Retaining customers of internet sites using incentives

摘要

A method is disclosed for providing an incentive to a user to provide user information via a network to a website in an electronic commerce environment. In the method, an incentive is offered to the user via the network in exchange for commercially valuable information about the user. A response is then received from the user to the offer. If the response of the user is an acceptance of the offer, the incentive is provided to the user either unconditionally or conditionally, dependent upon whether the acceptance is unconditional or conditional, respectively.