Patent ID: 8069095

Claim:
A method comprising: streaming, by a computer-based shopping system for facilitating online shopping, and in response to a request, a display of the virtual shopping location to a user computer in a 3D interactive simulation view via a web browser, wherein the virtual shopping location has a first store and a second store, and wherein the shopping system comprises a virtual shopping cart memory; receiving, by the shopping system, a request to enter into the first store of the virtual shopping location; presenting, by the shopping system, an actual store website of the first store to the user computer in the web browser, in response to the request to enter into the first store, wherein the actual store website of the first store is linked to the virtual shopping location, and is independently managed by the first store, and resides on a second server; receiving, by the shopping system, a request to enter into the second store of the virtual shopping location; presenting, by the shopping system, an actual store website of the second store to the user computer in the web browser, in response to the request to enter into the second store, wherein the actual store website of the second store is linked to the virtual shopping location, and is independently managed by the second store, and resides on a third server; and receiving, by the shopping system, a request to purchase products from the actual store website of at least one of the first store and the second store, wherein the products were inserted in the virtual shopping cart memory.