1. A method of providing a shopping proposal that enhances a merchant's existing database system, comprising: analyzing a catalog of items in the existing database system based on a set of predefined rules, to determine which of the items in the catalog are related to other items in the catalog, and to define a new set of relations between the catalog items; applying the new set of relations to the existing database system to update the database system by providing new associations of the items in the database system; and offering automated, dynamic, and personalized shopping advice to the shopper based on a shopper query, by retrieving links to items from the database system that have been related by the new associations.