Patent ID: 8103557
Filing Date: 2012-01-24
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. An online merchandising system for an online shopping service using a telecommunications network comprising: an item information storage for storing information of items to be merchandised; a bundle information storage for storing information representing relations between a main item stored in said item information storage and other sub items which should be bundled with the main item; a customer information storage for storing customer information including identification data of users of the online shopping service and data representing at least items designated and/or being owned by each of the users; an item information presenter for presenting the item information stored in said item information storage the users of the online shopping service via said telecommunications network; a catalog generator for generating user's own electronic catalogs based on the information stored in said item information storage, said bundle information storage and said customer information storage; a catalog presenter for presenting the electronic catalog to the user concerned via said telecommunications network; and an order receptor for receiving order instructions from the user through the electronic catalog presented by said catalog presenter, wherein, said item information presenter: accepts users' designations of items and asking prices of the items via said telecommunications network; constantly obtains current actual sales prices information of the items designated by the user; compares the obtained current actual sales prices with the users' asking prices to detect whether the obtained current actual sales price is equal to or close to the user's asking price in accordance with a predetermined allowable range of a difference therebetween, said catalog generator generates multiple catalogs for each user showing both the current actual sales prices and the user's asking prices so as to be comparable with each other on a same page and so as to enable a user to order the item by the user's operation, said catalog presenter sends to the user concerned an email including a direct linkage to the catalog generated by said catalog generator when said item information presenter detects that the difference between the current actual sales price and the asking price is within the predetermined range and presents the multiple catalogs so as to be switchable by the user concerned, said order receptor adds an item ordered through the presented catalog to the data stored in said customer information storage as item being owned by the user concerned so that said catalog generator generates a different user's own catalog showing items being owned by the user concerned and having a linkage to information relating to each of the shown items, and, contents of the user's own catalog are customizable by duplicating contents of the user's own catalog on different user's catalogs selected from a list by the user.