Impresssing, Placing and Pleasing-Exploring expert recommendation services in geographical bound retailing

Abstract

WineGuide is a geographical bound recommendation service for wine and food adapted to mobile phones. The service addresses well-known problems within the area of shopping, by: (1) offering expert recommendations; (2) notifying the user where products are available; (3) distributing information in appropriate situations; (4) letting the user search for products. WineGuide is part of a greater effort to investigate the novel area of geographical bound retailing in conjunction with expert recommendations. The research was accomplished through the research approach used by Mobile Informatics at the Viktoria Institute. Initially an observational feasibility study was carried out to test the WineGuide context, followed by a design and development phase. Finally, the service was evaluated at the Swedish Rally and at two IT-companies. The findings of the study showed two different approaches on how expert recommendation services affect geographical bound eCommerce in retailing. The position adapted approach, which will affect the logistics with new business conspiracies and distribution models to be able to compete. The Individual adapted, which will emphasise a large set of participating retailers, which must continually update the offers of the services to make them attractive. The research also proved that the full potential of the WineGuide service could only be established through an eCommerce transaction implementation. The mobile phone gets the role of a remote controller, where products are ordered and home delivered through a single press on the bottom. This according to the position adapted approach.