Patent ID: 7016864

Claim:
A web-based online store having a user interface for enabling a custom configuration of a computer system according to an identification of a user belonging to a prescribed customer set, said online store comprising: a configurator for configuring a computer system with options selected according to a desired user input, the options and a respective pricing for each option being presented on a configurator web page; a database for dynamically supplying configuration options to said configurator in accordance with the identification of the user belonging to the prescribed customer set; a cart for temporarily storing a customer configured computer system and presenting the customer configured computer system on a cart web page, the cart web page further including at least one user selectable cart option; and an interactive upsell advisor operatively coupled to said configurator, said database, and said cart for selectively providing an upsell recommendation to said cart as an upgrade now user selectable cart option on the cart web page, the upsell recommendation being selectively provided as a function of the prescribed customer set, the customer configured computer system, and prescribed upsell advisor business rules, wherein said database dynamically supplies the prescribed upsell business rules to said upsell advisor, said business rules including a) whether the store allows the upsell advisor, b) whether there are any upsell recommendations for a given brand of a last configurable item in the cart, c) whether a last upsell recommendation in a prescribed sequence has been presented, d) whether a given upsell recommendation match exists in the last configurable item in the cart, e) whether the upsell recommendation for an item is valid, and f) if valid, a differential price is calculated.