Patent ID: 8364555

Claim:
A method, comprising the steps of: maintaining, by a computer system including a processor and a memory, a data representation of a plurality of items offered online by a web merchant and a purchase history associated with the items and the web merchant for a plurality of users; maintaining, by the computer system, a data representation of a plurality of auctions in an online auction system and a bidding history associated with the auctions and the online auction system for the users; determining, by the computer system, one of the items in response to determining, based at least in part on the purchase history and the bidding history, that a number of the users who have bid in a selected one of the auctions and have also purchased the one of the items meets a minimum threshold; and determining, by the computer system, a set of the users, based at least in part on the purchase history and the bidding history, who have bid in the selected one of the auctions and have not purchased the one of the items that has been determined.