Patent ID: 7814029

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for estimating consumer satisfaction in a computer-implemented system, the method comprising: retrieving subjective data representing a subjective indication of at least one consumer's satisfaction with a first item; retrieving objective data related to the first item that has a first portion representing an objective indication of transaction data associated with transactions with a merchant for the first item and that has a second portion representing interactions by prospective customers with one or more Web pages from the merchant that include information related to the first item, the transactions with the merchant including sales of the first item by the merchant to multiple consumers and the first portion of the retrieved objective data being based at least in part on a quantity of the sales of the first item by the merchant; automatically determining an index for the first item as a function of both the subjective data and the objective data, the index estimating overall consumer satisfaction with the first item, the automatic determining being performed by one or more programmed computer systems of a merchant; providing information for display to one or more consumers other than the multiple consumers that includes the determined index for the first item, the providing of the information being performed by the one or more programmed computer systems of the merchant to facilitate a decision by the one or more consumers regarding whether to purchase the first item from the merchant; and in response to the providing of the information about the determined index, receiving instructions from a first of the one or more consumers to purchase the first item, and facilitating the purchase of the first item from the merchant for the first consumer.