How do recommender systems affect sales diversity? A cross-category investigation via randomized field experiment
Randomised field experiment on a major North American retailer's website, 82,290 products and 1,138,238 users; collaborative filtering associated with lower aggregate sales diversity than no recommendations; individual diversity rises; niche items gain in absolute terms but lose share. Bottom 80 per cent of products at 37 per cent of sales in the control group against 27 per cent with a recommender, from Carnegie Mellon University's news release of November 2019 (read).
Randomised field experiment on a major North American retailer's website, 82,290 products and 1,138,238 users; collaborative filtering associated with lower aggregate sales diversity than no recommendations; individual diversity rises; niche items gain in absolute terms but lose share. Bottom 80 per cent of products at 37 per cent of sales in the control group against 27 per cent with a recommender, from Carnegie Mellon University's news release of November 2019 (read).
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-12.
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Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
doi:10.1287/isre.2018.0800. Abstract read: randomised field experiment on a major North American retailer's website, 82,290 products and 1,138,238 users; collaborative filtering associated with lower aggregate sales diversity than no recommendations; individual diversity rises; niche items gain in absolute terms but lose share. Bottom 80 per cent of products at 37 per cent of sales in the control group against 27 per cent with a recommender, from Carnegie Mellon University's news release of November 2019 (read).