Accelerating User Profiling in E-Commerce Using Conditional GAN Networks for Synthetic Data Generation

This paper presents the findings of a study on the profiling of online store users in terms of their likelihood of making a purchase. It also considers the possibility of implementing this solution in the short term. The paper describes the process of developing a profiling model based on data derived from monitoring user behaviour on a website. During the customer’s subsequent visits, information is collected to identify the user, record their behaviour on the page and the fact that they made a purchase. The model requires a substantial amount of training data, primarily related to the purchase of products. This represents a small percentage of total website traffic and requires a considerable amount of time to monitor user behaviour. Therefore, we investigated the possibility of using the Conditional Generative Adversarial Network (CGAN) to generate synthetic data for training the profiling model. The application of GAN would facilitate a more expedient implementation of this model on an online store website. The findings of this study may also prove beneficial to webshop owners and managers, enabling them to gain a deeper insight into their customers and align their price offers or discounts with the profile of a particular user.