Patent ID: 8050977

Claim:
A supply unit ordering system comprising: an image forming apparatus comprising: a readout portion that reads out from a memory of a supply unit that is replaceably loaded on the image forming apparatus itself, first information about a plurality of vendors providing the supply unit, which is stored in the memory; and a transmitter that transmits to a terminal apparatus, the first information about the plurality of vendors readout by the readout portion; a terminal apparatus comprising: an obtainer that obtains second information about the supply unit from respective servers owned by the vendors, by making access to the respective servers according to the first information about the plurality of vendors, which is received from the image forming apparatus; a display that displays on itself, the obtained second information about the supply unit; and an ordering portion that transmits an order for a supply unit to one of the servers, according to an order instruction issued by a user based on the second information about the supply unit displayed by the display; and a storage that stores in itself, information about a vendor that owns the one of the servers receiving the order transmitted by the ordering portion.