Patent ID: 7346557

Claim:
An information processing method executed by an information processing apparatus that communicates with a customer terminal, comprising: a storage step of the information processing apparatus storing a plurality of item codes in a storage unit, each of which is associated with information indicating whether or not a duplicate order is acceptable for an item associated with the item code; an order reception step of receiving an order, including an item code and a user ID, from the customer terminal; a search step of searching the information indicating whether or not a duplicate order is acceptable for the associated item stored in said storage step based on the item code included in the received order; a check step of checking whether or not the order received by said order reception unit is a duplicate based on the item code and the user ID included in the received order, wherein said check unit checks whether or not the order received by said order reception unit is a duplicate when the information searched by said search step indicates that a duplicate order is not acceptable for the associated item, and wherein the check step does not check whether or not the received order is a duplicate when the information searched by the search step indicates that a duplicate order is acceptable for the associated item; a registration step of registering the order received by said order reception unit when the check unit performs the check and determines that the order is not a duplicate, and when the information searched by the search unit indicates that a duplicate order is acceptable for the associated item; and a notification step of notifying the customer terminal of the checking result of the check step when the checking result indicates that the order is a duplicate.