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Abstract

The present invention is a software product that provides merchants that sell time-slot inventories tools to capitalize on the Internet revolution. The present invention enables the creation of web-sites for merchants with a built-in web-based reservation booking system. This offers customers the on-line benefits of access, selection and immediacy in making real-time reservation/appointments over the Internet. The software product also simplifies the merchant's booking process by providing a central web-based reservation/appointment management system that can be used for all bookings, regardless if made by telephone, by a walk-in customer, or by a customer via the Internet. The software product also provides the merchant with a powerful direct marketing tool. As a merchant uses the software product, user-customer profiles and demographics are captured in the database module, thus creating (in Web jargon) a 'community' of customers specific to the merchant. The merchant is thus empowered, using the mail module, to directly communicate with its customer base, using customer profiles and demographics to create a highly targeted and effective marketing and promotional ad campaign. The software product also allows the merchant to auction off time-slot inventory over the Internet. Lastly, the software product enables the creation of Web 'super-communities' consisting of the aggregate of all the individual merchant's customer-communities using the software product.

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First Claim