Patent ID: 7792704

Claim:
A method in a computer system for rating sellers of items, comprising: operating, using the computer system, an electronic sales infrastructure through which buyers may purchase items from a plurality of sellers; for each seller of the plurality, obtaining, using the computer system, first information about the performance of the seller in purchase transactions entered into by the buyers with the seller from buyers; obtaining, using the computer system, second information about the performance of the seller in purchase transactions entered into by buyers with the seller from a source other than buyers; combining, using the computer system, the information about the seller's performance obtained from the source other than buyers with information about the seller's performance obtained from buyers to produce a numerical seller score for the seller; selecting, by the computer system, at least one featured seller whose seller score exceeds a score threshold and at least one non-featured seller whose seller score fails to exceed the score threshold; and granting access to at least one buyer, via the electronic sales infrastructure, to a seller tool available only for the at least one featured seller that provides enhanced interaction for making purchases from the at least one featured seller wherein the enhanced interaction is enhanced relative to the at least one non-featured seller.