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Simply by looking at a product will build a user profile. It's not about making this sale, but maybe about the next 100 sales.

by alttab 9y ago

fusiongyro 9y ago
Sure, but money isn't quantum physics. If he doesn't spend any money on Amazon or any other online retailer, how are they monetizing his time on the site?
- corobo 9y ago
  They see he likes products x y and z. Another 20 customers like products x and y, so nudge them towards buying product z
  - fusiongyro 9y ago
    No, what they see is that he looked at x, y and z and didn't buy anything. Why would it nudge the next guy towards z? "Other people who did not convert also did not convert after seeing THIS!"?
    - corobo 9y ago
      Ok so my example was obviously too simplified Users a b and c all at some point search for information on products x y and z. Many users, many products. User d comes along and has previously looked at product z and is now searching for product y. It's now worth putting product x in the "you may also be interested in" segment. It might land a sale, it might not. That data can then be added to the pool to decide if they should show product x to people who search similar products Why bother at all if they didn't purchase? You don't know why they didn't purchase. Maybe they were shopping around, maybe they were price matching, maybe they just don't have the cash right now. It's machine learning, not if statements.
      - fusiongyro 9y ago
        Adding a bunch of non-converting user behavior to your machine learning model won't help you or anyone else make a single sale. Best Buy got the sale. They got all the meaningful analytics along with it. All you got from this person is that they looked at two products. Maybe those two products are related, but maybe they aren't. Adding this to your model is just adding noise to the "people who liked this also liked" references, and Amazon surely already has better qualified data for that (i.e. actual conversions).

Simply by looking at a product will build a user profile. It's not about making this sale, but maybe about the next 100 sales.

by alttab 9y ago

Simply by looking at a product will build a user profile. It's not about making this sale, but maybe about the next 100 sales.

fusiongyro 9y ago

Sure, but money isn't quantum physics. If he doesn't spend any money on Amazon or any other online retailer, how are they monetizing his time on the site?

corobo 9y ago
They see he likes products x y and z. Another 20 customers like products x and y, so nudge them towards buying product z
- fusiongyro 9y ago
  No, what they see is that he looked at x, y and z and didn't buy anything. Why would it nudge the next guy towards z? "Other people who did not convert also did not convert after seeing THIS!"?
  - corobo 9y ago
    Ok so my example was obviously too simplified Users a b and c all at some point search for information on products x y and z. Many users, many products. User d comes along and has previously looked at product z and is now searching for product y. It's now worth putting product x in the "you may also be interested in" segment. It might land a sale, it might not. That data can then be added to the pool to decide if they should show product x to people who search similar products Why bother at all if they didn't purchase? You don't know why they didn't purchase. Maybe they were shopping around, maybe they were price matching, maybe they just don't have the cash right now. It's machine learning, not if statements.
    - fusiongyro 9y ago
      Adding a bunch of non-converting user behavior to your machine learning model won't help you or anyone else make a single sale. Best Buy got the sale. They got all the meaningful analytics along with it. All you got from this person is that they looked at two products. Maybe those two products are related, but maybe they aren't. Adding this to your model is just adding noise to the "people who liked this also liked" references, and Amazon surely already has better qualified data for that (i.e. actual conversions).