Patent ID: 7577590

Claim:
A method of participating in an online ecosystem, comprising: performing, by a computer system with an ecosystem module embedded thereon, the following steps: receiving a customer through a single, website portal to an online community of competitive merchants, with at least one merchant selling a good or service; interrelating the competitive merchants such that each merchant shares business information with every other merchant that participates in the online community; providing to the customer each competitive merchant's inventory of goods; when the customer enters the online community of competitive merchants, immediately informing the customer of each merchant's special pricing; when each merchant makes a sale, storing each merchant's business information in a central repository; periodically communicating a summary to each participating merchant, the summary informing each merchant of the sales, pricing, and inventory of every other merchant participating in the online community; sharing a sale price and a sale quantity with the online community such that each merchant is informed of the sale price and the sale quantity of each sale of every merchant participating in the community; sharing inventory information such that each competitive merchant is informed of an inventory of every competitive merchant participating in the community; when a cateciory of items is selling at a moment in time within the online community, then providing the category and an average selling price within the category to each merchant participating in the online community; and suggesting a participating merchant promote category-related items when the merchant has inventory that matches the category of items that is selling.