International Business Machines Corporation

Richard C Cybul

Robert M Szabo

James J Toohey

A method for managing a frequent shopper program at a site providing both electronic commerce (e-commerce) shopping and in-store shopping, comprising the steps of: establishing a point of sale (POS) system, having a POS loyalty database and a POS purchase history database; establishing a list builder tool having an on-line shopping history database; establishing a query interface enabling communications between the POS system, the list builder tool and a network browser; updating the on-line shopping history database with information from the POS purchase history database through the query interface; updating the POS purchase history database with information from the on-line shopping history database through the query interface; and, determining a shopper's entitlement to a frequent shopper discount by accessing information from the updated POS purchase history database and the updated on-line shopping history database.

Method for managing a frequent shopper program at an e-commerce site and an in-store site

An electronic commerce site, comprising: a point of sale (POS) system, having a POS loyalty database and a POS purchase history database; a list builder tool having an on-line shopping history database; a query interface between the POS system and the list builder tool, the POS system accepting data from an on-line shopper received by the list builder tool and routed through the query interface; the list builder tool returning at least one historical shopping list from the on-line shopping history database to the network browser through the query interface responsive to the on-line shopper's request; and, the on-line shopping history database of the list builder tool being updated with information from the POS system transmitted through the query interface. Communications between the query interface and the list builder tool can be over one or more of the Internet, a wide area network and a local area network.

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Boca Raton, FL, United States of America

Richard C Cybul