Distributed electronic commerce system with independent third party virtual shopping carts
First Claim
1. An electronic commerce system comprising:
- a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable software modules comprising;
a shopping cart management module for, responsive to a customer selecting a single shopping cart link to purchase a pre-arranged virtual shopping cart created by an agent and containing a plurality of items selected by the agent from a plurality of different online merchants, receiving information from the agent regarding the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart and the items contained within the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart;
a transaction module for;
dynamically updating one or more prices of items in the virtual shopping cart to reflect current prices offered by the merchants for the items;
determining a total price, based on the dynamically updated prices, for purchasing the items in the virtual shopping cart;
an accounting module for charging the customer the total price determined and for crediting the merchants and the agent for each item purchased from each merchant; and
a processor configured to execute the software modules stored by the computer readable storage medium.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electric commerce system includes a broker that enables third parties to create their own independent shopping carts including items from multiple different merchants. An agent creates and stores a shopping cart containing a plurality items from one or more merchants. The customer can view the shopping cart displayed by the agent to determine whether to make a purchase. If the customer indicates a desire to purchase the items in the cart, the customer is transferred to a broker for the checkout and purchase process. The customer can purchase the items in the shopping cart in a single purchase transaction with the broker, rather than having to deal with each of the merchants. The broker interacts with the merchants to complete the purchase transaction by which the customer buys the items in the cart.
141 Citations
36 Claims
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1. An electronic commerce system comprising:
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a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable software modules comprising; a shopping cart management module for, responsive to a customer selecting a single shopping cart link to purchase a pre-arranged virtual shopping cart created by an agent and containing a plurality of items selected by the agent from a plurality of different online merchants, receiving information from the agent regarding the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart and the items contained within the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; a transaction module for; dynamically updating one or more prices of items in the virtual shopping cart to reflect current prices offered by the merchants for the items; determining a total price, based on the dynamically updated prices, for purchasing the items in the virtual shopping cart; an accounting module for charging the customer the total price determined and for crediting the merchants and the agent for each item purchased from each merchant; and a processor configured to execute the software modules stored by the computer readable storage medium. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer-implemented method of conducting electronic commerce comprising:
using a processor to execute method steps, comprising; responsive to a customer selecting a single shopping cart link to purchase a pre-arranged virtual shopping cart created by an agent and containing a plurality of items selected by the agent from a plurality of different online merchants, receiving information from the agent regarding the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart and the items contained within the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; dynamically updating one or more prices of items in the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart to reflect current prices offered by the merchants for the items; determining a total price, based on the dynamically updated prices, for purchasing the items in the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; charging the customer the total price determined; and crediting the merchants and the agent for each item purchased from each merchant. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer-readable medium having executable computer program instructions embodied therein for supporting an electronic commerce system, the computer program instructions comprising:
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a shopping cart management module for, responsive to a customer selecting a single shopping cart link to purchase a pre-arranged virtual shopping cart created by an agent and containing a plurality of items selected by the agent from a plurality of different online merchants, receiving information from the agent regarding the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart and the items contained within the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; a transaction module for; dynamically updating one or more prices of items in the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart to reflect current prices offered by the merchants for the items; determining a total price, based on the dynamically updated prices, for purchasing the items in the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; and an accounting module for charging the customer the total price determined and for crediting the merchants and the agent for each item purchased from each merchant. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A broker in an electronic commerce system, comprising:
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a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable software modules of the broker comprising; a shopping cart management module of the broker adapted to, responsive to a customer selecting a single shopping cart link to purchase a pre-arranged virtual shopping cart created by an agent and containing a plurality of items selected by the agent from a plurality of different online merchants, receive information from the agent regarding the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart and the items contained within the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; a transaction module of the broker adapted to; dynamically update one or more prices of items in the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart to reflect current prices offered by the merchants for the items; determine a total price, based on the dynamically updated prices, for purchasing the items in the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; an accounting module of the broker adapted to charge the customer the total price determined and to credit the merchants and the agent for each item purchased from each merchant; and a processor configured to execute the software modules stored by the computer readable storage medium. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. An electronic commerce system, comprising:
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a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable software modules comprising; shopping cart management means for, responsive to a customer selecting a single shopping cart link to purchase a pre-arranged virtual shopping cart created by an agent and containing a plurality of items selected by the agent from a plurality of different online merchants, receiving information from the agent regarding the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart and the items contained within the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; transaction means for; dynamically updating one or more prices of items in the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart to reflect current prices offered by the merchants for the items; determining a total price, based on the dynamically updated prices, for purchasing the items in the pre-arranged virtual shopping cart; accounting means for charging the customer the total price determined and for crediting the merchants and the agent for each item purchased from each merchant; and a processor configured to execute the software modules stored by the computer readable storage medium. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36)
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Specification