, in a way that might provide a benefit to the first merchant.