Alternative items for purchase in a virtual store

摘要

A merchant in a virtual retail store uses a computer-implemented technique to communicate a message to a customer who has selected multiple items for purchase. On establishing an online shopping session with the customer, the merchant's system maintains a list of the items that the customer has selected for purchase during the session. The system provides information about these items to an analytical program, which in turn identifies at least one alternative item that the customer might want to buy. The system then prepares a message that includes information about the alternative item and, before the online shopping session has ended, delivers the message to the customer.