Patent ID: 7430531

Claim:
A method for assisting a customer in choosing a combination of commodities, wherein the commodities are organized into N categories, wherein a combination is composed of one commodity selected from each category, and each commodity category has at least two commodity options, and wherein N is an integer greater than one, the method comprising: (a) ranking, using a computer, the options within each commodity category based, in part, on at least one optimization parameter; (b) creating, with the computer, at least N combinations of commodity options by: for each commodity category K of the N commodity categories, creating a corresponding combination K by: (i) selecting a highest ranked option for the Kth commodity category; (ii) automatically selecting any options in other commodity categories that are linked to the option selected in step(b)(i), wherein the other commodity categories includes any commodity category except the Kth commodity category; (iii) selecting a valid option for each of the remaining commodity categories, wherein a remaining commodity category is any commodity category that has not had an option selected in steps (b)(i) or (b)(ii) for the Kth combination, wherein K is an integer running from 1 to N; (c) calculating a total cost of each combination of commodity options; and (d) presenting the at least N combinations of commodity options to the customer, whereby the customer selects a combination of commodity options for purchase.