SurfShop: combing a product ontology with topic model results for online window-shopping

At present, online shopping is typically a search-oriented activity where a user gains access to products which best match their query. Instead, we propose a surf-oriented online shopping paradigm, which links associated products allowing users to ”wander around” the online store and enjoy browsing a variety of items. As an initial step in creating this experience, we constructed a prototype of an online shopping interface which combines product ontology information with topic model results to allow users to explore items from the food and kitchen domain. As a novel task for topic model application, we also discuss possible approaches to the task of selecting the best product categories to illustrate the hidden topics discovered for our product domain.