Patent ID: 7577593
Filing Date: 2009-08-18
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for processing product orders from a consumer via a network to provide a web page comprising a consistent user interface for said consumer to view product information and order products from a plurality of merchants, comprising: a computer processing unit operative to process product orders from said consumer according to a universal shopping cart service program by: searching a local database for information relating to a product; determining whether said information is at least one of: outdated and missing; determining whether said information is from an affiliated merchant or unaffiliated merchant in response to said information being said at least one of: outdated and missing; retrieving additional information from said affiliated merchant in response to a merchant identifier matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers, wherein said additional information is retrieved in response to said affiliated merchant granting permission to access an affiliated merchant database; screen scraping additional information from said unaffiliated merchant in response to said merchant identifier not matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers; displaying said additional information within said web page comprising said consistent user interface; 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 in said universal shopping cart is from an affiliated web site by parsing an order string to determine said merchant identifier for each product ordered and matching said merchant identifier with one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers in a database; transmitting raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated web site and in response to said affiliated merchant granting said permission to said affiliated merchant database; injecting said order at an unaffiliated webpage in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product, wherein data elements of said order is injected to said unaffiliated webpage according to matching said data elements to respective fields associated with said unaffiliated webpage; and, determining a common payment method which is accepted by each of said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant which respectively sell each of said selected product in said universal shopping cart, wherein said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant is paid via said common payment method.