A feedback control approach to maintain consumer information load in online shopping environments

The heterogeneity of e-commerce users requires online shopping environments to advance from a simple framework to one that is adaptive. This need results from the negative consequences of user frustration due to information load. We used a feedback control theory based approach to address the online consumer information overload issue in an adaptive manner. To demonstrate the efficacy of this feedback control approach, a design science method evaluated the feedback controller. The main effect was that the dynamic adaptivity did not have to rely on summarizing data for inference to the individual. The proposed feedback control design is therefore a robust and viable option for organizations to incorporate into their online shopping environments to accommodate user variation of information load for e-commerce adaptivity. 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.