Patent ID: 8260670

Claim:
A method of operating a shopping Web site, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, by a processor of a Web server computer, an access attempt from a customer device used by a customer, the access attempt including a provision of a customer identifier associated with the customer; retrieving, based on the identifier, a historical transaction amount representing monetary amounts spent in the past on previous purchases, thereby determining a historical transaction amount associated with the customer; responding to the access attempt by sending to the customer device display data, the display data representing information to be displayed on a monitor component of the customer device, the information to be displayed on the monitor component including: (a) a plurality of product entries, each of the product entries including (i) product information indicative of a product available for sale via the Web site and (ii) pricing information indicative of a plurality of prices applicable to the product indicated by the product information of the respective product entry, each of the prices corresponding to a respective pricing tier, wherein each pricing tier corresponds to a respective historical transaction amount representing a respective monetary amount spent in the past to qualify for the pricing tier and wherein a given pricing tier is not representative of a particular percentage discount off a non-discounted price for the particular product purchased under the given pricing tier; and (b) a monetary amount that indicates to the customer an additional amount to be spent, the additional amount to be spent to be incorporated into the historical transaction amount associated with the customer, to qualify the customer for one of the respective pricing tiers on a future purchase; determining, by the processor, at least one product the customer desires to purchase in a current transaction; applying, by the processor, one of the plurality of prices applicable to the product by selecting the price corresponding to the pricing tier the customer currently qualifies for, based on the historical transaction amount associated with the customer; after completing the current transaction, updating the historical transaction amount associated with the customer by incorporating into it an amount based on a total of the current transaction, thereby determining an updated historical transaction amount; and storing the updated historical transaction amount in association with the customer.