System and method of generating a recommendation of a product or service based on inferring a demographic characteristic of a customer

1. A computer-implemented method for generating a recommendation for a product or service to a customer, comprising:

determining one or more of a first name, a last name, or a zip code of the customer in response to a customer interaction with a graphical user interface associated with a product or service recommendation tool, wherein the product or service recommendation tool is associated with a computer application running on a computing device comprising a processor for executing instructions from a memory;

based at least in part on the determined data, determining by the processor a probability that the customer has a specific demographic characteristic, wherein the probability that the customer has a specific demographic characteristic is determined at least in part by accessing census data that provides information regarding an ethnicity or ethnic group of a person based on one or more of their first name, last name or zip code;

based at least in part on the determined probability, accessing a database by the processor and retrieving by the processor data regarding one or more products or services expected to be of interest to the customer; and

generating by the processor accessing the database a recommendation of one of the one or more products or services and presenting the recommendation to the customer via the graphical user interface associated with the product or service recommendation tool.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more of a first name, a last name, or a zip code is determined from a single transaction with the customer.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the single transaction is an electronic purchase of a product or service.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the single transaction is a registration for a loyalty group or marketing information.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the specific demographic characteristic is the customer's ethnicity or ethnic group.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the specific demographic characteristic is one or more of the customer's nationality, religion, level of highest education, or income range.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein accessing a database by the processor and retrieving by the processor data regarding one or more products or services expected to be of interest to the customer further comprises:

accessing the database by the processor and retrieving by the processor data for a plurality of purchase transactions, the retrieved data indicating a product or products purchased in each transaction and an expected value of one or more demographic characteristics associated with the purchaser who purchased the product or products in the transaction;

determining by the processor accessing the database an expected value of one of the one or more demographic characteristics of the purchaser, wherein the one of the one or more demographic characteristics is the same characteristic as has been determined for the customer;

determining by the processor accessing the database a measure of a correlation between the purchase of each of the products purchased by the purchaser and the expected value of the one of the one or more demographic characteristics; and

if the measure of the correlation is sufficient, then recommending by the processor accessing the database one or more of the products purchased by the purchaser to the customer via the graphical user interface associated with the product or service recommendation tool.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein generating by the processor accessing the database a recommendation of one of the one or more products or services and presenting the recommendation to the customer via the graphical user interface associated with the product or service recommendation tool is based at least in part on use of a collaborative filtering technique, mechanism, or process.

9. A multi-tenant data processing system, comprising:

one or more business related data processing applications installed in the system and accessible by a plurality of tenants of the multi-tenant data processing system;

a data storage element accessible by a plurality of tenants of the multi-tenant data processing system; and

a processor for executing a set of instructions from the data storage element, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions cause the processor to:

determine one or more of a first name, a last name, or a zip code of a customer in response to a customer interaction with a graphical user interface associated with a product or service recommendation tool, wherein the product or service recommendation tool is associated with a computer application running on a computing device comprising the processor;

based at least in part on the determined data, determine by the processor a probability that the customer has a specific demographic characteristic, wherein the probability that the customer has a specific demographic characteristic is determined at least in part by accessing census data that provides information regarding the ethnicity or ethnic group of a person based on one or more of their first name, last name or zip code;

based at least in part on the determined probability, access a database by the processor and retrieving by the processor data regarding one or more products or services expected to be of interest to the customer; and

generate by the processor accessing the database a recommendation of one of the one or more products or services and presenting the recommendation to the customer via the graphical user interface associated with the product or service recommendation tool.

10. The multi-tenant data processing system of claim 9 , wherein the business related data processing applications installed in the system include one or more of an enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) or eCommerce application.

11. The multi-tenant data processing system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more of a first name, a last name, or a zip code is determined from a single transaction with the customer.

12. The multi-tenant data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the single transaction is an electronic purchase of a product or service.

13. The multi-tenant data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the single transaction is a registration for a loyalty group or marketing information.

14. The multi-tenant data processing system of claim 9 , wherein the specific demographic characteristic is the customer's ethnicity or ethnic group.

15. The multi-tenant data processing system of claim 9 , wherein the specific demographic characteristic is one or more of the customer's nationality, religion, level of highest education, or income range.

16. An apparatus for generating a recommendation for a product or service to a customer, comprising:

an electronic data storage element; and

a processor for executing a set of instructions from the electronic data storage element, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions cause the apparatus processor to:

determine one or more of a first name, a last name, or a zip code of a customer based on a single electronic purchase transaction in response to a customer interaction with a graphical user interface associated with a product or service recommendation tool, wherein the product or service recommendation tool is associated with a computer application running on a computing device comprising the processor;

based at least in part on the determined data, determine by the processor a probability that the customer has a specific demographic characteristic, wherein the specific demographic characteristic is the customer's ethnicity or ethnic group, and further, wherein the probability that the customer has a specific demographic characteristic is determined at least in part by accessing by the processor census data that provides information regarding the ethnicity or ethnic group of a person based on one or more of their first name, last name or zip code;

based at least in part on the determined probability, access a database by the processor and retrieving data regarding one or more products or services expected to be of interest to the customer; and

generate by the processor accessing the database a recommendation of at least one of the one or more products or services and present the recommendation to the customer via the graphical user interface associated with the product or service recommendation tool, wherein generating the recommendation is based at least in part on use of a collaborative filtering technique, mechanism, or process.