System and method for selectively providing user determined offers
A system and method for creating a watchlist of products relating to any type of item/service/event for which any type of purchase may be made by a user. The system permits a user to access a website and identify items of the website that are of interest and other users (or friends) and associate one or more users with one or more items in the watchlist. The system stores the identified items and friends in a watchlist for later retrieval, review, transmission or action by the user. The system may periodically inform the user of any changes to the items of interest or any changes in purchases made by the users friends to items in the watchlist. Items may alternatively be added from multiple websites, multiple emails or automatically by the system.
1. A computer system that utilizes Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to facilitate electronic commerce (e-commerce), the system comprising:
a network interface that is communicatively coupled to a vendor website via a network;
a memory that stores information including:
user specific information including at least an email address,
financial information associated with the user,
shipping address information of the user,
billing address information of the user and
a watchlist including at least two items selected by the user, each item comprising associated information;
a processor communicatively coupled to the network interface and the memory, wherein the processor:
determines a plurality of email addresses associated with the user,
sends, using the network interface, at least one web crawler to update the associated information;
automatically searches websites, using the network interface, for items similar to the at least two items,
automatically adds the similar items to the watchlist up to a user set limit;
automatically sends, using the network interface, a SMTP email message including a mailto link to the email address of the user upon changes in the watchlist based on the associated information that is updated,
determines that one of said at least two items were purchased by at least one person associated with one of said plurality of email addresses,
automatically sends a second SMTP email to the user when one of the at least two items were purchased by at least one person associated with one of said plurality of email addresses, and
receives, using the network interface, updated information from a widget on vendor website to update the watchlist.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the watchlist is formed based on a particular item selected by the user via a user interface.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least two items selected by the user are selected via an email sent to the user.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein items added to the watchlist are added from a single website.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein items added to the watchlist are added from multiple websites.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein items are added to the watchlist by the processor.