In fact, E-commerce provides close analogues to traditional solicitation and retail
models. Marketers have long used direct mail and outbound telemarketing in an attempt to get customers to initiate a new buying
session. Push technologies have the benefit of reaching out to a customer when the customer is not currently interacting with the emerchant.
In E-commerce applications, e-mail is the most commonly used push technology for delivering recommendations. Sending
recommendations, and perhaps promotional offers, invites the customer to return to the e-merchant. Indeed, today's technology
allows customers to click on a link in the e-mail message and be taken directly to the recommended product on-line.