Online ordering system and method

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating an on-line purchase of at least one item on behalf of a consumer are disclosed. A consumer may shop and purchase at least one item on a consolidated shopping (CS) website displaying one or more items available for purchase on one or more different merchant websites. The CS website provides consumers with advanced searching that takes into consideration a personal profile of the consumer, the consumer's previous shopping history, transactional data relating to a group of similar consumers, and the like. A host computer providing the CS website may access a merchant website selling the requested item, and order the requested item on behalf of the consumer, and charging a transaction fee, listing fee, receiving a rebate and/or offering a rebate for performing such. One embodiment allows a consumer to purchase/order multiple items from multiple websites in a single purchase request to the CS website.

1 . A method of processing product orders, via a network, to allow consumers to order products from a plurality of merchants, using a web page comprising a consistent user interface, comprising the steps of:
 receiving a search request from a user, wherein said search request includes at least one of: an item description and a category description;   retrieving user data corresponding to said user;   searching a local database, in accordance with said user data and at least one of: an item description and a category description, to locate product information prior to searching websites for said product information, wherein said websites include a plurality of at least one of: affiliated websites and unaffiliated websites; and,   displaying said information from at least one of said local database and said websites within said web page comprising a consistent user interface.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
 receiving a product selection command from a consumer indicative of selecting a product;   adding said selected product to said universal shopping cart;   determining whether said selected product is from an affiliated web site;   transmitting an order for said selected product directly to an owner of said affiliated web site when said selected product is from said affiliated web site;   injecting a product order at an unaffiliated website when said selected product is from said unaffiliated web site, wherein said product order is injected to an unaffiliated website according to pattern matching; and,   identifying a common accepted payment method from said plurality of merchants, wherein said common accepted payment method is displayed within said webpage.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising performing an analysis of said user data to determine item category preferences of said user. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising performing an analysis of said user data of a subset of users to determine item categories that are searched most frequently. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising identifying products that were previously selected for purchase when no purchase occurred. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising retrieving an offer based on said user data. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining a product category corresponding to said search request, wherein said product category is used to locate information relating to a plurality products relating to said search request. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising retrieving a subset of products relating to a product category relating to said search request. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising transmitting browser executable code to a browser application of said user, wherein said browser executable code tracks interaction between said user and said consistent user interface to provide a search suggestion to said user. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said user data includes at least one of: a user profile, shopping habits, transaction history, and search preferences. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising unbundling a bundled product, wherein said unbundling creates a plurality of individual products. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising receiving unbundling rules from a subset of said plurality of merchants. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising associated said user with a specialized status, wherein said user is provided a subset of said information based on said specialized status. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing said user with a personalization interface, wherein said personalization interface includes controls for configuring at least one of: text, graphic, color, and configuration for a product selected from said information. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein said personalization interface provides a rendering of said product selected from said information based on said configuring. 
     
     
         16 . A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, said plurality of instructions when executed by a processor, cause said processor to perform a method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a search request from a user, wherein said search request includes at least one of: an item description and a category description;   retrieving user data corresponding to said user;   searching a local database, in accordance with said user data and at least one of: an item description and a category description, to locate product information prior to searching websites for said product information, wherein said websites include a plurality of at least one of: affiliated websites and unaffiliated websites; and,   displaying said information from at least one of said local database and said websites within said web page comprising a consistent user interface.