The present disclosure relates to a method and system for providing item recommendations to a user in a virtual marketplace. A virtual persona associated with a primary account number is identified. A merchant data request message requesting merchant data identifying preferred merchants to whom transactions have been made from the first payment account using the PAN is sent to a first remote server. In response, a set of merchant data associated with preferred merchants is received from the first remote server. An item data request message requesting item data associated with the preferred merchants is sent to a second remote server. In response, a set of item data associated with items that are associated with at least one of the preferred merchants is received from the second remote server. A recommendation of at least one of the items is provided to the user.