1- Introduction
2- Literature Review
3- Virtual Emotional Intelligence in E-Commerce
4- Algorithm
5- A Case Study
6- Discussion and Conclusions
References
Introduction
In the current information society, electronic commerce (ecommerce) is evolving at unimaginable speed. Te expansion of e-commerce has provided extensive opportunities for small and medium size enterprises (SME), particularly retail frms, and a large number of retail network frms have emerged. With these opportunities come challenges. For example, many people started their small online network businesses in the TAOBAO Network, a famous Chinese C2C e-commerce company. Because there are a large number of network frms, customers can choose their optimal commodities by comparing prices, brands, or other factors, and product and sale information can be transferred easily to potential buyers because of the convenient network environment. In this almost-complete information market, the competition is ferce among small retail network frms. Some frms may receive substantial attention, but others could be ignored by customers. Te Matthew efect is evident, and it is not easy for small network retailers to survive. Tus, some strategies and methods are crucial in the new retail market. A low-cost strategy may not be an efective weapon because the price of commodities is transparent, and proft margins are too small for frms to reduce prices. A high-quality strategy may also not be a determinative factor because many commodities exist in the market and the quality gap is small. Retail network frms want to enhance the favorable impression that customers have of their businesses to encourage purchases and attract potential buyers. For this purpose, small frms have adopted various marketing gimmicks to increase customer satisfaction. For example, small gifs ofen accompany sales; the bundling strategy that ofers lower overall prices is adopted; substantial discounts are advertised; postage is reduced according to customers’ requirements; and popular network language is used to communicate with customers. All of these examples can be considered emotional tactics. When information asymmetry is not as obvious in the network environment as it is in the traditional realistic market, there are too many similar commodities to choose from, and it is necessary to please customers using emotional tactics. Terefore, the emotional intelligence of small and medium retail network frms plays an important role in e-commerce. Tis paper contributes to the research on network emotional intelligence.