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Purpose – This study aims to introduce an application of web‐based data mining that integrates online data collection and data mining in selling strategies for online auctions. This study seeks to illustrate the process of spider online data collection from eBay and the application of the classification and regression tree (CART) in constructing effective selling strategies. Design/methodology/approach – After developing a prototype of web‐based data mining, the four steps of spider online data collection and CART data mining are shown. A business dataset from eBay is collected, and the application to derive effective selling strategies for online auctions is used. Findings – In the web‐based data‐mining application the spiders can effectively and efficiently collect online auction data from the internet, and the CART model provides sellers with effective selling strategies. By using expected auction prices with the classification and regression trees, sellers can integrate their two primary goals, i.e. auction success and anticipated prices, in their selling strategies for online auctions. Practical implications – This study provides sellers with a useful tool to construct effective selling strategies by taking advantage of web‐based data mining. These effective selling strategies will help improve their online auction performance. Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature by providing an innovative tool for collecting online data and for constructing effective selling strategies, which are important for the growth of electronic marketplaces.

The purpose of this guest editorial is to introduce the papers in this special issue.

A brief introduction about the issue of web‐mining applications in e‐commerce and e‐services is provided, along with a summary of the main contributions of the papers that are included in the special issue.

The value of web‐mining techniques can be enhanced through applying them to real environments such as e‐commerce and e‐services. The research fields of web mining, e‐commerce and e‐services can also be expanded.

An overview of the special issue and related research is provided in this paper.

Recent decade has witnessed exponential growth in e-commerce segment, leading to emergence of various online selling platforms catering to diverse product requirements of customers. Such a development has provided impetus to both existing businesses and newly established ventures to make available their offerings through online selling platforms with a view to improve the reach of their products. This study is an attempt to identify the experience of registered vendors with the online marketplaces. It aims to develop and validate a scale to measure vendor's experience with e-commerce platforms.

As a part of the scale development process, relevant literature sources were scanned to spot the precise knowledge gap and to put in place a sound theoretical background for the study. Thereafter, a scientific approach was adopted for scale creation. First, the scale items were identified through interviews of vendors registered with major online selling platforms and other academic experts pertaining to the marketing domain. Subsequently, major dimensions of seller experience were identified through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) applied on data collected from active vendors by the means of a structured survey instrument. The final data set was subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in a bid to validate the scale.

The study’s outcomes reveal that seller experience in an online marketplace can be best captured by a multidimensional scale characterized by six major dimensions. These are “Registration,”; “Product Listing”; “Pricing Autonomy”; “Ease of Pick-up and Delivery”; “Credit of Receivables” and “Vendor Assistance.” A proper emphasis to continually improve upon these dimensions by the e-commerce platforms is expected to enhance the utility and overall experience of vendors from such platforms. Existence of a mutually beneficial relationship between vendors and online marketplaces will help marketplaces to mitigate concerns like nonfulfillment of orders and dispatch of substandard products.

Sustainable long-term relations between vendors and online marketplaces hold the key for such marketplaces to render error-free and delightful service on each individual order received. Seller experience of registering and operating on such e-marketplaces inspite of playing a defining role in vendor–marketplace relations has received scant attention of researchers, both in academia and industry till date. The present research is a seminal attempt to address this gap in marketing literature and offer additional know-how.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a nanodiamond-particle-loaded food-grade lubricating oil, a nanolubricant, that can be used over a broad range of loads in factories (low load applications like conveyor systems and high load applications like heavy machinery).

Tribological performance of the nanolubricant was studied at both load levels. A typical factory-sized conveyor belt used for beverage packaging (aluminium cans, glass and PET bottles) was employed for the low load range. Coefficients of friction and wear scars were measured and the lubricating performance was quantified. A four-ball tester was used to characterise the performance of the nanolubricant as per ASTM D2783/D4172. A comparison between the nanolubricant and baseline oils was carried out.

Results show an overall decrease in the coefficients of friction and wear scars for all packages at low pressures when the nanolubricant is used. They also show a better friction-reduction performance in the high load regimes. The results indicate that the nanolubricant is versatile in both ranges of loading.

The current protocols for lubrication in the food and drink factories involve the use of water-based detergents for the conveyor lines and industry-grade oils for the machinery. The use of a single and versatile lubricant for both ranges of loads may have a positive impact on the sustainability and environmental performance of the sector.

Beverage processing and packing factories need their mechanised conveyor systems suitably lubricated to avoid excessive friction between the containers and the load-bearing surface of the conveyors (e.g. belts or chains). Other areas of the conveying systems, such as motors, gears, rollers and bearings, also need suitable lubrication to prevent failure and lengthen their operating life. There is a myriad of lubricants and lubricating solutions for each of these areas independently, but there is no commercial lubricating fluid that could be used on both successfully.