The biggest problem I find with most corporate use of databases, however, isn't in recognizing them or even building them. It's in querying them, and using the results properly. Even the best of us can always learn how to get more from our databases. The ad you show should be based, not just on your customer and ad database, but on where the customer is on your site, she says. It is also a mistake to base your page delivery solely on past purchases.
Purchase history is a low level of personalization.
Here's another important point. Web publishing and site analysis are now the same thing. To an extent these ideas are self-serving. Macromedia has put clickstream analysis, page creation and personalization together on one platform. But this is where you need to be heading, no matter where you buy your software.