| 摘要 |
The invention relates to automated methods for creating offers for items to a customer. According to the invention, an automated system queries an user interface of a customer's product catalog database. The user interface can be for example a www (world wide web) server of the customer's internet site, which allows searching for products available at the customer's service. The system queries each item in a set of items, and examines the resulting output from the user interface. Internet commerce sites typically allow a user to enter a query for a product, and then reply with a response document detailing the results of the query, i.e. if the queried product was found, and if any such products are presently available and possibly also in how large numbers. The system receives the response document after each query, and examines the response document to find out, if the response indicates that the customer has the queried product available or not. If the customer has the product available, the system queries for the next item in the set of items, and if not, the item is included in the offer document. The resulting offer document consequently lists only such items, which the customer does not have. If the response document indicates the number of products available, the system can include the queried item in the offer document, if the number is below a predefined threshold. This allows the offer document to list also those products, that are nearly finished. The set of items can be all products being marketed by the company of the salesperson, or a limited subset of the products chosen to suit the needs of the customer.
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