Patent ID: 7395247

Claim:
An item recycling promotion method executed by a server computer, which is connected to a client computer used by a first customer via a network, the method comprising: registering genres with items ranked within each of the genres; correlating customer names with item names, purchase information including purchase prices, and electronic mail addresses of customers who purchased at least one of the items; correlating the item names with ranks of the items in the genres; calculating current buying prices of items based on the purchase prices, the genres of the items and the ranks of the items in the genres; retrieving a first item name of a first item which is correlated with a first customer name belonging to the first customer and purchase information; selecting a first genre in which the first customer most frequently purchased according to purchase information correlated with the first customer name; selecting a second item name of a second item which is most highly ranked in the first genre; sending an electronic mail, including the calculated current buying price of the first item and the first item name, and the calculated current buying price of the second item and the second item name, to the electronic mail address of the first customer, when the second item name in the purchase information correlated with the first customer is different than the first item name; and sending an electronic mail, including the calculated current buying price of the first item and the first item name, but excluding the calculated current buying price of the second item and the second item name, to the electronic mail address of the first customer, when the second item name in the purchase information correlated with the first customer is the same as the first item name.