Re: how does amazon.com implement its smart book suggestion depending on previous purchases by customers ?

This is a typical example of data mining. I'm not quite sure how Amazon.com performs this, but this is how I would handle this issue....

First, I'd copy the sales data into a datawarehouse. From there, I would use data mining tools to mine for specific criteria. In this case, I'd want to know that if people bought book X, what other books are they likely to buy? Once I have mined that information, I'd store the results in a table in the online database. (this can all be done in batch mode) That way, I don't have to constantly mine the information. And looking it up will be pretty quick!

HTH,
Brian

kilidire wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I am sure you've all been to amazon and done some purchases there. I
> would like to know if anyone knows how they do this. Once you have
> purchased a book, they have a smart feature which tells about other
> books which might interest you based on purchasing patterns of other
> customers. Amazon.com is not the only site doing that, there are more
> and more sites implementing it. Does anyone know how they implemet
> that kind of feature ? Can it only be applied to books or to any other
> product ? Thanks all.
>
> I'm thinking that they must query the purchases table to retrieve
> this info (which is to sugesst 3-4 similar books based on other
> customers purchase patterns) , but it will be a complex and intensive
> query and I don't think this is done in real time. Maybe they use some
> kind of procedure and run in batch mode and save the results ( 3-to 4
> books) in a different table that is linked to the product table. Any
> ideas ? Thanks.
Received on Mon Jul 16 2001 - 08:05:31 CDT