The invention utilizes a personalization system that uses rules (110, 112, 113) to adjudicate and characterize a customer, or a customer's actions, and then to personalize a business function, such as a displayed page, based on the outcome of those rules. In one embodiment the invention provides a system for web-based personalization, that allows for personalizing the content or business functioning of a web-based application to reflect the characteristics of a particular user of said web-based application, said system comprising: a user profiler, for determining a snapshot of a particular user of a web-based application; a rules editor for inputting a set of rules governing the business functioning of said web-based application; a rules engine (102), that accepts input from said rules editor and said snapshot of said particular user, and uses said set of rules to make decisions about said particular user and the business functioning of said web-based application; and, a personalization processor that uses the output of said rules engine (102) to determine the content or business functioning of said web-based application as it applies to said particular user.