Patent ID: 8694389

Claim:
A computer system associated with a selling vendor comprising: one or more computers having one or more processors operatively connected to one or more computer readable storage media, the one or more computer readable storage media storing thereon computer instructions for carrying out the steps of: (a) receiving, at the one or more computers, a customer order request from a customer device; (b) sending, from the one or more computers to a transaction optimization and coordination system, a query including customer order data associated with the customer order request; (c) in response to a determination by the transaction optimization and coordination system that the customer order can be fulfilled such that at least one shipping vendor can arrange for a customer to obtain one or more products of the customer order: 1) receiving, at the one or more computers from the transaction optimization and coordination system, an indication that the customer order can be fulfilled by at least one shipping vendor; 2) receiving, from the transaction optimization and coordination system at the one or more computers, one or more fulfillment options including shipping vendors chosen by the transaction optimization and coordination system based at least on the customer order data, wherein each of the chosen shipping vendors are identified as possessing a physical inventory including at least one product described by the customer order data, and wherein the shipping vendors are chosen according at least in part by rankings determined by the transaction optimization and coordination system; (d) sending, from the one or more computers to the transaction optimization and coordination system, a selection of one of the fulfillment options including at least one of the chosen shipping vendors; (e) receiving, at the one or more computers, payment information for the customer order; and (f) transmitting, payment information from the one or more computers to the transaction optimization and coordination system, wherein the selling vendor and at least one of the shipping vendor identified in the selected option are not related entities.