They thus constitute an alternative to conventional channels, such as physical retailing. Electronic channels enable the reduction of transaction costs and provide enhanced functionality, thereby increasing the channel value proposition. Main features of electronic channels are personalization, interactivity, and virtualness. Interactivity enables a richer bilateral communication between customers, intermediaries and vendors. Virtualness denotes the lack of physical presence.
Customers can choose place and time to access electronic channels.
XML serves as language to semantically structure data of all types. XML thus also enables the electronic exchange of business and other types of information. Language Recommender Systems Recommender systems learn from customers and then recommend products that a particular customer may find valuable. They are now evolving into a standard tool used by e-commerce sites to suggest products to their customers. Recommender systems create characteristic customer profiles and then compare items with these profiles to identify the items that are likely to match customer preferences.