Tailoring the interaction with users in Web stores

We describe the user modeling and personalization techniques adopted in SET A, a prototype toolkit for the construction of adaptive Web stores which cu stomize the interaction with users. The Web stores created using SETA sugge st the items best fitting the customers' needs and adapt the layout and the description of the store catalog to their preferences and expertise. SETA uses stereotypical information to handle the user models and applies p ersonalization rules to dynamically generate the hypertextual pages present ing products. The system adapts the graphical aspect, length and terminolog y used in the descriptions to parameters like the user's receptivity, exper tise and interests. Moreover, it maintains a model associated with each per son the goods are selected for; in this way, multiple criteria can be appli ed for tailoring the selection of items to the preferences of their benefic iaries.