Many retail stores, whether online and/or brick and mortar, participate in large and expensive marketing plans in order to develop, to grow, and to maintain a customer base. Part of the marketing plan may include an advertising plan that may include offers to new and/or existing customers.
The offers may include coupons (for example, a coupon for a discount), rebates, product recommendations, indication of a price drop, and the like. The offers may be time sensitive, e.g., valid for a limited time or during a predetermined time period. The offers may be associated with goods or services that are limited in nature. For example, an offer may be associated for a product that the retail store only has in its possession a limited quantity. Or, the retail store may only be financially able to provide the goods or services under the offer on a limited basis.
Furthermore, it may be cost prohibitive to provide the offers to a large number (or all) of a set of customers. One downside to providing the offer to a large number of customers is that such a widespread offer may be expensive to provide. Also, the likelihood of a large number of the customers that utilize the offer may be quite small.
The present invention is aimed at one or more of the problems identified above.