Patent ID: 7346559
Filing Date: 2008-03-18
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method of providing a shopping proposal that enhances a merchant's existing database system, comprising: analyzing a catalog of items in the existing database system based on a set of predefined rules that correlate the items under certain conditions, to determine which of the items in the catalog are related to other items in the catalog, and to define a new set of relations between the catalog items; wherein each rule comprises an evidence and a conclusion, and leads to new associations between the catalog items; applying the new set of relations to the existing database system to update the database system by providing the new associations of the items in the database system, applying the new set of relations includes associating terminology of a retailer independent ruleset with schema terminology of a retailer database system by mapping terms from the retailer independent ruleset to terms in the retailer database system and serializing the mapped list into machine readable form; generating a shopping advisor knowledge database that comprises the new associations for each item of the existing database system; and offering automated, dynamic, and personalized shopping advice to the shopper based on a shopper query, by retrieving the new associations in the shopping advisor knowledge database, and items from the existing database system that have been related by the new associations.