Patent ID: 7249064

Claim:
A method of consumer to business referral managed by a service provider on behalf of consumers and manufacturers participating over a public network and accessing the service provider over the public network, the method comprising the following steps: maintaining a manufacturer database including a plurality of manufacturer entries, each entry for a manufacturer in the manufacturer database including the manufacturer's identification, and for each retailer stocking any of the manufacturer's products, the retailer's identification and identification of the manufacturer's products stocked by the retailer; maintaining a consumer database including a plurality of consumer entries, each entry for a consumer in the consumer database including the consumer's identification; displaying products in the manufacturer database on the public network; a consumer viewing the displayed products on the public network and selecting a referral product for referral to a referred retailer; receiving from the referring consumer over the public network the referral product, the referral product including a referred product identification and a referred retailer identification corresponding to the referred retailer; searching the manufacturer database to determine whether the referred retailer already stocks the referral product; searching the consumer database to determine whether a set number of consumers in the consumer database other than the referring consumer have already referred the referral product to the referred retailer; including the referred product identification and the referred retailer identification in the entry for the referring consumer in the consumer database and informing the manufacturer of the referral of the referral product, if the referred retailer does not already stock the referral product and if a set number of consumers in the consumer database have not already selected the referral product for referral to the referred retailer, otherwise not including the referred product identification and the referred retailer identification in the entry for the referring consumer in the consumer database and not informing the manufacturer of the referral of the referral product; and if a sale is made by the manufacturer of the referral product to the referred retailer, then updating the manufacturer entry in the manufacturer database to indicate that the referred retailer stocks the referral product and rewarding the referring consumer with a reward, otherwise not updating the manufacturer entry in the manufacturer database to indicate that the referred retailer stocks the referral product and not rewarding the referring consumer with a reward.