T here are two major problems for firms selling over the Internet.
The first is that systems do not tell companies how people made the choices they did, or more importantly why. The second is that guiding buyers through the options when buying complex products can require serious back-end processing power for each transaction. Firms can either build a comprehensive solution using complex programs helped by an artificial intelligence system at the back end, or they can use a scaled-down system that guides buyers through product choices without too much power being taken up on the corporate machines. US firms OnLink and Brightware each represent one end of this spectrum. Both entered the UK market last month.