Patent ID: 7899701

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for categorizing a seller relative to a vendor comprising: storing an overall pricing model for a vendor, wherein an overall pricing model comprises a position within a ordinal range of pricing levels, and wherein said overall pricing model relates to a composite representation of item pricing models for a set of on-sale items; storing product-specific data for a first set of items, wherein said first set comprises a plurality of items; determining a product mix comprising a plurality of items from said first set; storing said product mix; reading said product mix data as a basis for search; whereby finding, via network connection, for a first set of sellers, current prices for a result set of items, wherein said first set of sellers comprises at least a first seller, wherein said first set of sellers does not include said vendor, as current prices for a plurality of on-sale items in said product mix by said vendor are available from a database without network search, and wherein said result set comprises a plurality of items in said product mix; storing said result set item prices; statistically characterizing respective item price data by determining data representative of an item price curve for respective items in said result set; storing said item price curve data; deriving respective seller item pricing models for a plurality of items in said result set, wherein a said item pricing model comprises a position within a relative range of pricing levels for a said item based upon said item price curve data; determining an overall pricing model for said first seller using a plurality of said first seller item pricing models; categorizing said first seller by at least in part comparing said first seller's overall pricing model to at least one threshold of similarity to said vendor's overall pricing model; and storing said first seller categorization.