Method and apparatus for facilitating purchase agreements with a retailer

A method for applying a purchase agreement to a product wherein a customer purchases each unit of the product defined by the purchase agreement via a retailer website, comprising:

• receiving a customer identifier that identifies a customer logged on to the retailer's website;
• receiving a product identifier of a product the customer is intending to purchase, wherein the customer has placed a representation of the product into a virtual shopping cart;
• determining whether the customer has previously committed to a purchase agreement to the product;
• determining a required frequency for purchasing the product defined by the subscription, wherein the required frequency comprises a maximum time period between purchases of the product by the customer;
• determining a time of a previous purchase of the product by the customer;
• determining a current time;
• calculating whether a time period between the time of the previous purchase and the current time is not greater than the maximum time period between purchases;
• determining an end time of the purchase agreement;
• calculating whether the current time is past the end time;
• adjusting a purchase total of the products currently in the customer's virtual shopping cart based on whether the customer has previously agreed to a purchase agreement to the product, if the time period between the time of the previous purchase and the current time is not greater than the maximum time period between purchases and the current time is not past the end time.

A method, comprising:

• identifying a customer of a retailer;
• selecting a product to be the subject of a purchase agreement;
• determining revenue anticipated due to the customer's patronization of the retailer in accordance with the purchase agreement;
• setting at least one term of the purchase agreement based on the revenue anticipated.

A method, comprising:

• identifying a customer;
• selecting a product to be the subject of a purchase agreement, wherein the purchase agreement defines a minimum number of units of the product to be purchased, a maximum amount of time within which the minimum number of units of the product are to be purchased, and a minimum number of transactions within which the minimum number of units of the product are to be purchased;
• determining the customer's past purchases of the product;
• calculating an amount the customer would have saved if the customer had been committed to the purchase agreement at the time of the past purchases;
• outputting an offer for the purchase agreement to the customer, wherein the offer includes an indication of the amount the customer would have saved.

A method comprising:

• presenting a customer with representations a plurality of products available for purchase;
• determining that the customer has indicated an intention to purchase a unit of a product by placing an indication of the unit of the product in a virtual shopping cart;
• determining whether the customer has previously committed to a purchase agreement for the product;
• determining whether a current purchase of the product qualifies for a purchase agreement price defined by the purchase agreement;
• displaying an indication of the purchase agreement price as the price to be charged for the product if the current purchase does qualify;
• and
• displaying an indication of a retail price of the product as the price to be charged for the product if the current purchase does not qualify.

A method comprising:

• determining a plurality of products that a customer is intending to purchase,
• wherein the customer has selected each of the products from representations of the products displayed to the customer as available for sale;
• calculating a purchase total for the plurality of products by:
• determining whether the customer has previously committed to a purchase agreement for any of the products;
• for each of the plurality of products for which the customer has previously committed to a purchase agreement, charging the customer a price defined by the purchase agreement corresponding to the product;
• and
• for each of the plurality of products for which the customer has not previously committed to a purchase agreement, charging the customer a current retail price corresponding to the product.

A method comprising:

• identifying a customer;
• determining at least one purchase agreement the customer has previously committed to;
• determining a frequency term of the purchase agreement;
• determining a duration term of the purchase agreement;
• determining a current time;
• and
• generating a shopping list for the customer based the frequency term, the duration term, and the current time,
• wherein the shopping list comprises at least one product that is a suggested purchase for the customer.